Dental History (2024)

The first African-American to receive a dental degree is Dr. Robert Tanner Freeman. He was in the firstclass to graduate from the Harvard Dental School in 1869. Dr. Ida Gray Nelson Rollins (born Ida Gray) was the first black woman to receive a dental degree. Shegraduated from the University of Michigan Dental School in 1890.

This distinction is often given to Emeline Roberts Jones who is known to have assisted in her husband’sdental practice in Connecticut as early as 1844. She became his partner in 1859 and took over the practiceupon his death. Sometimes the distinction is given to Lucy Hobbs Taylor who was the first woman in the world tograduate from a dental school and receive a dental degree. She graduated from the Ohio College of DentalSurgery in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1866 and was granted a D.D.S. degree. At the time she received herdiploma it is known that she had already been practicing dentistry for at least 5 years having learned thetrade as an apprentice from Dr. Samuel Wardle, a Cincinnati dentist.

We know that people have cleaned their teeth with some type of tool since ancient times. In ancient timesa frayed end of a stick was generally employed to clean the teeth. The earliest known mention in writtenhistory of a toothbrush as we know it, i.e. a long narrow handle with bristles standing at right angles onone end, is in a 17th century Chinese encyclopedia which shows a drawing of the toothbrush and states itwas invented in China in 1498. In Europe the earliest records of toothbrushes date to the 17th century.

There is no one person or time associated with the invention of the toothpaste. The earliest known text onmedicine, the so called Ebers Papyrus which is an Egyptian text dating to 4,000BC, includes recipes fortoothpastes as does the work of Hippocrates which dates to the 4th-5th century. Before the availability of mass-produced toothpaste at about the middle of the 19th century, a dentistwould provide patients with their own dentifrice mixtures in bottles and pots. Many dentists used theirown formulae for these mixtures and the dentifrice of the period did not resemble the creamy toothpasteof today generally being either a liquid or more pasty concoction. Before the introduction of thecollapsible metal tube, toothpaste and other sundries and cosmetics were sold in ceramic pots. Thetoothbrush was dipped into the pot to pick up the paste. Although he did not invent the flexible, collapsible metal tube, Dr. Washington Wentworth Sheffield, adentist of New London, Connecticut is credited as being the first in the United States to popularizetoothpaste in such a tube. His toothpaste Sheffield’s Creme Dentifrice packaged in the tubes was a bigseller of its time (c. 1890-1900). The tube quickly caught on and soon became the customary package fortoothpaste.

The Baltimore College of Dental Surgery became the world's first dental school when it opened inBaltimore, MD in 1840. It was the first school established to teach courses exclusively in dentistry for thepurpose of granting degrees in the profession. The school merged with the University of Maryland’salready established dental school (founded in 1883) in 1923.

It is well known that Paul Revere practiced dentistry for a short time. According to advertisem*nts whichhe placed in a Boston newspaper, he constructed and sold dentures as well as cleaned teeth. Dentures ofthe era were all hand-made using a variety of materials like metal (including gold, silver and iron), animaland human teeth, ivory, porcelain, etc. Since Paul Revere was a silver smith and thus a craftsman, denturemanufacturing was perhaps a natural sideline for him. Paul Revere is also believed to be the first person to identify a body by means of the teeth. The personwho was identified was Major General Joseph Warren who was killed during the Battle of Breed’s Hill(also known as the Battle of Bunker Hill) in the Revolutionary War that took place on June 16, 1775.General Warren was killed during the battle by a gunshot wound to the head. The British defeated theColonials and stripped all the bodies and buried them in a mass grave at the site after the battle. Tenmonths later Warren’s family instigated a search for his body and dug up the mass grave. Since the bodyhad been stripped of its uniform there was no other way to positively identify the General’s body. PaulRevere was called upon to assist in the identification because he and General Warren (who was aphysician in civilian life) had been good friends and sometime prior to the battle Revere had made a silverwire bridge for him. Since all denture making was done by hand, dentures tended to be very distinctivelooking and easily recognizable by their makers. Revere was able to recognize his handiwork and thus apositive identification of the body was made.

It is well known via surviving letters and diaries that our first president was plagued by bad teeth hiswhole life. By the time he died it is believe that he only had one natural tooth left in his mouth. You canview his surviving dentures at his home at Mt Rushmore and the National Museum of Dentistry,Baltimore, MD. The dentures (primitive by today’s standards) that were available to him gave him manyproblems and he had more than one set made during his lifetime. They were constructed with a variety ofmaterials including lead, gold, porcelain, and animal teeth. Contrary to popular belief none of his dentureswere made of wood.

The world’s first printed book devoted exclusively to dentistry is Artzney Buchlein: wider allerleikranckeyten und gebrechen der tzeen which was published in Germany in 1530. A translation of thebook’s title from the German is “Booklet of Remedies Against All Sorts of Diseases and Infirmities of theTeeth.” It is also known as Zene Artzney , or Teeth Remedies, the title under which some of its fifteensubsequent editions were published from 1530 to1576. The book is also noteworthy for its title pagewhich bears the first known printed illustration showing a tooth extraction. The large number of editionsof this book is indicative of the need for a helpful text on the subject at the time. Written for the laypublic, it provided selected practical information culled from the works of other authors on the topictogether in one small booklet and included information on the development of the teeth, causes of decay,remedies for toothache, filling methods and teeth care. The first book on dentistry published in America is A Treatise on the Human Teeth by Richard Skinnerwhich was published in New York in 1801. The book was intended for use by the lay public and isactually an advertisem*nt for the author’s services. The list of fees that he published in the book givesinsight on how a Colonial dentist practiced. Among the services he offered was tooth transplanting,setting human teeth on silver and gold, fixing artificial teeth, filling cavities, teeth extraction, anderadicating tartar and teeth cleaning. Besides practicing dentistry the book also advertises his services forsetting artificial eyes, nose, ears and limbs. It was common for dentists of this era to provide other kindsof services as a way to make ends meet.