Page 427 - My FlipBook

Oral Surgery

By C. R. E. Koch, D. D, S., with the assistance of Truman
W. Brophy, M. D., D. D. S.

WHILE surgical operations of various kinds upon the tissues adja-
cent to the teetli in the territory of the oral cavity have been
performed from time immemorial by dental and general sur-
geons, Oral Surgery under this distinctive appellation is of recent origin.
In 1870 the I'niversity of Pennsylvania established a lectureship on Orai
and Associate Surgery, and assigned to the position of lecturer, Ur. James E.
Garretson. This appears to be—as far as dental literature reveals—the iirst
I'ecognition of oral surger}^ as distinguished from general surgery. The an-
nouncement of this fact in the ''Cosmos" of that year was contained in an
editorial notice written by Dr. J. W. White, in which he said: ""We espe-
cially congratulate medical students on the manifest advantages the estab-
lishment of such a clinic must afford, as the lack of thorough acquaintance
on the part of the general practitioner and surgeon with the patliology and
therapeutics of tlie mouth and topographically associated parts has l)een too
often made apparent."
Dr. Garretson's clinics were held every Wednesday, and during the sum-
mer months were free to all respectaljle students and practitioners.
An editorial in the "Cosmos"' for 1873, on page (558), entitled "What is
Oral Surgery,'"' replies to tliis inquiry made by a medical journal.
"An Oral surgeon is one who, having received a general medical and sur-
gical education, is drawn by interest or inclination to the special duty and
treatment of all abnormal conditions of the mouth, as are others to certain
lines of practice now long enough establislied to have recognition as specialties.
Just where such special practice shall begin, wliat it shall include, and where

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