Teeth Up

(See front cover)

The American Dental Association was scheduled to meet in Oakland. Calif, last month. For their convention that association of proud professional men decided that they needed no less than 3.000 hotel rooms. 50.000 sq. ft. of space for clinics and exhibits, an assembly hall to hold at least 1,000 persons at a time. Oakland had the space, but not the sleeping quarters. Hence Oakland hotelkeepers and merchants lost the business which 8,000 dentists created when they met across the bay in San Francisco last week.

San Francisco took the visiting dentists at their face value, bedecked the city with lavender & white bunting (A. D. A. colors), supplied special free trips to the two great bridges being constructed across San Francisco Harbor. The Glad Tiding Temple Bible Institute's motorized loudspeaker serenaded the dentists with the refrain: "Oh, when we all pull together, together, together, how happy we will be." At the dentists' main banquet the St. Francis Hotel presented a huge confection in the shape of a full denture, cookies shaped like molars.

Dentists smiled at such punning, wished it would stop. As he was about to turn over A. D. A.'s presidency to Dr. Leroy Matthew Simpson ('"Roy") Miner of Boston last week, Dr. George Ben Winter, St. Louis exodontist (specialist in tooth pulling), observed that only a hundred years ago all U. S. dentists were "drawn from the ranks of the artisans, goldsmiths, blacksmiths and barbers." Since then dentists have improved in knowledge, skill and culture. Yet so halting has been their social progress that an official A. D. A. committee last week was obliged to report: ''Public esteem for the profession of dentistry is not as high as that of other professions."

Manfully dentists last week strove to improve their status. Dr. Miner, their new president, who is both Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Medical Dentistry, told them: "Not until diagnosis becomes the foundation on which the whole structure of dentistry is built can it lay claim to be a learned profession or an important branch of the great art and science of healing." As tooth-menders, most dentists realize that they are little more than unrespected artisans working on the fringe of health. As preventers of dental disease, they run the risk of becoming doctors' handymen, in a class with physiotherapists, roentgenologists, pathologists and urinoscopists.

Last week the American Dental Association signaled to the world that henceforth any man or woman licensed to practise dentistry in the U. S. will be well-educated, well-trained. Beginning next September no student will be admitted to any one of the 38 first-class U. S. dental schools unless he has had at least two years of college education. He will not get his Doctorate of Dental Surgery until he has passed four more years grounding himself in such medical fundamentals as anatomy, pathology, diagnosis, hygiene, as well as the special dental problems of jaws, gums and teeth. If the student in a medical school puts similar emphasis on the mouth, and its contents, he may call himself a stomatologist (mouth expert), as does Dentist Miner when he teaches at Boston University School of Medicine. When he teaches at Harvard University's Dental School, Stomatologist Miner becomes Professor of Clinical Oral Surgery.

To insure that all graduates of U. S. dental schools will henceforth be competent dentists, the A. D. A. last week forced a reorganization of the Dental Educational Council of America. That Council, now composed of teachers in dental schools, State examiners for dental licensure, and one practicing dentist, has, according to the A. D. A., proved incompetent in promoting good educational standards in the dental schools. In the face of vigorous criticism that "dental education was being placed in the hands of politicians of the American Dental Association," a new Council on Dental Education & Infirmaries, dominated by practicing dentists in the A. D. A., was organized last week and told to get busy at once. Among its duties it was ordered: 1) "to investigate and report on dissensions between dental schools and units of organized dentistry"; 2) "to find out why it is not possible for students to transfer from one Class A dental school to another"; 3) "to interest State Legislatures and private capital in the adequate support and endowment of dental education"; 4) "to study plans for the examination and listing of specialists."

The following, the A. D. A. decided last week, are authentic dental specialties: exodontia, oral surgery, periodontia (tissues surrounding teeth), orthodontia (straight teeth), prosthodontia (false teeth), pedodontia (children's teeth). To promote those specialties a vast array of national dental societies met in San Francisco last week or warmed up there the week before: American Dental Association, American Academy of Restorative Dentistry, American Academy of Periodontology, American Association of Dental Editors, American College of Dentists, American Society of Oral Surgeons & Exodontists, Association of American Women Dentists, Association of Military Dental Surgeons of the U. S., National Association of Dental Examiners, American Society for the Promotion of Children's Dentistry, American Dental Golf Association, American Dental Trapshooters' League, American Dental Hygienists' Association, American Dental Assistants Association, International Association for Dental Research, Psi Omega National Alumni Chapter. Delta Sigma Delta. Alpha Omega, Omicron Kappa Upsilon. International College of Dentists, American Society for the Promotion of Oral Diagnosis.

Of the 38 Class A dental schools in this country, only five are "independent" i.e., not affiliated with a university; San Francisco School of Dentistry, which hopes to join Stanford University; North Pacific College, of Portland, Ore.; Kansas City-Western; Atlanta-Southern; Texas Dental College, Houston. For lack of money Tulane University, Vanderbilt University and University of Cincinnati have closed their dental schools.

The nationwide movement called Socialized Medicine to give all U. S. citizens free medical service at government expense infuriates the dentists even more than it does the doctors. The American Medical Association, sure of its strength in legislative lobbies, has compromised somewhat with Socialized Medicine. The American Dental Association, aware that its lobbyists are unskilled, its numbers relatively small* and its antecedents plain, fights Socialized Medicine tooth & nail. Cried A. D. A. President Winter in his farewell address last week: "While history is in the making it is not for the American Dental Association to sit on the side lines after the manner of listless spectators. . . . The outstanding trend in national and world affairs today is toward the establishment of economic dictatorship. . . . It has been suggested that a plan of insurance practice might be established by the Government guaranteeing each dentist a certain amount of practice, for which he would be paid by the Government. . . . What rights would the dentist be asked to surrender or what compromises would he be asked to make in return for the guaranteed income, which could be but small? . . . The members of our profession need to make no compromise with their conscience in order to gain a livelihood. .. . We need not sell out to political powers."

Dr. Miner: "The American Dental Association is firmly opposed to socialization in any compulsory form."

President Winter also took a valedictory whack at Dentist Leroy L. Hartman of Columbia University, whose dental pain-killer created great hopes among patients, great consternation among dentists, who found that it did not always work (TIME, Feb. 3). Dr. Hartman last week told the A. D. A. all about Hartman's Solution, his method of applications, and the types of cavities it is suited for. Dr. Paul Wells of Chicago reported that of 23,000 patients treated, 30% felt no pain whatsoever after application of Hartman's Solution, 30% felt some pain, 40% gained no anesthesia whatsoever. Still vexed, President Winter cried last week: "It is cruel for expectations to be aroused, only to be shattered because they are based on a misunderstanding. . . . There is a lesson for the general public, the Press and the profession in the excitement caused by the announcement of painless dentistry, followed later by disillusionment."

There was also another lesson to be drawn from the Hartman incident: skillful publicity catches public attention, increases business in a "dental parlor" no less than in a shop. The A. D. A. has great plans for publicizing dentists, especially over the radio. In charge of such publicity is Dr. Caleb Willard Camalier, 49, a beaming Washington, D. C. dentist whose hobby is lobbying. Lobbyist Camalier's greatest triumph this year was securing the cancellation of radio broadcasts for advertising purposes by certain Utah dental laboratories. Dr. Camalier simply got in touch with Director James Wr. Baldwin of the National Association of Broadcasters in Washington. Mr. Baldwin "telegraphed the broadcasting stations involved and within two days received notice that these stations had canceled the broadcasting contracts." Last week the A. D. A. elected Dr. Camalier its 1937 president.

Dentists' most immediate need is public support during the social alterations ahead. By raising the level of their profession they hope to have their patients treat them well, give them that social and scientific esteem they consider their due. To persuade the public to treat dentists well is the job of new President Leroy Matthew Simpson Miner. Because, with New England shrewdness and Harvard learning, he is one of the most estimable men in the profession, Dr. Miner's administration was off to a good start last week.

Dr. Miner's life is a dentist's dream. His day begins before 7 a.m. in the Boston suburb of Newtonville, where he owns a wooded acre lot and a spacious white Colonial house. By 8 o'clock he is driving his 1933 Franklin to one of six Boston hospitals, where he operates for an hour or so. Thence he goes to his private office on Marlboro Street, a 14-room suite where go the big Boston names who make up his clientele, keeps two associates, three nurses, two secretaries and a receptionist busy. Dr. Miner consults, performs minor operations, dresses incisions, pulls teeth. Two mornings and two afternoons a week he attends to his duties as Dean of Harvard Dental School, sitting by a grandfather clock, before a large oak desk littered with papers and books, his feet firmly planted on an Oriental rug. Among his operations, consulting and school schedules he squeezes in one class a week to Harvard dental seniors (principles of surgery), one class a week to juniors (physical diagnosis), one dental clinic. At Boston University School of Medicine he gives four formal lectures a year on stomatology. He also gives three lectures a year to dental hygienists studying at Boston University. Dental and medical societies get another dozen or so lectures from him each year.

He practices his contention that no one should work more than ten months a year. His vacation spot is Greenfield, N. H., near Lake Nubanusit, where he owns a farm, has telephone No. 1, is called The Squire, has fun snowshoeing, skiing, riding, golfing, pitching hay with his robust family. Winters he takes a holiday in Bermuda.

Last week busy Dr. Miner declared he would work his new American Dental Association duties into his already full life somehow. A. D. A. presidents are expected to do a lot of traveling to keep in touch with the 48 state dental societies and to keep the member's noses glued to dental ideals. Said Dr. Miner: "I hope to break Percy Howe's record when he was president,* of having traveled less than any other A. D. A. president. . . ."

* The A. M. A. has 92,600 members compared to A. D. A.'s 40,073. Proud are dentists that the A. D. A. includes 70% of the 58,004 U. S. dentists, whereas the A. M. A. includes only some 50% of the 170,000 U. S. doctors. * Director Percy Rogers Howe of Boston's Forsyth Dental Infirmary for Children, A. D. A. President in 1929.

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