Dr. Benjamin Spock's evolving views on infant and toddler dental care.

Dr. Ted Croll discusses some of the highlights in the life of Dr. Benjamin Spock, renowned pediatrician, along with sharing aspects of his close personal relationship with Dr. Spock.

Nazi Dentists on Trial: On the Political Complicity of a Long-Neglected Professional Community.

Studies on the complicity of the medical profession in the crimes of the Third Reich are on the rise. This also applies to the question of the extent to which doctors were brought to justice in international trials after World War II. This topic, however, has hardly been considered-let alone systematically investigated-with respect to German dentists. It is precisely this gap that this article will address. First, we quantitatively identify all dentists who were brought to justice in the post-war period. Second, we give a profile of this group. We focus on the following questions: Who among the group was brought to trial, and when? What crimes were they accused of, which sentences were handed down, and how did these sentences affect their future lives? Our study is based primarily on archival sources, which we analyzed with respect to the relevant secondary literature. Contrary to the widely-held assumption that dentists had almost never had been made to stand trial after the end of the war, we identified 48 dentists who were accused in court. The prototypical accused dentist was male, lived in a traditional family model, belonged to the National Socialist Workers' Party (NSDAP) and the Waffen-SS (Schutzstaffel), and was part of the so-called Kriegsjugendgeneration. The most frequent allegations made against these men were the theft of dental gold of murdered Nazi victims, an accusation unique to dentists; (accessory to) murder or manslaughter; and involvement in the deadly selections made in the concentration camps. In total, eight dentists were executed. Generally speaking, the earlier these proceedings and the sentencing took place, the harsher the sentence was. Many of those who received prison sentences subsequently found their way back into the dental profession.

Beniamino De Vecchis (1886-1972) Italian Dentist and Historian.

Beniamino De Vecchis (1886-1972) took his Medicine Degree at the University of Naples and then moved to the University of Philadelphia to carry out experimental studies in dental science. He had been Professor of Dentistry at the University of Rome in the second half of twentieth century and was an author of important essays about dentistry and history of dentistry. Moreover, he was the first author of an Italian treatise about orthodontics and dentofacial orthopedics. In this paper we propose to analyze and evaluate his contributions to dentistry in his country of Italy.

Public Dental Services, Queensland: Alan Thomas Robertson.

Alan Thomas Robertson's career as Assistant Superintendent Brisbane Dental Hospital [1927-1945] and Acting Superintendent [1945-1946] spanned difficult times. In Victoria, against a backdrop of family tragedy and World War I, Robertson achieved distinguished academic and war-service records. Following the move to Queensland, Robertson either experienced or witnessed the Great Depression, World War II and affiliated paradigm shifts in government policy, dental education and the system of the delivery of dental services. Within this context, the actions of Hanlon, Vidgen and Hoole overshadowed Robertson's brief but meaningful contribution to the Australian Dental Association Queensland Branch, his diligent nineteen years of service to the Brisbane Dental Hospital [BDH] and its patients, his pioneering of general anesthesia and his perennial commitment to undergraduate and continuing dental education. Robertson's career was neither financially lucrative nor acclaimed. Despite his overt patriotism, leadership potential, academic profile and experience, seniority and service, Robertson's appointment as Superintendent at the BDH was only an interim measure. A brief career in an entrepreneurial private practice ended in professional isolation followed by tragedy. The authors present a revisionist interpretation of Robertson's career. This narrative conveys messages for human resource managers in both academe and health departments.

Public Dental Services, Queensland, Australia: Charles Octavius Vidgen.

Charles Octavius Vidgen was the Superintendent of the Brisbane Dental Hospital, c1917-1945. Hitherto, commentators' reviews rely on imposing but narrow streams of evidence to either ignore Vidgen's influence on the dental profession or portray it as both peripheral and controversial. In this account, the authors use historical method to provide a revisionist account of Vidgen's professional profile and, to a lesser extent, a character resurrection. Vidgen was probably introverted. His orientation relating to dental education became obsolete, inappropriate and disruptive. Vidgen's actions, beliefs and values incurred sustained and organized opposition from academe, the Australian Dental Association Queensland Branch, the Odontological Society of Queensland and some private practitioners. The sociopolitical context, namely the Great Depression and affiliated reconstruction, the community's demand for government-administered dental services, World War II, twenty-five years of continuous Australian Labor Party government in Queensland, Edward Hanlon's authoritarianism and the emergence of a welfare state were also relevant to Vidgen's becoming a nonconformist, nonjoiner and an outcast. However, the authors posit that, for the socially disadvantaged and the regionally and remotely domiciled, Vidgen was a humanitarian and a quiet social reformer who, under Hanlon's authority and tutelage, pioneered enduring changes to the delivery of dental services across Queensland.

From Dental to Mental Institutions: A Quadruple Threat of Nitrous-Oxide Administration Before and During Mental Asylum Admission.

During the 19th century, patients undergoing anesthesia for surgical and dental procedures were at risk of being given hypoxic or dilute nitrous oxide on four separate occasions. Primary and secondary saturation during surgery could account for two administrations of 100% nitrous-oxide anesthesia, while both diagnostic and therapeutic doses of dilute nitrous oxide were frequently administered in mental asylums.

1960s dentistry and Call the Midwife.

Call the Midwife is a popular TV series exploring difficult life, especially for women, in the East End of London in the 1960s. This paper recalls how the TV company enlisted help from the BDA Museum to develop some dental scenarios. Ideas were developed and help was given to write scripts and then during filming.

Historia de los servicios estomatológicos en el municipio de Colón / History to the service of dentistry in Colon municipality

La Estomatología en el municipio de Colón ha pasado por diversos momentos, hoy toma dimensiones cualitativamente superiores, que contribuyen a elevar la salud bucal y la calidad de vida de la población. Se considera pionera en la atención estomatológica. El objetivo es revelar la historia de los servicios de Odontología, en el municipio (AU).

Dentistry, in the municipality of Colon has gone through different moments. Nowadays it is taking qualitatively higher dimensions contributing to improve the population´s oral health and life quality. It is considered a pioneer in dental care. The aim is telling the history of Odontology services in the municipality (AU).

Historia de los servicios estomatológicos en el municipio de Colón / History to the service of dentistry in Colon municipality

La Estomatología en el municipio de Colón ha pasado por diversos momentos, hoy toma dimensiones cualitativamente superiores, que contribuyen a elevar la salud bucal y la calidad de vida de la población. Se considera pionera en la atención estomatológica. El objetivo es revelar la historia de los servicios de Odontología, en el municipio (AU).

Dentistry, in the municipality of Colon has gone through different moments. Nowadays it is taking qualitatively higher dimensions contributing to improve the population´s oral health and life quality. It is considered a pioneer in dental care. The aim is telling the history of Odontology services in the municipality (AU).

Sex differences of dental pathology in early modern samurai and commoners at Kokura in Japan.

So-called "Ohaguro", teeth blackening, in the married females was a general custom regardless of class in the early modern period. As a result, Ohaguro was thought to have enhanced the acid resistance of tooth substance and tightened gingiva and prevented tooth morbidity due to periodontal disease. For investigation into the influence of Ohaguro, the skeletal remains of early modern samurai and commoners at Kokura were examined for differences in the dental pathology based on sex. Though females from archeological sites have significantly more carious teeth and antemortem tooth loss (AMTL) than males in the previous studies, the prevalence of caries and AMTL in males was higher than in females among the early modern samurai and commoners in Kokura. The efficacies of Ohaguro may influence the good dental health of females. On the other hand, as females were considered inferior to males under the feudal system in Japan, males, including children, might tend to consume more nutritious foods compared to females. However, those foods are certainly not better with regard to dental health, since those foods are more highly cariogenic. These factors may have caused higher caries and AMTL prevalence among males compared to females in early modern Kokura.

Reflections on dentistry and dental problems under the Third Reich.

Victor Klemperer was a Professor of Romance Languages and Literature in Dresden during the 1920s and 1930s. He kept a diary and the entries for the period 1933 to 1945 have been examined for references relating to dentistry and dentists. These give an insight into an aspect of the social life of the period that appears to have been previously largely overlooked.

The Dental-Medical Divide.

The importance of oral health for overall well-being cannot be overstated. Yet the US dental delivery system struggles to address effectively the two most common oral diseases (caries and periodontal disease), which are among the most prevalent of all chronic diseases and are largely preventable. This article describes the evolution of contemporary US dental care policy and practice, highlighting the challenges resulting from the dental system's separation from the rest of health care, and explores the implications of this divide for the future of oral health policy and system reform. It remains unclear whether twenty-first-century dental science, information technology, interprofessional practice, and population health needs can be mounted onto the current nineteenth-century dental care delivery model. At stake is whether reform efforts will lead to a reduction in disparities and the widespread incidence of dental disease, or whether those efforts will maintain a system in which poor oral health serves as a primary marker of social inequality for the next generation of Americans.

Dental care and dentistry practice in the Medieval Medical School of Salerno.

Even though dental care is sometimes erroneously considered a modern practice, written records from major ancient civilisation all around the world date back to several millennia BC. In particular, in the Middle Ages, among the tenth and thirteenth centuries, the illustrious Medical School of Salerno in Italy, the most important institution in the Western world for the diffusion of medical knowledge, disseminated through its precepts the importance of oral hygiene and practiced specific dental therapies for tooth decay, gingivitis, paradentosis and halitosis among others. Interestingly, several of the officinal plants and natural ingredients proposed for oral care by the school's most famous physicians recipes, notably those of the legendary Trotula De Ruggiero, considered the first female physician in history, are still in vogue in the twenty-first century.

The origins and nature of acupuncture in dentistry.

A description is given of the origins and different types of acupuncture. The historical origins and their application in dentistry are discussed.

Dental witness seminars: dentistry in the UK since 1948.

Witness seminars attempt to get behind the scenes of advances and developments to find out what really happened at certain times; they are not intended to provide a detailed history of events. This paper presents highlights from the five John McLean Archive witness seminars, providing an instructional collection of memories and insights into the world of dentistry in the UK since the late 1940s. It is concluded that future change will be seen as a welcome constant to be used for the benefit of the profession and the patients and communities it serves.

,, da mir Zahnschmerz unausstehlich ist".

Little is known about the people who suffered from toothache or other dental illnesses in the 19th century. This is, in part, due to the lack of sources describing individual experiences with such ailments. The patient journals of the homoeopath Clemens Maria Franz von Bönninghausen (1785­1864), who practiced in Münster in Westphalia between 1829 and 1864, offer the possibility of learning more about patients in the field of dental care and medicine. Whilst practising, Bönninghausen treated more than 27,000 patients. The entries he made about 14,266 of them were transcribed in a database which provides a rich source of information about the clientele the homoeopath had, their illnesses and their behaviour during medical treatment. 785 patients told the homoeopath that they had problems with their teeth. Some only vaguely said that they had some kind of ache, whilst others described pulling, stabbing, searing or even burning and itching sensations. The majority of these people also had tried other cures before. In some cases, teeth already had been pulled out without improving the situation. Therefore the entries in the patient journals are proof of the demand for dental care and treatment and the growing awareness of people towards their dental health. But during their search for a cure, they not only consulted the trained dentists who could, in most cases, only offer unsuccessful treatments. This clashed with the attempts by these trained specialists to improve their social status and professionalisation.

Shirley Jackson's "The Tooth": Dentistry as Horror, the Imagination as a Shield.

On her way to a dreaded dental appointment to have an aching tooth pulled, Clara Spencer meets a solicitous stranger, Jim, and by the end of the story runs off with him, in many interpretations to perdition. But since 1) Shirley Jackson (who herself had much dental work and hated it) has suffered from typecasting as a horror writer, 2) dental gas anesthesia protocols of the time as Clara is anticipating could lead to sexual hallucinations, and 3) contemporary literature celebrated escapist fantasy (e.g., the invisible giant rabbit in Harvey), this article proposes instead that Jim is Clara's own imaginative, comforting, therapeutic creation.