We conclude this historical dental timeline with Part 5 of a 5-part series with fun facts and interesting inventions in the field of dentistry. For more information, you can visit the website of the American Dental Association. Part 5 will focus on innovations in techniques and technology (20th century).
1903
Charles Land devises the porcelain jacket crown.
1905
Alfred Einhorn, a German chemist, formulates the local anesthetic procain, later marketed under the trade name Novocain.
1907
William Taggart invents a “lost wax” casting machine, allowing dentists to make precision cast fillings.
1908
Greene Vardiman Black, the leading reformer and educator of American dentistry, publishes his monumental two-volume treatise Operative Dentistry, which remains the essential clinical dental text for fifty years. Black later develops techniques for filling teeth, standardizes operative procedures and instrumentation, develops an improved amalgam, and pioneers the use of visual aids for teaching dentistry.
1910
The first formal training program for dental nurses is established at the Ohio College of Dental Surgery by Cyrus M. Wright. The program is discontinued in 1914 mainly due to opposition by Ohio dentists.
1911
The U.S. Army Dental Corps is established as the first armed services dental corps in the U.S. The Navy institutes its Dental Corps in 1912.
1913
Alfred C. Fones opens the Fones Clinic For Dental Hygienists in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the world’s first oral hygiene school. Most of the twenty-seven women graduates of the first class are employed by the Bridgeport Board of Education to clean the teeth of school children. The greatly reduced incidence of caries among these children gives impetus to the dental hygienist movement. Dr. Fones, first to use the term “dental hygienist,” becomes known as the Father of Dental Hygiene.
1917
Irene Newman receives the world’s first dental hygiene license in Connecticut.
1930
The American Board of Orthodontics, the world’s first dental specialty board, is founded.
1937
Alvin Strock inserts the first Vitallium dental screw implant. Vitallium, the first successful biocompatible implant metal, had been developed a year earlier by Charles Venable, an orthopedic surgeon.
1938
The nylon toothbrush, the first made with synthetic bristles, appears on the market.
1945
The water fluoridation era begins when the cities of Newburgh, New York, and Grand Rapids, Michigan, add sodium fluoride to their public water systems.
1948
President Harry S. Truman signs the Congressional bill formally establishing the National Institute of Dental Research and initiating federal funding for dental research. Dr. H. Trendley Dean is appointed its first director. The Institute is renamed the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research in 1998.
1949
Oskar Hagger, a Swiss chemist, develops the first system of bonding acrylic resin to dentin.
1950
The first fluoride toothpastes are marketed.
1955
Michael Buonocore describes the acid etch technique, a simple method of increasing the adhesion of acrylic fillings to enamel.
1957
John Borden introduces a high-speed air-driven contra-angle handpiece. The Airotor obtains speeds up to 300,000 rotations per minute and is an immediate commercial success, launching a new era of high-speed dentistry.
1958
A fully reclining dental chair is introduced.
1960
- Sit down, four-handed dentistry becomes popular in the U.S. This technique improves productivity and shortens treatment time.
- Lasers are developed and approved for soft tissue work, such as treatment of periodontal disease.
- The first commercial electric toothbrush, developed in Switzerland after World War II, is introduced in the United States. A cordless, rechargeable model follows in 1961.
1962
Rafael Bowen develops Bis-GMA, the thermoset resin complex used in most modern composite resin restorative materials.
1980
Per-Ingvar Branemark describes techniques for the osseointegration of dental implants.
1989
The first commercial home tooth bleaching product is marketed.
1990
New tooth-colored restorative materials plus increased usage of bleaching, veneers, and implants inaugurate an era of esthetic dentistry.
1997
FDA approves the erbium YAG laser, the first for use on dentin, to treat tooth decay.
1998
The National Institute of Dental Research is renamed National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research to more accurately reflect the broad research base that it has come to support.
Credit: http://www.ada.org/en/about-the-ada/ada-history-and-presidents-of-the-ada/ada-history-of-dentistry-timeline. Photo credit: https://www.aaid-implant.org/about-dental-implants/what-are-dental-implants/; https://www.mchoralhealth.org/milestones/1945.html