Page 434 - My FlipBook

;J94 HISTOEY UF DENTAL SUEGERY

should be required to pass the same examining boards, be designated by the
same title, M. D., and be governed by the same rules, both ethical and legal.
Let there be in every medical college faculty a professor of dental and oral
pathology and practice, on the same basis that you have a professor of optlial-
mology, neurology, or gynecology. * * *
Thus it appears for a period of time, a mixed conception as to the title
or name of oral surgery has existed, and a strong effort was made to apply
the title of oral surgeon to medically educated dentists or those who held
lioth degrees, but the great body of both the medical and dental profession,
as well as the laity, seem to be quite content to consider the time honored
name of dentist comprehensive enough to include all surgery of the oral
cavity, including prosthesis and orthodontia.
So far as the record shows. Dr. James E. Garretson, of Phihidelphia, was
the first dentist recognized as a teacher of oral surgery under this title. He
issued a work entitled '"A System of Oral Surgery," which has run through
many editions. From the fifth edition, published in 1890, a very extensive
work of over 1,300 pages, one would be led to believe that oral surgery is but
a new name for wliat had theretofore been designated and generally under-
stood as dental surgery. The chapters of the book cover every branch oi
dentistrjr, including prosthesis and orthodontia. It makes all departments
of dental science and art a part of oral surgery and substitutes the title or
designation of "oral surgeon" and "oral surgery" for "dentist" or "dental
u surgeon."
Strenuous as has been the effort to secure this, and distinguished as have
l)een the men who have advocated and stood for such a change, it has not
met with general approbation. The long established and well-grounded cus-
tom of the other designation seemed to have been so strongly rooted that the
"oral surgeon" has not superseded the dentist, but the word has been
adopted and is well recognized now for the proper designation of that part
of surgical work in dentistry or in surgery, whicli devotes itself to the specific
care of the tissues of the mouth and adjacent parts, exclusive of the teeth
and their sockets, not embraced in what is generally designated as "operative
dentistry," and in the operations of which Dr. Garretson was the pioneer
and most skillful dentist of his time.
Operative dentistry is now generally recognized as that portion of dental
surgery which confines itself entirely to the treatment of the teeth and their
immediate surroundings. This is evidenced by the fact that almost every
dental college or school in the United States has a separate department of