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History of Operative Dentistry —

By Edmund Noyes, D. D. S., Chicago

THE praotice of dentistry was formerly divided into three departments,
(iperative dentistry, jiieehanical dentistry, and oral surgery. Operative
dentistry included the extracting of teeth (though this was some-
times classed as surgery), and all procedures for preservation or regulation
of natural teeth, and the placing i>f crowns upon natural roots.
Mechanical dentistry cniu-ei-ned itself with supplying substitutes for the
teeth whose roots as well as crowns had been lost, and, as an adjunct to oral
surgery, in making splints for broken jaws, obturators and vela for cleft palates,
etc., and to operative dentistry in making appliances for regulating teetli. The
term mechanical dentistiT was used for all those appliances made in the
laboratory for use in the mouth which are readily removable or only
temporarily fixed, like splints and regulating appliances.
The term "dental jirosthesis" is now used instead of mechanical dentistry,
and though etymologically it might be used with equal propriety to describe
the restoration of the lost portions of the teeth by filling, its use in dentistry
has become technical and limited to the construction of whole or partial sets
of teeth, or of crowns and bridges; the preparation of roots for crowns or
of inlay cavities for bridge abutments belonging to operative dentistry. Crown
and bridge work, therefore, belongs both to the operative and prosthetic de-
partments unless, as is now usual, it be called a department by itself. Ortho-
dontia has also become a department by itself, and is now largely practised as
an exclusive specialty. In the large cities a great part of the extracting of
teeth is now done by those who confine their practice to that exclusively.
For the purposes of this writing, therefore, operative dentistry will be con-
sidered as limited to the extraction of teeth, the filling of them, and the treat-
ment of the diseases of the teeth, gums, and alveolar processes.
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