On the present position of dental surgery, and its advancement as a branch of medical education : a letter addressed to Dr Robert Omond, president of the Royal College of Surgeons / by John Smith.

Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the present position of dental surgery, and its advancement as a branch of medical education : a letter addressed to Dr Robert Omond, president of the Royal College of Surgeons / by John Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    view of improving matters in this direction; and it is profiting by the opportunity tlms presented, that occasion is here taken briefly to examine, what generally is tlie education at present received by or required of dental practitioners; what are the qualifications consequently prevailing among and recognised by them as sufficient for undertaking the treatment of dental disease ; and what means of improving matters, in this respect, are left at our disposal. With reference to the education at present required of or received by dentists, t^ie fact that, owing to many obvious circumstances, dentistry must always be considered and practised as a distinct and special, if not exclusive, department of surgery, exercises an import- ant influence. As dental surgery, properly so called, almost un- avoidably entails a certain proficiency in mechanical dentistry, so, on the other hand, mechanical dentistry is necessitated, in many in- stances, to combine with it the performance of certain surgical operations; and it is in this necessary combination of the two de- partments, that much of the difficulty has arisen, and is still found to exist. Here, perhaps, more than in any other case, the qualifi- cations for practice have become arbitrary, and, consequently, vary according to the opinion, the intelligence, and, it may be, the honesty of the practitioner; no definite criterion exists, by which the pro- ficiency or fitness for undertaking such practice, or for assuming a so far surgical title, can be ascertained. Accordingly, the system of education now very commonly adopted in the training of dentists, is little more than the mere apprenticeship demanded for undertak- ing the mechanical part of the business; a few opportunities for ex- tracting teeth; the acquirement of a purely empirical knowledge of some of the diseased conditions of these organs; and an equally empirical knowledge of some modes of treatment pursued in them, is perhaps added; but this may be considered as the full extent of instruction received by much the greater proportion of dental prac- titioners of the present day. No acquaintance with the physiology of the structures themselves ; of the jjathological nature of their diseases ; or of the principles upon which the treatment of these diseases should