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

Page 8 text:

Freshmen prepare for practice practical in microscopic anatomy laboratory. the dental school and the dental student Doctor DiSalvo explains significance of kymograph re- cording in the physiology laboratory. For many generations of students the dental school was, and for some still is, the beginning and the end of dental education. Students, and all too frequently faculties, still cling to the philosophy that gradu- ation from dental school should insure com- petence in the practice of dentistry. This at- titude stems from the beginning of formal dental education and persists in spite of the fact that the practice of dentistry has made tremendous advances. Even today the under- graduate student feels that his education is incomplete simply because he lacks ad- equate experience in all the areas of clinical practice. This attitude on the part of the student is understandable when we con- sider the fact that the profession itself has

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Few people realize the MISSION OF THE DENTIST Dentistry requires an exact acquaintance with and experience in the sciences and art. It demands tact, intuition and psychological finesse in order to acquire the art of persuasion and that moral authority necessary to anticipate and overcome those instinctive fears and hesitations on the part of the patient, more distracting than actual pain. A dentist needs such patience and great physical resistance. You have to sustain a perpetual restraint on all your senses, your nerves are strained, your body, your mind, your will and your sensitiveness. Always standing, often in a constrained position, your eyes are strained, both hands busy; they must be supple with the fingers contracted in the manipulation of several instruments at one time, every movement impeded by reflexes and reactions on the part of the patient, which are not always possible to perceive. And all this time you must remain imperturbable, calm, courteous, gentle and full of charity. The least defect of the mucous membranes of the mouth may have reper- cussions on the rest of the health of the whole. The mouth expresses character and feeling — a single fold of the lip, almost im- perceptible, often may transform and make an infinite alteration in the expres sion of the face. Thus there is a mysterious and surprising mission at- tached to the care of the mouth. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

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not accepted the basic fact that dentistry, as a health profession, has passed beyond the concept upon which it was founded. The practice of dentistry today can no longer be looked upon as the artificial re- storation of diseased and missing teeth. The practice of dentistry today, and the future of the dental profession, must be based upon a concept that the treatment of disease, re- gardless of its anatomical location or the methods used, represents in the strictest sense of the word the practice of medicine. Dentistry is the practice of Medicine as related to the oral cavity. This conception of dentistry does not assume that dental students should first be physicians or that their teaching should be geared to the medi- cal curriculum. The dental student has, upon entering school, already elected his area of specialty practice and his educational pro- gram should be formulated upon this fact. The planning of a dental school curriculum should consider the necessity for education in the biological sciences and training in the clinical practice of dentistry. The two should be considered as integral parts of a total program and not as unrelated areas of teaching. The teaching of the biological sciences and clinical teaching should be a united effort towards the students ' edu- cation and not a competitive force for the students ' attention. Where does the dental student enter this concept of dental education? He is, of course, the focal point. Yet how many students ever realize their own responsi- bility for their education? How many stu- Doctor Uccellani instructs a sophomore on details of pack- ing a full denture case. vracticc of oral mcdianc