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

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I appreciate this opportunity to share some of my thoughts with you, the Class of ' 72. We have gone through quite a trial together — a difficult period of upheaval and confrontation, compounded by a generation gap. Had we maintained more open avenues of communi- cation, many of our problems would never have developed. Now on sober reflection, we can really appre- ciate that we are all striving for the same goal — self improvement through education and learning, to better serve our fellow men. If we can continue to learn from each other and from those around us. keeping open our chan- nels of communication while opening newer ones, we will go forward with great strides toward our goal. Service to Mankind. May I also take this opportunity to extend my best wishes to all of you for your continued good health, outstanding accomplishments and your future happiness. George L. O ' Grady, D.D S Assistant Dean For several years each of you has engaged in a supervised, simulated practice of dentistry. In addition to learning new procedures, you repeated procedures a number of times. You probably acquired an ease of operation which you never thought possible when you first picked up a handpiece. You have prob- ably become secure enough to consider leaving school and entering into some phase of professional activity. While the things you do will be basically Similar to what you have done for the most part, one area will be entirely new. Suddenly upon acquiring a license to practice dentistry, you will be able to place a restoration in a patient ' s mouth, and you will be the judge as to its acceptability. No one will be available to tell you to go on to the next step, to polish it or to carve it differently, to adjust the occlusion here or there, etc. You will have to develop your own standards and then apply them. If you do not develop standards, you must flounder in your clinical efforts. The standards you begin to use as the yardstick for |udging clinical accepta- bility are. in fact, the means by which you will engage in acceptable or unac- ceptable dentistry. I would like to suggest that when you begin to practice you think about the problem of acceptability along the following lines. With re- gard to restorative dentistry all restorations should be designed and executed so that plaque retention is reduced and the access for plaque removal in- creased. Such a restoration will reduce the possibility of progressive disease, either caries or periodontal disease, since we now subscribe to the under- standing that both of these major dental diseases are plaque diseases. Any restoration, whether it b e a filling of any type, a crown, a fixed bridge or a removable bridge, which increases the opportunity for plaque retention or decreases the access by the patient for plaque removal must be considered unacceptable. Poor marginal ridges, poor contacts or inadequate contours of fillings or crowns, or inadequate pontic or clasp design of fixed or removable bridges must be considered from the point of view of the plaque problem. If you observe your own work carefully, you will begin to note those designs or execution deficiencies which affect plaque retention, and you can correct your own dentistry. Your dentistry can be acceptable throughout your prac- tice life if you will place the preventive concept of plaque control at the core of yourclinical judgment. Herbert J. Bartelstone, D.D.S.. Ph.D. Associate Dean

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Dean Melvin L. Moss, D.D.S., Ph.D. Your course of study at the School of Dental and Oral Surgery has come to its successful conclusion. I have a personal sense of gratification in extending to you my congratulations for a task well done and my wish that your future holds for you all of the professional and personal rewards and attainments you seek. The faculty, the staff, and all of your fellow students join me in these thoughts. In a very real sense your dental education occurred during a period of remarkable transition in our profes- sion. The conjunction of scientific and technical ad- vances in dentistry with an increasing awareness of the sociological, psychological, and economic factors whose operation determines the distribution of dental health care have had an important role in shapingthe nature of your educational experience with us. Your School continues to try to establish an active posture in response to these multi-faceted demands for change; to anticipate and guide them rather than merely respond reflexively to them. So it is that you have experienced with us an exciting time, a period when we sought to provide you with all of the tools and concepts necessary for you to engage in the prac- tice of your profession in future years. We have at- tempted to keep the best of the past and to blend it with the best of the new. Yet in every sense we know that you realize that you have only begun the study of dentistry. The only thing you can be sure of is that the future will bring with it still further change. It seems reasonable to predict that the modes of dental practice, as well as the modes of payment for dental health care, will undergo some change from those of the recent past. Your duty, both as a dentist and a citizen, requires that you partake in the several processes by which these changes are brought about. Assuredly, if den- tistry does not become master of its own house, oth- ers will assume that role. Technical and scientific advances will continue also. No school can possibly provide you with more than the current state of knowledge. Your obligation for continued education is explicit. Some of you may eventually seek further training in the several dental specialties. Here, too, you will experience the winds of change which are blowing through our social fabric. This faculty and the profession as a whole welcome you. You, individually and collectively, are our future as well as your own. We have striven to prepare you as best we can for the responsibilities which await you inevitably. God-speed and good luck.

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It is indeed a pleasure to congratu- late the graduates of Columbia Univer- sity School of Dental and Oral Surgery and to welcome them into our profes- sion. Certainly the dental graduates of the 1970 ' s are entering an exciting profession which is marked by sub- stantial technological progress, abid- ing social concern and innovation in dental practice. The issues which will confront new practitioners are as complex and as varied as the problems and concerns facing the nation. Indeed, dentistry ' s concerns are inextricably entwined with national concerns. As an exam- ple, the dental profession is deeply involved in the debate on national health care programs. The most re- cent annual session of the American Dental Association ' s House of Dele- gates approved a Guidelines for Den- tistry ' s Position in a National Health Program which clearly stated that dental care must be an integral part of any comprehensive health program enacted by Congress. The demands for care that this type of program will place upon the dental profession will have a profound effect upon practice and each individual practitioner. As new graduates from Columbia, you have been privileged to benefit from the teaching of an outstanding faculty which has led the way in pre- paring its students to practice preven- tive dentistry, to utilize dental auxilia- ries as capable assistants and partners in providing dental care. You are well schooled in all the new treatment tech- niques and devices and materials which are essential to the highest qual- ity of practice. Additionally, you have learned to develop a keen sense of community needs and problems. The dental grad- uates of this decade are deeply in- volved in rendering care and service to the entire community, regardless of its racial, ethnic or economic composi- tion. And, aware of your responsibility to the community, you have made commitments to keep your knowledge fresh and to continue to learn and grow as a member of the health professions. It is expected that as new members of the profession you will participate fully in activities of organized dentistry and will provide sound leadership to deal with the many problems dentistry now confronts. I know that the gradu- ates of Columbia will take active inter- est in helping to resolve the problems relating to dental licensure, to group practice, to delivery of dental services and to development of a system of na- tional health care. Again, my congratulations and sin- cere best wishes to the graduating se- niors of Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery. You have the training, knowledge and above that, the inherent capacity, to meet the challenges and concerns of our pro- fession ' s future. -c C vAVt v ( Gv C.Gordon Watson. D.D.S. Executive Director A.D.A.