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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production

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Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy Vie Wilson, and we

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Speaker 1: are continuing our history of dentistry and oral health today

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Speaker 1: and we are basically picking up where we left off

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Speaker 1: last time, so that puts us in the early eighteen hundreds.

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Speaker 1: As promised, we're going to talk about dental chairs and

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Speaker 1: amalgams to kick this one off, and we'll also talk

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Speaker 1: a bit about some of the support careers in dental

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Speaker 1: medicine and a little bit about orthodontics, although we're not

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Speaker 1: going to get into a ton of specifics there because

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Speaker 1: that's a huge field. Not going to talk about how

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Speaker 1: braces work, So rest easy. As with the first part,

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Speaker 1: there is only a little bit of squirmy stuff here

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Speaker 1: and nothing is terribly graphic. Prior to eighteen thirty two,

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Speaker 1: there were no reclining dental chairs, and Pierre Fauchard's time,

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Speaker 1: he had transitioned patients from the customary sitting on the

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Speaker 1: floor for dental work into sitting in chairs, and he

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Speaker 1: recommended comfortable chairs with a back that was the right

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Speaker 1: height to support a patient's tilted back head, as well

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Speaker 1: as armrests so they had something to grip. A surgeon

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Speaker 1: dentist practicing in Boston in the seventeen nineties named Josiah Flagg,

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Speaker 1: had added an adjustable headrest to a windsor chair and

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Speaker 1: that had made what a lot of people called the

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Speaker 1: first dental chair. His chair had a handy arm that

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Speaker 1: held the instruments, but it still required the patient to

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Speaker 1: sit upright with their head tipped back. It wasn't exactly comfortable,

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Speaker 1: even when nobody was doing anything in their mouth. But

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Speaker 1: then in eighteen thirty two, London dentist James Snell, who

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Speaker 1: was a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, came

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Speaker 1: up with a design that had an adjustable seat and backrest.

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Speaker 1: A pump type hydro alec chair was introduced forty years

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Speaker 1: later in eighteen seventy seven by Basil Manly Wilkerson, and

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Speaker 1: that let the patient be positioned horizontally. Yeah, sitting up

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Speaker 1: with your head tilted back doesn't sound uncomfortable. Do it

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Speaker 1: for like five minutes and then and then imagine someone

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Speaker 1: trying to pull a tooth or do something else in there. Um.

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Speaker 1: Samuel Stockton White helped expand the availability of dental chairs

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Speaker 1: with his company S. S. White Dental Manufacturing Company, starting

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Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty. Even before he began offering chairs, White

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Speaker 1: had become the primary US supplier of porcelain teeth. The

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Speaker 1: first patent for porcelain teeth had been issued in France

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Speaker 1: to Nicolas du Bois de Chamont in seventeen ninety, so

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Speaker 1: this idea of porcelain teeth was not new in the

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Speaker 1: eighteen forties when White started manufacturing them, but he was

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Speaker 1: the first to launch a successful commercial enterprise dedicated to

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Speaker 1: their production. White continued to expand his business with chairs

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Speaker 1: and dental tools, and then began publishing a periodical simply

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Speaker 1: titled Dental Newsletter, which was later renamed Dental Cosmos. S. S.

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Speaker 1: White still exists today as a dental supplier. In eighteen

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Speaker 1: thirty three, product called Royal Mineral Secondinium appeared in the

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Speaker 1: US as a filling amalgam for cavities. The story behind

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Speaker 1: it has some inconsistencies and fuzzy spots because it was

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Speaker 1: being peddled by two Charlatans called the Krocur. You may

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Speaker 1: see the Krokour referred to as two French brothers, or

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Speaker 1: as an uncle and a nephew, or sometimes as English

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Speaker 1: instead of French. There are even theories there may have

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Speaker 1: been more than two people using this name as a duo.

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Speaker 1: It seems like the Krokur, whoever they were, and however

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Speaker 1: many of them there were, possessed a rudimentary grasp of dentistry.

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Speaker 1: They probably got that in France, and then they appear

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Speaker 1: in England at the end of the eighteenth country, working

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Speaker 1: as itinerant surgeon dentists. They slowly expanded their personal story

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Speaker 1: to claim that they had been the surgeon dentist to

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Speaker 1: several royal families, and they said their specialty was filling

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Speaker 1: teeth with their own special amalgam, but that amalgam was toxic.

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Speaker 1: It was made with a large proportion of mercury and

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Speaker 1: filings from silver coins. Aside from being one completely gross

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Speaker 1: and two poisonous, this filling amalgam also expanded over time,

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Speaker 1: so patients who had it often found that their teeth

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Speaker 1: would later break or crack because of that expansion. And then,

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Speaker 1: to make matters worse, the Kracour didn't usually bother to

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Speaker 1: clean out teeth before applying this amalgam. So even if

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Speaker 1: their patients did not get cracked teeth, they would often

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Speaker 1: end up with just horrible infections. Before the consequences of

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Speaker 1: this awful dentistry could catch up with them. In England,

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Speaker 1: they moved to the US to administer royal mineral suchdmium

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Speaker 1: to the masses. Here in New York. They advertised their

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Speaker 1: services as being performed in comfort and ease for the patient.

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Speaker 1: They assured their gentleness as surgeon dentists, and this attracted

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Speaker 1: a lot of business. Legitimate dentists were horrified and outraged,

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Speaker 1: but the Krakur were making a lot of money until

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Speaker 1: patients started getting sick anyway. In an effort to raise

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Speaker 1: public awareness, some dentists started placing notices in papers telling

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Speaker 1: patients what symptoms to watch for that might indicate that

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Speaker 1: they had mercury poisoning. The Society of Surgeon Dentists of

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Speaker 1: the City and State of New York required members to

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Speaker 1: sign a promise that they would not use amalgam. The

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Speaker 1: krak Cours vanished from the US by the end of

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Speaker 1: eighteen thirty four. Amalgam had been demonized to a degree

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Speaker 1: that most dentists just simply did not trust it. It's

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Speaker 1: believed that amalgam's used for dental fillings may date back

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Speaker 1: as far as the seventh century in China, due to

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Speaker 1: a reference in a writing of a silver paste that

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Speaker 1: was referring to a tooth filling, But we don't know

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Speaker 1: for certain what that may have consisted of, and most

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Speaker 1: fillings that we do know of prior to the eighteen

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Speaker 1: thirties would have been made with silver or gold or tin.

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Speaker 1: But the work of the Croud course made people deeply

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Speaker 1: suspicious of amalgams. In eighteen thirty nine, the American Society

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Speaker 1: of Dental Surgeons was formed, and that was the same

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Speaker 1: year the first dental journal began publication. That was the

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Speaker 1: American Journal of Dental Science. An amalgam was a big topic.

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Speaker 1: Within seven years, the American Society of Dental Surgeons had

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Speaker 1: decided that the use of amalgams was considered malpractice. They

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Speaker 1: passed a resolution to require members to sign a pledge

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Speaker 1: never to use it, but this actually led to several

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Speaker 1: members resigning and then a lot of conflict within the

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Speaker 1: organization in the requirement was no longer in place just

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Speaker 1: four years later, though some dentists continued to issue amalgam

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Speaker 1: use others experimented with better quality materials, although it wasn't

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Speaker 1: until eight than an amalgam recognized as workable and safe

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Speaker 1: for patients emerged. That was thanks to the work of

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Speaker 1: Green Vartamin Black. He's going to pop up again here

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Speaker 1: in a bit, so keep his name in mind. Today

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Speaker 1: amalgam is still used. It does actually still contain mercury,

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Speaker 1: although that mercury is chemically bonded with the other materials

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Speaker 1: in the mix to significantly decreased risk to patients. It's

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Speaker 1: also certainly a higher grade than what the kracours were using.

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Speaker 1: Other filling options, though, are offered by dentists or patients

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Speaker 1: who might be uncomfortable with the idea of amalgam or

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Speaker 1: particularly mercury, including gold fillings, porcelain filling, and even a

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Speaker 1: composite filling made with resin and powdered glass that can

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Speaker 1: be color meant to the existing tooth. As dentistry grew

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Speaker 1: as a profession in the early eighteen hundreds and things

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Speaker 1: like the amalgam debate popped up, it was becoming a

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Speaker 1: parent that there needed to be some structure around both

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Speaker 1: education and regulation of the field. The first dental school

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Speaker 1: was founded in eighteen forty by Dr Horace H. Hayden

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Speaker 1: and doctor Shapen A. Harris, with a charter from the

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Speaker 1: General Assembly of Maryland, the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery

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Speaker 1: offered a Doctor of Dental Surgery or DDS degree, and

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Speaker 1: soon dental schools opened in other cities. They built on

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Speaker 1: the model of education that had been established in Baltimore.

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Speaker 1: That institution was consolidated with the University of Maryland in

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Speaker 1: nineteen three, and it continues as the University of Maryland

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Speaker 1: School of Dentistry. On the regulation side of things, the

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Speaker 1: first U S state to address the issue was Alabama.

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Speaker 1: In eighteen forty one, the state enacted the Law Regulating

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Speaker 1: the Practice of Dental Surgery in Alabama, which stated that

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Speaker 1: one the medical boards of the state had to quote

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Speaker 1: examine and license applicants to practice dental surgery. Two people

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Speaker 1: practicing dentistry without a license would have to pay a

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Speaker 1: fine of up to fifty dollars for each instance that

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Speaker 1: they did so. Three that any bonds or obligations made

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Speaker 1: to practitioners who were not licensed were void. Four that

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Speaker 1: practicing dentists needed to have their license recorded in the

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Speaker 1: county where they practiced, and five, All existing laws that

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Speaker 1: contradicted this Act were repealed by it. This all sounded

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Speaker 1: pretty great, but it was not enforced, and only a

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Speaker 1: few dental licenses were ever granted under this initial act

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Speaker 1: in Alabama. Another topic that's come up a number of

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Speaker 1: times on the show is anesthesia. William T. G. Morton

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Speaker 1: is generally credited with the first successful use of anesthesia

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Speaker 1: on a patient named Glenn Abbott for a surgery to

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Speaker 1: remove a tumor from his neck in eighty six. Previous

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Speaker 1: as attempts had not been successful, Although a doctor named

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Speaker 1: Crawford Long claimed that he had been successful before Morton,

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Speaker 1: he had not published about his efforts in the field. Though. Uh, yeah,

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Speaker 1: you might recognize the name Crawford Long if you live

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Speaker 1: in Atlanta. Yeah, I was like that, the Crawford Long

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Speaker 1: from Emory Crawford. It is the very same. Uh. There

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Speaker 1: used to be a hospital named after him. Now it

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Speaker 1: has a different name, but they're still signage that includes

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Speaker 1: his name. As part of a memorial. Coming up, we're

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Speaker 1: going to talk about some of North America's early professional

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Speaker 1: organizations for dentists, But first we will pause for a

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Speaker 1: sponsor break. The American Dental Association formed in eighteen fifty nine.

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Speaker 1: The gathering where it was founded, which took place in

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Speaker 1: Niagara Falls, New York, was catalyzed by ongoing concern about

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Speaker 1: the need for regulation shin. Even though there were several

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Speaker 1: dental schools producing new, well trained dentists at that point,

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Speaker 1: there was a greater demand than could be meant by

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Speaker 1: their graduates, so there was still this huge street dentist

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Speaker 1: industry operating without training, oversight, or standards. Additionally, that whole

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Speaker 1: drama and debate regarding amalgam had to some degree arrested

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Speaker 1: the development of beneficial materials, and a regulated system could

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Speaker 1: prevent another such event. There was also a concern about

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Speaker 1: the use of advertising tillur patients and whether it was

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Speaker 1: ethical to do so. Twenty six dentists gathered in Niagara

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Speaker 1: Falls to form this initial group and address these issues.

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Speaker 1: Just ten years later, in eighteen sixty nine, a splinter

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Speaker 1: group formed called the Southern Dental Association, comprising dentists who

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Speaker 1: had resigned from the A d A after the Civil War.

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Speaker 1: The two groups remained separate for almost thirty years, and

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Speaker 1: they finally combined again in eighteen nine d seven. They

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Speaker 1: had a brief name change to the National Dental Association,

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Speaker 1: before reverting back to that original name In another move

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Speaker 1: to regulate, The National Association of Dental Examiners was founded

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Speaker 1: in eighteen eighty three by sitting members of the dental

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Speaker 1: boards from several states as a move to develop uniform

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Speaker 1: standards of qualifications throughout the country. This group was formed

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Speaker 1: not just to oversee dentists as a profession, but also

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Speaker 1: to oversee state dental boards and legislation related to dentistry.

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Speaker 1: The first woman to graduate from dental school in the

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Speaker 1: US was Lucy Beamon Hobbs later Lucy Beamon Hobbs Taylor.

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Speaker 1: She was part of the eighteen sixty six graduating class

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Speaker 1: at the Ohio College of Dental Surgery. She's on the

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Speaker 1: list for a future episode, so we won't go into

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Speaker 1: our whole story here, but she had unsurprisingly a hard

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Speaker 1: time getting accepted into dental school. That was after she

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Speaker 1: had already been denied entrance to medical school. She had

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Speaker 1: to really circle invent the system and learned on her own,

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Speaker 1: practicing dental medicine out of her own established office for

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Speaker 1: long enough that by the time she was admitted to

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Speaker 1: Ohio College of Dental surgery. It was pretty much a formality.

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Speaker 1: She went to one session and then was given her degree.

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Speaker 1: The Harvard University Dental School was the first dental school

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Speaker 1: affiliated with a university. It opened in eighteen sixty seven

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Speaker 1: and had another milestone just two years later, when the

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Speaker 1: first black man in the United States was given a

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Speaker 1: dental degree. That man was Dr Robert Tanner Freeman. He

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Speaker 1: was the son of formerly enslaved parents. Freeman had applied

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Speaker 1: to two other dental schools and he had been denied

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Speaker 1: based entirely on his race. He had been working as

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Speaker 1: an assistant to a dentist for a while before that,

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Speaker 1: so he was well qualified. After graduating though from Harvard,

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Speaker 1: he practiced in Washington, d c. For the next four years,

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Speaker 1: but unfortunately he died suddenly from an illness that was waterborne,

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Speaker 1: at the age of just twenty six. We mentioned dentificus

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Speaker 1: earlier when talking about John Baker, and this was a product.

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Speaker 1: It was a powder that could scrub your teeth clean.

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Speaker 1: And just as the practice of dentistry wasn't initially regulated,

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Speaker 1: it took a long time for tooth cleaners to be regulated,

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Speaker 1: and often they were really dangerous. Some powdered dentificases were

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Speaker 1: made with things like ground coral, which would clean your teeth.

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Speaker 1: They would also strip them of their enamel. Those early

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Speaker 1: offerings weren't mass produced, though large scale toothpaste production didn't

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Speaker 1: start until the eighteen eighties. This is when the move

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Speaker 1: was made to package it in tubes. Although initially the

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Speaker 1: quality remained pretty hit or miss. By the early twentieth century,

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Speaker 1: toothpaste had become a standard part of oral hygiene, although

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Speaker 1: there were still some powders being made. Tooth brushes similarly

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Speaker 1: had sort of a late bloom, even though they had

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Speaker 1: been around for hundreds and in some cases thousands of

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Speaker 1: years in some form or another. It is believed that

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Speaker 1: the first toothbrush to really resemble those that you would

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Speaker 1: commonly see today was made in China in the late

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Speaker 1: fifteenth century. That being like the bristles that are perpendicular

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Speaker 1: to the handle. There were others that were developing in

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Speaker 1: various places that looked almost more like a paintbrush, where

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Speaker 1: the bristles were an extension of the handle, and in

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Speaker 1: the seventeenth and eighteenth century, similar toothbrushes to that one

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Speaker 1: in China existed in Europe. But these were tended to

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Speaker 1: be kind of fancy. They would often have ivory handles,

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Speaker 1: and they were used primarily just by the upper class.

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Speaker 1: For a long time, cloths or even sponges were used

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Speaker 1: as the primary teeth cleaning instruments for the average person,

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Speaker 1: and it wasn't until the eighteen fifties that toothbrushes were

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Speaker 1: manufactured in significant quantity. The first patent for a toothbrush

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Speaker 1: in the United States was issued in eighteen fifty seven

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Speaker 1: that went to none other than S. S. White manufacturing.

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Speaker 1: Nylon bristles were introduced in nineteen thirty eight by DuPont.

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Speaker 1: Up to that point, natural bristles like boar's hair were used,

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Speaker 1: and the first electric toothbrush came out in nineteen sixty.

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Speaker 1: Because I was looking for pictures to put on our

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Speaker 1: social media, I saw all of these old toothbrush pictures,

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Speaker 1: and so many of them had bristles that looked more

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Speaker 1: like the texture I would expect from like a hair

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Speaker 1: brush or a shaving brush, and not a toothbrush. Seems

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Speaker 1: like it would be very pokey on your gum or

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Speaker 1: too soft like the other direction too, and some of

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Speaker 1: them it really yeah. Dentist Charles Edmund Kell's of New

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Speaker 1: Orleans was the first doctor known to hire women assistants

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Speaker 1: to help in his practice, and that started in eighteen

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Speaker 1: eighty five. His first assistant was his wife and his

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Speaker 1: next hire for the job was a young woman named

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Speaker 1: Melvina Aquaria. This was kind of a catch all job,

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Speaker 1: part receptionist, part dental assistant. It became trendy for dental

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Speaker 1: offices to have women on staff, and these kind times

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Speaker 1: of roles leading to signs that read lady in attendance

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Speaker 1: being commonplace at dentist offices. Having a woman on staff

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Speaker 1: made it acceptable for women patients to come in for

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Speaker 1: appointments without their husbands or another male relative to accompany them. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: initially it seems sort of quaint and you're like, what

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Speaker 1: are you doing, But it really made dentistry more um

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Speaker 1: available to a lot of people. For example, a single

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Speaker 1: woman would have had a hard time if she didn't

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Speaker 1: have uh male relative, Like if she was truly on

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Speaker 1: her own, going to a dentist's office would have seemed

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Speaker 1: kind of scandalous if there was not another lady present there.

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Speaker 1: So it really did kind of shift accessibility in an

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Speaker 1: important way. And this was we should note this uh

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Speaker 1: dental assistant role very different than a hygenist. Although the

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Speaker 1: two positions were in some ways coalescing it roughly the

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Speaker 1: same time, they have some overlap, even though that started

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Speaker 1: in the eighteen eighties. In nineteen the first school for

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Speaker 1: hygienis the Phonus Clinic for Dental Hygienists, open in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

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Speaker 1: That school was run by Alfred C. Phonus, who had

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Speaker 1: trained his cousin, Irene Newman as a dental assistant, and

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Speaker 1: then he started adding duties like cleaning and preventative care

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Speaker 1: to her work. This began because Irene did really really

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Speaker 1: well with children at the practice initially, and so he

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Speaker 1: thought that maybe she could work on those kinds of

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Speaker 1: things with kids. The graduates of phonuss program were actually

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Speaker 1: hired by the Board of Education in Bridgeport to perform

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Speaker 1: teeth cleaning clinics in schools, and because of this work,

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Speaker 1: Dr Phonus is known as the father of dental hygiene.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen seventeen, his cousin Irene Newman became known as

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Speaker 1: the first person to have a dental hygiene license, even

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Speaker 1: though dental assistants were around for decades before hygienists. It

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Speaker 1: wasn't until nineteen twenty four that the American Dental Assistance

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Speaker 1: Association was founded. This group was created by juliet A.

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Speaker 1: Sotherd and other dental assistants in New York. They had

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Speaker 1: heard of other smaller dental assistant groups in places like Nebraska.

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Speaker 1: In nine nine, the a d a A established a

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Speaker 1: scholarship for dental assistants that continues today. It is called

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Speaker 1: the Juliet A. Solid Scholarship. Yeah, I was impressed in

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Speaker 1: doing this research that that scholarship was set up within

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Speaker 1: just a few years of them establishing as a group.

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Speaker 1: Although the first dental laboratory had opened in New York

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Speaker 1: City in the eighteen fifties, it wasn't until eighteen eighties

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Speaker 1: seven that a commercial dental lab opened that became the

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Speaker 1: Stow and Eddie Dental Laboratory. Prior to this, most dentists

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Speaker 1: performed their own lab work, but once an industrial option

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Speaker 1: was available, most practices started to hand off that kind

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Speaker 1: of work that they were doing, like creating crowns and

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Speaker 1: bridges two labs, because the whole thing was a lot

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Speaker 1: more efficient that way. In eighteen ninety, i'd a grade

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Speaker 1: graduated from the University of Michigan School of Dentistry, and

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Speaker 1: this made her the first black one in the US

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Speaker 1: to receive a dental degree. Her story and dental medicine

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Speaker 1: started when she was a teenager living with her aunt

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Speaker 1: and she got a job working as an assistant to

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Speaker 1: a dentist named Jonathan Taft. Taft was tasked by the

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Speaker 1: University of Michigan with setting up their dental college just

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Speaker 1: as Ida was graduating from high school. Taft advocated on

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Speaker 1: her behalf for admittance and prepared her for the entrance exam.

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Speaker 1: Once she had her degree, I had opened up a

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Speaker 1: practice in Cincinnati, Ohio, and she ran a very successful business.

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Speaker 1: According to a book written about prominent black women of

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Speaker 1: the area in eighteen ninety three, her clientele were evenly

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Speaker 1: split among black and white patients. She practiced for almost

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Speaker 1: thirty years before retiring in ninety She lived into her eighties,

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Speaker 1: dying in nineteen fifty three. Coming up, we're going to

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Speaker 1: talk about some realizations about the causes and effects of

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Speaker 1: some dental conditions, as well as the birth of orthodontics

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Speaker 1: as a field, and we'll get into all of that

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Speaker 1: after pause for a sponsor break. The same year that

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Speaker 1: Ida Gray received her dental degree. Eight ten ninety, an

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Speaker 1: article titled micro Organisms of the Human Mouth was published

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Speaker 1: by Willoughby D. Miller. Miller lived and worked in Berlin,

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Speaker 1: and he was a professor at the University of Berlin,

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Speaker 1: but he was a US citizen born in Ohio. Miller

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Speaker 1: is credited with making the connection that bacteria led to

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Speaker 1: tooth decay in a process that he described and which

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Speaker 1: came to be known as the chemical parasitic theory. Basically,

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Speaker 1: when eating food causes sugar levels to rise in your mouth,

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Speaker 1: bacteria gets right on in there to naw on that,

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Speaker 1: and they produce acid and that breaks down the tooth

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Speaker 1: and thus cavities. This idea that your mouth was full

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Speaker 1: of microorganisms that were causing tooth decay really catalyzed the

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Speaker 1: messaging that we still here today that healthy teeth and

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Speaker 1: gums require regular brushing flossing. While orthodontia, so the correction

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Speaker 1: of irregularities in the teeth, had been practiced since the

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Speaker 1: middle of the nineteenth century, it really wasn't recognized as

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Speaker 1: a specialty for quite some time. In nineteen hundred, doctor

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Speaker 1: Edward Hartley Angle established the Angle School of Orthodontia in St. Louis, Missouri,

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Speaker 1: as it was just kind of formalizing lectures and training

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Speaker 1: he had been giving to other dentists for years. By

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Speaker 1: that point, he had been practicing orthodontia exclusively since eighteen

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Speaker 1: ninety two. The school's creation firmly established the field and

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Speaker 1: earned Angle the nickname the Father of Orthodontics. It's a

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Speaker 1: relatively short educational cycle of just a few weeks, because

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00:22:41,800 --> 00:22:45,359
Speaker 1: the students were already licensed dentists who wanted training in

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Speaker 1: this specific discipline. The American Society of Orthodontia, formed by

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Speaker 1: one of his early graduating classes, was established in nineteen

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Speaker 1: o one, and by nineteen oh seven the idea of

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Speaker 1: focusing on orthodonics as a specialty became established enough that

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Speaker 1: there was a journal, American Orthodontist. The American Board of

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Speaker 1: Orthodonics was established in nineteen thirty. On February nineteen o six,

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Speaker 1: US Patent number eight one to five five four was

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Speaker 1: issued to German chemist Alfred Einhorn for his invention alkennin

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Speaker 1: esters of para amino benzoic acid in search for an

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Speaker 1: anesthetic that could replace the addictive and dangerous option of

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Speaker 1: cocaine that was being used by the medical profession at

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Speaker 1: the time. He had created a substance called procaine, which

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00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:39,320
Speaker 1: was later known by the more common name you probably recognize, novocaine,

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00:23:39,440 --> 00:23:44,359
Speaker 1: meaning a new cane. Although novacaine offered a less powerful

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00:23:44,440 --> 00:23:47,960
Speaker 1: anesthetic option, it was also so much safer than cocaine

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Speaker 1: that dentists really embraced it. It was not, to be clear,

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Speaker 1: the first synthetic anesthetic, amila cane, was created two years

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Speaker 1: earlier by Ernest four No and novocaine wasn't created for dentistry.

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Speaker 1: It was intended for general surgeries, but because it was

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Speaker 1: a local numbing agent and not something that would make

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Speaker 1: a patient unconscious, which most surgeons really really wanted to

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Speaker 1: be the case, surgeons did not really want to use it,

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Speaker 1: but it was perfect for dentistry. I am forty six

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Speaker 1: years old and just noticed the suffix cane on all

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Speaker 1: of these and products. In night, a two volume book

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Speaker 1: called Operative Dentistry was published by Green Varnam and Black.

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Speaker 1: Mr Black was really quite an interesting character in a

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Speaker 1: variety of ways, but he's most known for his contributions

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Speaker 1: to dentistry. Well before the book we just mentioned came out,

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Speaker 1: he had been an innovator in the field. He had

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00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:52,680
Speaker 1: invented motors for use with dental drills. He had patented

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Speaker 1: improvements to the drills themselves. He had written about micro

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Speaker 1: organisms and the ways they produced substances that can be

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00:24:59,640 --> 00:25:03,359
Speaker 1: poison this to humans. He'd written books on dental anatomy,

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00:25:03,480 --> 00:25:06,399
Speaker 1: and had created standards and practices for the treatment and

401
00:25:06,440 --> 00:25:09,879
Speaker 1: filling of cavities that were adopted by dentists throughout the

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00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:14,159
Speaker 1: US and Europe. Just the name a few. Operative dentistry

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00:25:14,280 --> 00:25:18,240
Speaker 1: continued to standardize the field by establishing clear protocols for

404
00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:22,640
Speaker 1: various procedures. Yeah, and if you recall earlier in this episode,

405
00:25:22,720 --> 00:25:26,880
Speaker 1: we mentioned that he really formed the first stable, consistent

406
00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:29,919
Speaker 1: amalgam that people were willing to use and recognized as safe.

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00:25:30,840 --> 00:25:33,200
Speaker 1: And because of all of these achievements, of course lots

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00:25:33,240 --> 00:25:35,920
Speaker 1: of people wanted to meet with him, and he was

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Speaker 1: invited specifically to speak to the Colorado State Dental Association

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Speaker 1: in nineteen o nine. And that invitation had been catalyzed

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Speaker 1: by a dentist named Frederick Mackay who had a practice

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Speaker 1: in Colorado Springs. And this was really because Mackay wanted

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Speaker 1: to ask the esteemed expert about a phenomenon that he

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00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:57,680
Speaker 1: had noticed in a lot of his patients, rather intense

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00:25:57,840 --> 00:26:01,560
Speaker 1: brown stains on their teeth. This was so common in

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Speaker 1: the area that it had the nickname of Colorado brown stain,

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00:26:05,960 --> 00:26:09,399
Speaker 1: and when Black arrived in Colorado Springs, he too immediately

418
00:26:09,520 --> 00:26:12,919
Speaker 1: noticed that even young children there had these stained teeth.

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00:26:13,920 --> 00:26:17,200
Speaker 1: The people was stained teeth, though, had what seemed like

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00:26:17,440 --> 00:26:20,840
Speaker 1: a natural resistance to tooth decay. To be clear, these

421
00:26:20,880 --> 00:26:25,199
Speaker 1: were not any sort of um early cavities or indicators

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00:26:25,240 --> 00:26:29,480
Speaker 1: of disease. It was literally just discoloration. So Black, who

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00:26:29,600 --> 00:26:32,680
Speaker 1: was intrigued, kind of worked on this puzzle until he

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Speaker 1: died in nineteen fifteen. But even after he died, McKay

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00:26:36,880 --> 00:26:41,280
Speaker 1: continued and eventually it was discovered that waterborne fluoride was

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00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:45,160
Speaker 1: leaning to the staining. That staining is known today as fluorosis,

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00:26:45,840 --> 00:26:49,760
Speaker 1: and that discovery connected with the recognition that some fluoride

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00:26:49,840 --> 00:26:53,240
Speaker 1: exposure led to resistance to cavities. That led to the

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00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:57,440
Speaker 1: development of fluoridated drinking water with a level of fluoride

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Speaker 1: that would confer health benefits to the two enamel without

431
00:27:01,119 --> 00:27:05,080
Speaker 1: the negative cosmetic side effects of the staining. This work

432
00:27:05,119 --> 00:27:08,880
Speaker 1: on developing fluoridation plans took decades, but in nineteen forty four,

433
00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:12,639
Speaker 1: Grand Rapids, Michigan, became the first city on earth to

434
00:27:12,760 --> 00:27:17,480
Speaker 1: have fluoridated drinking water. And eleven years of collecting data

435
00:27:17,560 --> 00:27:20,320
Speaker 1: on the oral health of the children of Grand Rapids,

436
00:27:20,359 --> 00:27:22,960
Speaker 1: it was determined that the rate of tooth decay and

437
00:27:23,080 --> 00:27:26,920
Speaker 1: those children had dropped by sixty per cent. Today, more

438
00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:29,760
Speaker 1: than two hundred million people in the US benefit from

439
00:27:29,840 --> 00:27:34,119
Speaker 1: fluoridation projects, and fluoride is touted as an ingredient in

440
00:27:34,240 --> 00:27:40,440
Speaker 1: toothpastes and mouthwashes, all because of some stain teeth in

441
00:27:42,359 --> 00:27:46,000
Speaker 1: The National Institute of Dental Research was established by congressional

442
00:27:46,080 --> 00:27:49,560
Speaker 1: bill which was signed by President Harry S. Truman. This

443
00:27:49,800 --> 00:27:53,080
Speaker 1: established an institution that could study issues of oral health

444
00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:55,800
Speaker 1: in the US, with money from the federal government to

445
00:27:55,920 --> 00:27:59,240
Speaker 1: back that research. One of the things that had motivated

446
00:27:59,320 --> 00:28:02,520
Speaker 1: this was actually a World War two because a significant

447
00:28:02,640 --> 00:28:06,680
Speaker 1: number of otherwise seemingly healthy men had been rejected for

448
00:28:06,800 --> 00:28:10,920
Speaker 1: military service because they had missing teeth or significant dental disease,

449
00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:14,600
Speaker 1: and this had indicated that this was a significant potential

450
00:28:14,720 --> 00:28:18,240
Speaker 1: health issue for the country. The man selected to lead

451
00:28:18,320 --> 00:28:21,840
Speaker 1: the n i d R was Henry Trendley Dean. He

452
00:28:21,960 --> 00:28:23,920
Speaker 1: had been in charge of the dental division at the

453
00:28:24,040 --> 00:28:27,960
Speaker 1: National Institute of Health beginning in nineteen thirty one, and

454
00:28:28,080 --> 00:28:31,159
Speaker 1: it was Dean who Frederick Mackay had appealed to and

455
00:28:31,280 --> 00:28:34,440
Speaker 1: that role to look at the fluoridation question more closely,

456
00:28:34,600 --> 00:28:36,800
Speaker 1: which is what had led to the testing program in

457
00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:41,240
Speaker 1: Grand rapids. In nineteen fifty, two years into his tenure

458
00:28:41,320 --> 00:28:43,440
Speaker 1: at the n I d R, Dean was featured in

459
00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:47,200
Speaker 1: an article in Tick magazine that was a trade periodical

460
00:28:47,280 --> 00:28:51,280
Speaker 1: published by the Taconium Company. The article opened with quote,

461
00:28:51,320 --> 00:28:53,800
Speaker 1: the shape of things to come in dentistry is now

462
00:28:53,960 --> 00:28:57,560
Speaker 1: being projected in research units which were being augmented all

463
00:28:57,640 --> 00:29:01,360
Speaker 1: over America. For the first time in history, a coordinated

464
00:29:01,840 --> 00:29:06,200
Speaker 1: nationwide attack on dental disease is underway. This right up

465
00:29:06,280 --> 00:29:10,360
Speaker 1: gives some statistics about this program and mentions that two

466
00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:14,400
Speaker 1: hundred and twelve thousand dollars annually were being spent on

467
00:29:14,520 --> 00:29:16,840
Speaker 1: research studies at the n I d R and that

468
00:29:16,920 --> 00:29:20,160
Speaker 1: there were quote thirty six separate projects underway at the

469
00:29:20,240 --> 00:29:23,440
Speaker 1: time of the articles writing. Dean is quoted in the

470
00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:26,080
Speaker 1: article is saying, quote, we are making it possible for

471
00:29:26,160 --> 00:29:29,320
Speaker 1: the total resources of dentistry to be applied to the

472
00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:33,240
Speaker 1: tremendous problems of dental disease on a scale never before possible.

473
00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:37,560
Speaker 1: This is, in a very real sense, dentistry's own program,

474
00:29:37,920 --> 00:29:41,760
Speaker 1: with dentists participating in policy making and in program planning,

475
00:29:42,280 --> 00:29:46,680
Speaker 1: with dentists supervising and directing research projects, and with dentists

476
00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:52,440
Speaker 1: doing actual research themselves. And i DR's name changed to

477
00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:56,760
Speaker 1: the National Institute of Dental and cranio Facial Research in

478
00:29:56,800 --> 00:29:59,800
Speaker 1: the seventy four years since the institute was established, there

479
00:29:59,840 --> 00:30:03,400
Speaker 1: of been projects headed by the dentil researchers that touched

480
00:30:03,480 --> 00:30:07,200
Speaker 1: on a lot of issues, including cancer, arthritis, and cystic fibrosis,

481
00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:10,200
Speaker 1: as well as many others. They have done a number

482
00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:15,880
Speaker 1: of studies, for example, of HIV and AIDS and bigger

483
00:30:15,960 --> 00:30:20,000
Speaker 1: global issues of how like public health is impacting the

484
00:30:20,080 --> 00:30:22,120
Speaker 1: populations of the world. They do a lot of cool

485
00:30:22,160 --> 00:30:25,959
Speaker 1: projects here. Um. The dental field continues, of course to evolve.

486
00:30:26,160 --> 00:30:29,800
Speaker 1: Advancements like improved resins and products like at home tooth

487
00:30:29,840 --> 00:30:32,800
Speaker 1: whitening and even the use of lasers to treat tooth

488
00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:37,040
Speaker 1: decay and gum disease are actually all pretty relatively recent

489
00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:41,040
Speaker 1: developments in the field. There are an estimated one point

490
00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:44,840
Speaker 1: six million dentists practicing globally. But even so, a lot

491
00:30:44,920 --> 00:30:48,360
Speaker 1: of people are not getting adequate dental care. A U

492
00:30:48,520 --> 00:30:52,360
Speaker 1: S News and World Report article from July reported that

493
00:30:52,520 --> 00:30:56,000
Speaker 1: even before the pandemic, and estimated one third of adults

494
00:30:56,040 --> 00:30:59,440
Speaker 1: in the US weren't getting regular dental care. Some of

495
00:30:59,480 --> 00:31:02,240
Speaker 1: this is a any issue, the whole thing, where dental

496
00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:04,720
Speaker 1: insurance is a separate thing from health insurance, and that

497
00:31:04,800 --> 00:31:07,960
Speaker 1: even with the insurance, it's still really expensive to have

498
00:31:08,160 --> 00:31:14,600
Speaker 1: anything other than just like regular cleanings. It's a big issue. Uh.

499
00:31:14,720 --> 00:31:18,000
Speaker 1: Some of it is an availability issue. For example, in

500
00:31:18,160 --> 00:31:21,600
Speaker 1: rural areas, dentist sorrow often a lot farther away for

501
00:31:21,720 --> 00:31:25,440
Speaker 1: most people, or practices that exist don't have enough hygenis

502
00:31:25,640 --> 00:31:29,240
Speaker 1: or dental assistance to serve their communities. People are also

503
00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:33,920
Speaker 1: just scared of the dentist yes. Uh. And on a

504
00:31:33,960 --> 00:31:37,640
Speaker 1: global scale, according to the World Health Organizations Report Global

505
00:31:37,720 --> 00:31:42,440
Speaker 1: Burden of Disease Study twenty nineteen, oral disease often preventable

506
00:31:42,520 --> 00:31:44,680
Speaker 1: because we're talking about things like tooth decay and gum

507
00:31:44,800 --> 00:31:48,720
Speaker 1: disease being the most prevalent in their statistics, those diseases

508
00:31:48,760 --> 00:31:52,880
Speaker 1: affect nearly three point five billion people worldwide, and one

509
00:31:52,920 --> 00:31:55,560
Speaker 1: of the biggest problems, according to that report is quote

510
00:31:55,640 --> 00:31:59,320
Speaker 1: unequal distribution of oral health professionals and a lack of

511
00:31:59,440 --> 00:32:04,440
Speaker 1: appropriate health facilities to meet population needs. So we've come

512
00:32:04,480 --> 00:32:06,960
Speaker 1: a long way, but we still have some big problems

513
00:32:07,040 --> 00:32:10,400
Speaker 1: to solve. Yeah. Yeah, And there are so many health

514
00:32:10,480 --> 00:32:15,720
Speaker 1: issues that can be connected back to untreated dental problems.

515
00:32:17,120 --> 00:32:22,880
Speaker 1: I kind of hated the whole division between between dentistry

516
00:32:22,960 --> 00:32:25,440
Speaker 1: and medicine is like, that's a whole other topic, but

517
00:32:25,520 --> 00:32:28,160
Speaker 1: it's one of those things that I find really frustrating

518
00:32:28,280 --> 00:32:33,160
Speaker 1: just in my own everyday life. Yeah I um, Like

519
00:32:33,280 --> 00:32:35,560
Speaker 1: I said, I was terrified of the dentist for a

520
00:32:35,640 --> 00:32:38,560
Speaker 1: long time and then found the right dental practice for

521
00:32:38,760 --> 00:32:42,720
Speaker 1: me to talk about in our behind the scenes and

522
00:32:42,800 --> 00:32:46,400
Speaker 1: it has made all the difference on Earth. Um. I

523
00:32:46,560 --> 00:32:51,560
Speaker 1: also have some fun listener mail. This made me laugh

524
00:32:51,680 --> 00:32:54,920
Speaker 1: so hard. It may just be me, but it hits

525
00:32:55,040 --> 00:32:59,000
Speaker 1: all of my key delight points. So this is from

526
00:32:59,040 --> 00:33:01,680
Speaker 1: our listener Betsy, who writes High Holly and Tracy. The

527
00:33:01,800 --> 00:33:05,640
Speaker 1: microwave episode brought back memories of my family's first microwave,

528
00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:09,360
Speaker 1: which we got probably in the early seventies. My mother

529
00:33:09,480 --> 00:33:12,840
Speaker 1: wanted one, but it was expensive, So while my father

530
00:33:13,120 --> 00:33:15,440
Speaker 1: was on a week long fishing trip, she was a

531
00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:19,360
Speaker 1: bit annoyed about that, she bought the microwave. We tried

532
00:33:19,440 --> 00:33:22,840
Speaker 1: all sorts of cooking experiments that week. The most memorable

533
00:33:22,880 --> 00:33:25,800
Speaker 1: one was a cake. It came out very odd looking

534
00:33:25,880 --> 00:33:29,640
Speaker 1: on the surface, bumps, divots, ridges, and holes. My brother

535
00:33:29,760 --> 00:33:32,920
Speaker 1: and I decorated the cake with paper flags on toothpicks

536
00:33:33,040 --> 00:33:36,360
Speaker 1: labeled with names of features of the moon because the

537
00:33:36,440 --> 00:33:40,040
Speaker 1: cake definitely looked like the surface of the moon. Thanks

538
00:33:40,080 --> 00:33:42,600
Speaker 1: for sparking a walkdown memory lane with my mother about

539
00:33:42,600 --> 00:33:47,440
Speaker 1: our first microwave. She does not remember the moon cake. Betsy, Betsy,

540
00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:51,720
Speaker 1: I love the idea that too. Kids came up with

541
00:33:51,840 --> 00:33:54,160
Speaker 1: this idea of labeling a cake with all of the

542
00:33:54,720 --> 00:33:58,320
Speaker 1: features of the moon. This is like a magical bit

543
00:33:58,480 --> 00:34:02,719
Speaker 1: of imaginative interaction with food, and I'm all behind it now.

544
00:34:02,800 --> 00:34:07,520
Speaker 1: I want to make a moon cake. I love the Moon,

545
00:34:08,800 --> 00:34:11,120
Speaker 1: as you may or may not recall, I have a

546
00:34:11,200 --> 00:34:14,200
Speaker 1: tattoo of the first map of the Moon. Oh yeah

547
00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:19,120
Speaker 1: um on my leg. So so the idea of making

548
00:34:19,160 --> 00:34:22,160
Speaker 1: a cake that looks like it even more hilarious and wonderful.

549
00:34:22,280 --> 00:34:24,080
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for sharing this with me. Now

550
00:34:24,160 --> 00:34:26,279
Speaker 1: I want to make some microwave cake and just uh

551
00:34:26,520 --> 00:34:29,239
Speaker 1: probably won't label it. I'll just eat it. But if

552
00:34:29,320 --> 00:34:34,200
Speaker 1: you would like to write to us about your successful

553
00:34:34,320 --> 00:34:38,680
Speaker 1: or not microwave cakes or anything. Uh, you know we've

554
00:34:38,880 --> 00:34:44,480
Speaker 1: said many times animals, foods, anything in our episode. Whatever

555
00:34:44,600 --> 00:34:48,239
Speaker 1: delights you. Still loving those recipes, keep them coming. You

556
00:34:48,320 --> 00:34:51,399
Speaker 1: can do so at History podcast at i heeart radio

557
00:34:51,480 --> 00:34:54,080
Speaker 1: dot com. You can also find us on social media

558
00:34:54,200 --> 00:34:57,239
Speaker 1: as Missed in History, and you can subscribe to the

559
00:34:57,320 --> 00:34:59,520
Speaker 1: show on the I heart Radio app or wherever you

560
00:34:59,600 --> 00:35:07,439
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite podcasts. Stuff you Missed in History

561
00:35:07,440 --> 00:35:10,160
Speaker 1: Class is a production of I heart Radio. For more

562
00:35:10,239 --> 00:35:13,279
Speaker 1: podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,

563
00:35:13,400 --> 00:35:16,560
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

564
00:35:17,480 --> 00:35:17,520
Speaker 1: H