Brian Payton, age 12, of Greenville, Miss., for his question:
HOW OLD IS THE PROFESSION OF DENTISTRY?
It was not until 1840, just 150 years ago, that dentistry became a profession. In that year, the first dental school in the world was organized in Baltimore, Md.
Before that time, a crude form of dentistry was practiced. Dentistry actually goes back to a time before history was written. Prehistoric man used both medicines and magic to treat the pain and problems caused by teeth. After writing was invented, both the Egyptians and the Babylonians recorded their primitive methods of treatment.
Greek medical texts written in the 500s B.C. had references to teething difficulties, oral symptoms found in such diseases as malaria and to "pincers used for pulling out teeth."
But the first gold dental bridges are actually older than the Greek texts. These bridges, which show much technical skill, have been found in the ruins of the ancient Etruscan civilization in Italy.
Since 1840, dentistry has made great progress in the United States.
A man named Josiah Flagg of Boston was the first native born American dentist. He started practicing after his discharge from the army in 1783. Flagg was one of the first to use gold foil in filling teeth.
The discovery of the X ray in 1895 gave dentistry a way to look inside teeth to discover their defects.
In 1910 Sir William Hunter and Sir Kenneth Goodby of England pointed out that infected teeth could cause infection to spread throughout the entire body.
The discovery of anesthesia was one of the most important steps in the history of dentistry. On Dec. 11, 1844, dentist Horace Wells took laughing gas before having a tooth extracted. The tooth was pulled without pain. Laughing gas, or nitrous oxide combined with oxygen, is still used to make tooth extractions painless.
Two years after Wells' discovery, William Morton, another dentist, gave a first public demonstration of the use of ether as an anesthetic.
Quieter, faster drilling equipment, aimed at taking discomfort out of drilling, was developed in the late 1950s. These drills worked at high speeds~that reduced pain caused by heat and pressure.
Today there are about 150,000 dentists in the United States and about 10,000 in Canada. Dentistry requires manual skills and a high level of intelligence.
All dental schools participate in an aptitude testing program. On the basis of these tests, dental educators can predict quite accurately whether a prospective student will successfully complete dental training.
Every student preparing to enter a dental school must have at least two years of college education. Professional education requires another four years of study at an accredited dental school.
One of the most important parts of a dentist's work today is preventive dentistry. If a dentist examines a patient's teeth at regular intervals, he may find and treat a disease before it becomes serious.