DENTAL SURGERY

department of the science of healing, which in its present day development includes a theoretic a l and practical knowledge of the structure and physio log y of the mouth, the gums and the teeth, their surgical and mechanical treatment, the healing of diseased ti ues and the res to ratio n of dental structures. As a genuine science, it is little more than a century old. In ancient times the care of the mouth and teeth was included in the general practice of medicine. References to it are found in early Babylonian and Egyptian literature. Pastes, powders and plasters of various substances were prescribed for the cure of toothache, and there were special prescriptions for loose teeth, caries and absce es. Among the Hindus, great care was taken to keep the teeth clean and free from deleterious substances. The Romans had an abundance of toothache cures, so-called. Remedies consisted of hy op, licorice, dog’s milk and goat’s butter together with various ridiculous ingredients. The mechanical side of dentistry was known to them as is shown by an extract from the Twelve Tables which reads: ‘Neither add any gold (to a corpse); if any one shall have teeth bound with gold, it shall be no offense to bury or burn him with it.’ Many specimens of dentistry have been found in Roman and Etruscan burial places. In the Middle Ages the care of the teeth was in the hands of the ‘leeches’ who wandered as mountebanks from Place to place palming off worthle remedies on the credulous populace, Dentistry had no standing as a really learned profe ion, prior to the appearance in 1728 of the work of Fauchard, ing that date its advance was slow and halting until about the middle of the nineteenth century. In 1839 it received a marked stimulus in America by the publication of The American Journal of Dental Science and the incorporation of the first dental college in the world, the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery. That date marked the practical divorce of dentistry from medicine. In this country it has made greater strides than in any other. Anaesthesia was first introduced in America, and the art of replacing lost portions of tooth crowns by gold fillings has had here its greatest development. The whole method of filling teeth with gold and restoring the artistic configuration of the tooth was revolutionized by the discovery by Dr. Arthur of Baltimore of the cohesive property of annealed gold foil. Most of the ingenious instruments now in use, such as the dental engine, the electromagnetic mallet, the rubber coffer-dam are American inventions, and improvements in dental therapeutics are also mainly of American origin. Strict supervision is exercised by the States over the requirements of study and the i uing of licenses, and the profe ion is steadily advancing in usefulne and dignity. See TErErs.