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

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I, .J, PS Figure 1 : THE HERITAGE OF DENTISTRY by Laszlo Schwartz D.D.S. illustrations accompanying text supplied by Dr. Curt Proskauer A knowledge of the heritage of one ' s calling has various meanings to different individuals. In dentistry, for example, to a materialistic or ambitious practitioner concerned only with fi- nancial success or personal prestige, dentistry ' s heritage may have no significance. To someone else, however, to whom satisfaction and a sense of service are of equal importance , knowledge of the history of dentistry can have great value. Such benefit may not be tangible. It may consist of something as subtle as a change in attitude. All of us at some time or other in pro- fessional life feel completely alone. Such feel- ing may be due to the fact that we are facing something new and untried — private practice for example, or it may appear after some years in practice in the form of disappointment in the recognition accorded by society in general or the profession in particular. At such times knowledge of the lives of dentists who laid the foundations of modern dentistry can prove therapeutic. Such biographical information makes clear the fact that the great men of dentistry experienced the same hesitancy and disappointment as we do. There thus ensues a sense of belonging that acts as a balm to loneliness. This feeling of belonging is particularly im- portant at the beginning of one ' s professional career. At this time knowledge of who and what preceded him can do much to bolster the confidence of the trepidations young dentist and temper the confidence of the brash. The history of dentistry, by telling the young prac- titioner from where his profession came and where it is at the present time can serve as the compass that guides him into the future. With its aid, the process of launching a profes- sional career can be facilitated and many shoals avoided. From Hippocrates he can learn not only a method of reducing the dislocated mandible (Figure 2) which is still useful, but more important, attitudes toward professional life whose worth have been tested for over two millennia. In dealing with the often perplexing question of dentistry ' s relations with medicine, the young practitioner will be armed with the knowledge that dentistry was nurtured by the same science as medicine. Vesalius and Eus- tachius in the sixteenth century provided the foundations of anatomy. About a century later 10

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' There is a history in all men ' s lives. — Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part II n evaluating the status of any entity, be it a nation, a profession, or an individual, and in contemplating its future, an understanding and an appreciation of the trials, the triumphs, and the defeats of the past are essential. Unless we can realize how far we have come in the areas of public accept- ance of dentistry, technical and scientific advances, and professional self-esteem, and unless we are able to relate this progress to the present and to the future, we are lacking a critical part of our essence. As dentists, we are more than scientists, diagnosti- cians, therapists, and artists. We are the bearers of a tradition that had its origins in the alleviation of suf- fering, the restoration of health, and the prevention of disease; a tradition that maintains these goals now, and will continue to do so. If we are to realize our potential to the utmost, in relation to our patients and to the public, and to ourselves, to derive from our life ' s work a material, emotional and intellectual sense of at- tainment, and a sense of continuity and purpose, then we must know and understand what has preceded us. Therefore, we pause to recall listeria}}

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Van Leeuwenhoek. during his studies in microscopy, found microorganisms in the salivary deposits on teeth and described their structure. In the eighteenth cen- tury John Hunter, in his monumental The Natural History of the Human Teeth , expanded and particu- larized anatomic knowledge and added physiology. Dentistry is bound with similar ties to surgery. Albucasis, noted Arabian surgeon of the eleventh century, was the first to write on deformities of the mouth and the dental arches. Ambroise Pare, who from a rustic barber ' s apprentice became the Father of Surgery, introduced the transplantation of teeth and constructed obturators for the correction of palatal de- s formities due to syphilis, a di- sease widespread during his pe- riod. The recent graduate, in addi- tion to understanding the his- torical relations of dentistry to medicine and surgery, shoidd also be cognizant of facts con- cerning its independent devel- opment. He should know, for example, that since dental car- ies and periodontal disease are ancient diseases to which there is little or no resistance, and since dental and oral tissues are accessible for treatment, it is not surprising that Phoenician and Etruscan craftsmen during antiquity used dental tech- niques which in principle are identical with those in use to- day. The dentist should be aware of the slow painstakmg manner by which dentistry pro- gressed from its ancient and crude beginnings to the first comprehensive dental text pub- lished in 1728 by Pierre Fau- chard (Figure 4) Consider the steps needed to achieve our advanced technique of today. The porcelain tooth, an easily proc- essed denture base, the silver amalgam filling, the de?i- tal engine, the cast gold inlay, the porcelain jacket crown — each required the dedication of many individ- uals to achieve realization. Add to these such impor- tant advances as anesthesia (Figure 3) and the use of the x-ray in diagnosis. All these milestones in the de- velopment of modern dentistry were compressed into little more than a century following the establishment in 1840 of the triad upon which American dentistry is Figure 2 based: school, organization and journal. While knowledge of dental history is of special im- portance at the beginning of one ' s professional career, such knowledge is also of value during the two other periods — the middle and the end. The middle of a professional career is characterized among other things by the fact that formal education has or should have been replaced by independent in- formal continuing self-education. During this process those who do not know the history of their calling are often destined to repeat it. Considerable energy may be devoted to the cultivation of fields that a thorough working by many intelligent and talented forbears had al- ready disclosed to be fallow. On the other hand, dedicated appli- cation usually in some techni- cal area may result in actual achievement but one which could have been realized with much less effort by simply knowing of an earlier but still modern contribution. In addition to the obvious ad- vantage of avoiding the neces- sity of repeating old though still valid work, the relation of tech- nology to science will be clari- fied. Technology has been called the illegitimate son of science. Real progress in technique must consequently pursue a course of legitimacy ; it must be related to and dependent upon the ba- sic sciences. Perhaps there is no clearer example of this in den- tistry than the work of G. V. Black. At the apogee of professional life, knowledge of heritage can serve to temper two common extremes of feeling — an air of achievement often equated falsely with material suc- cess, or a mood of despair with supposed failure. Historical knowledge cannot but impress the mature pr actitioner with the fact that success in a profession cannot be measured by the yardsticks of money or dex- terity alone. The great dentists of the past who often still live in the form of eponyms were primarily great general practitioners — not only good operators but masters of the broader and more difficult art of patient care. As the end of professional life approaches, a knowl- edge of heritage can provide what is sorely needed and 11