Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery - Dental Columbian Yearbook (New York, NY)

Page 27 text:

ses classes anatomy . . . histology . . . oral path. . . . bac-t pharmacology . . . operative . . . c S b . . . prosthetics . . . surgery . . . diagnosis . . . ortho pedo . . . biochem . . . neu.ro

Page 29 text:

Performing a bilateral alveolectomy while preparing three crowns and taking a Coe-flo impression may be very romantic, Eut four years in dental school is enough to drive anyone frantic; Unless, of course, he is able to think serene and lovely thoughts with atomic bombs exploding in the vicinity Or endure a gastric ulcer with equanimity. seniors In the beginning cold bodies sprouted from lab tables as if someone had seeded them. And a man with a mallet came around removing shell crowns before we did. So who needed them? But later, we didn ' t think of them so much as human beings but in about the same way we think of those little blobs in doctors ' offices in jars, Or men from Mars; And here was a more valuable lesson than we knew, And quite true, too, As we learned when, long after, we were flung into the big room with all the chairs on the eighth floor called a clinic, And found that the best way to get through dental school was to be a cynic: For when you take that last look inside and find that suddenly the pulp is visible and leering, You must face the situation with clear eye, firm grip, and calm countenance and not let anyone guess that you ' d much rather be disappearing Out the window in a breathless dive, Or even somehow cramming into drawer No. 5. We started fresh and new when the kind voice asked us to put the handpiece together, And we replied that we ' d never picked one up before, not even in rainy weather; Which was a nice mixture of truth and temerity. Desirable attributes both, till they began talking about a Spanish fellow named Manual Dexterity Who was at first unobtrusive, Then exclusive, And elusive. But more of him later, class of 1953