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Dental Teachers and their Preparation
H o rne r
J .A .D .A ., V o l. 40, J u n e 1950 . . . 701
1. Johnson, C. N., Twenty-five Years in Retrospect and Twenty-five Years in Prospect. J .A .D .A . 2 0 :i 8 io (Oct.) 1933. 2. Bulletin of Indiana D ental College for 1900-1901. 3; Goodman, N. G., Benjamin Rush , Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1934. (Cited by Gillett, H. W., Fifty Years of Dental Progress. D . Cosmos 78 :i 6o (Feb.) 1936.) 4. Miller, W. D., The Human Mouth as a Focus of Infection. D . Cosmos 33:689 (Sept.) 1891. 5. Hunter, William. Discussion of Oral Sepsis as a Cause of Disease in Relation to General Medicine. Brit. M . J ., 2:1358 (Nov.) 1904. 6 .' Hunter, William, Role of Sepsis and Antisepsis in Medicine and the Importance of Oral Sepsis as Its Chief Cause. D . Register 65:579 (Dec.) 1911. 7. Leatherman, G. H., Dental Education: an Aspect of it With Reference to the American Training. Brit. D . J . 86:88 (Feb.) 1949. 8. Blauch, L; E., Teaching in Colleges and Universi ties: W ith Special Reference to Dentistry , Indianapolis: American Association of Dental Schools, 1945.
9. Horner. H. H., Dental Education Today, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1947. 10. Requirements for the Approval of a D ental School. The Council on Dental Education of the Amer ican Dental Association. Chicago: American Dental Association, 1940. 11. Peterson, S. A., Personal communication. 12. Gies, Wm. J., Dental Education in the United States and Canada , New York: The Carnegie Founda tion for the Advancement of Teaching, 1926. 13. Gies, Wm. J., The International Association for Dental Research, a Brief Outline of Its Organization and Development. / . D . Res. 6:101 (March) 1924. 14. Gies, Wm. J., A Brief Review of the History of the International Association for Dental Research. J. D . Res. 11:55 (Feb.) 1931. 15. Official Program of the 1950 Meeting of the In ternational Association for Dental Research, prepared by Dr. E. H. Hatton, Secretary. 16. Black, R. B., Technic for Nonmechanical Prep aration of Cavities and Prophylaxis. J .A .D .A . 32:955 (Aug.) 1945.
DEN TA L T E A C H E R S A N D T H E IR P R E P A R A T IO N Lloyd E. Blauch, Ph.D., W ashington, D. C .
b o u t 2,300 men and women are serv ing on the faculties of the dental schools in the United States. Approxi mately 500 are whole-time teachers, 300 are whole-time teachers in colleges and universities but devote only a part of their time to teaching dental students, and 1,500 are part-time teachers, en gaged in the practice of dentistry. D ur ing the past quarter of a century there has apparently been no great change in these numbers. T here is reason to be lieve, however, that considerable progress has been made in the service rendered by the teachers.
A
Survey o f 1926
W hen W illiam J. Gies, in 1926, re ported the results of his extensive survey of dental education in the U nited States and Canada1 he gave special attention to the, teaching in dental schools. H e re ported that the basic sciences were “ tol erated rather than taught in some schools,” that instruction in these sub jects was often poor because the teachers were “ either indifferent when drafted from the medical staff, or incompetent
when recruited from other sources.” H e said also, (1) that the instruction in den tal technology was “ usually uninspiring and listless and lacking in effectual or ganization” and (2) that it was “ char acterized by unprofitable repetition,” chiefly because many of the teachers, who were practitioners on part-time and h alf hearted service, had only empirical knowledge of their subjects and pro ceeded “ as they might if they were train ing apprentices in tinkering.” T h e unfortunate conditions, Dr. Gies thought, would . . . probably continue until, in leading uni versities, the salaries o f the teachers of dental subjects are made commensurate with the im portance and value of good teaching and re search in the dental schools; until fellowships are established to help dental teachers to engage in special studies of education; and until adequate opportunities for systematic advanced work in dentistry, with eminent teachers and investigators, are created.
T h e universities most competent to promote these objects, he found, had done nothing important to advance them. Such were Dr. Gies5 gloomy conclu
The J o u rn a l o f the A m e ric a n D e n ta l A s s o c ia t io n
702
sions. Since 1926 there has been con siderable improvement in dental educa tion as is shown by other articles in this issue. Some of the suggestions and rec ommendations made by D r. Gies have been followed and with good results. Survey of 1947
In his excellent comprehensive work entitled Dental Education Today (1947) H arlan H . Horner,2 form er secretary of the Council on Dental Education, re ported that, of the 2,280 dental teachers, 409 held master’ s degrees and 276 held doctor’s degrees other than degrees in dentistry or medicine. Although most of these graduate degrees were held by teachers of the basic sciences, 294 were held by clinical teachers. Dr. H om er re ported also that during a recent five-year period 37 per cent of the clinical teach ers and 67 per cent o f the teachers of basic sciences had m ade substantial con tributions to the professional and scien tific literature of dentistry. Program s for Preparing Dental Teachers
As indicated above, a number of uni versities, through their schools of den tistry, have established graduate instruc tion for the purpose o f training research workers and teachers. Several other pro grams have been in operation in recent years through which a number of dental teachers have been prepared. Am ong these is one at the Y a le University School of M edicine, inaugurated in 1929. O f the 16 fellows who had completed their courses by M ay 1949, seven had gone into full-time academic work in dental in stitutions, four of them on a full professor rating. Perhaps the best known of these programs was begun in 1930 at the School of M edicine and Dentistry o f the University of Rochester. U p to M ay 1949 a total of 46 fellows had enrolled and 19 had received graduate degrees. W ith but
a few exceptions, these graduates were serving on dental faculties. T h e W alter G. Zoller M em orial Clinic, established at the University of Chicago in 1936, has also prepared a number of dental teach ers. By M ay 1949, 20 fellows had been enrolled. Eleven of them had received graduate degrees and most of these were teaching in dental schools. Since 1944 the Surgeon General of the United States Public H ealth Service has been authorized to award research fel lowships to brilliant and promising stu dents and scholars in medical and allied fields. T h e field of dentistry is included in the provision. Special recognition has been given to dentistry through the cre ation of the National Institute of Dental Research in 1948. Here is offered another opportunity whereby dental graduates m ay prepare themselves for research and teaching.
O th er Factors
In addition to the developments de scribed above which are helping to im prove dental teaching, several others may be- noted. Certainly one of these is the stimulation of dental research through the International Association for Dental Research and its excellent publication, the Journal of Dental Research discussed by Drs. H om er and H ine and by M r. Foley in this issue. A report made to the Am erican Asso ciation of Dental Schools in 1949 by its Committee on Teaching showed that a m ajority of the dental schools in the United States and C anada have em ployed specific means for im proving their teachers and teaching. Am ong these means are: providing time and facilities for research; furnishing teaching aids; providing special lectures and courses on teaching for the faculty; holding faculty meetings to discuss methods o f teaching and examining; encouraging members o f the faculty to pursue graduate work;
H o rn e r
J .A .D .A ., V o l. 40, J u n e 1950 . . . 703
and paying travel expenses for faculty members to attend educational meetings. Conclusion
The developments described in this article indicate that there has been con siderable improvement in dental teach ing during the past quarter of a century or more. There is little ground, however, for complacency. Dental schools currently experience difficulty in recruiting a suf ficient number of capable and inspiring teachers, and not enough are being well trained for the future need. There is still too much reliance on part-time teach ers. Not enough is being done by dental
schools to discover likely students for teaching careers and to encourage them in preparing for such service. Not enough effort is being m ade to provide the spe cialized training a teacher needs to per form well his function as a guide to, and instructor of, students. A nd finally, not enough fellowships with sufficiently large stipends are available for graduate stu dents who would prepare themselves as teachers.
1. Gies, W. JM Dental Education in the United States New York: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1926. 2. Horner, H. H., Dental Education Today, Chi cago: University of Chicago Press, 1947. 3. Blauch, L. E., Teaching in Colleges and U ni versities; With Special Reference to Dentistry, Indian apolis: American Association of Dental Schools, 1945. and Canada,
A U X IL IA R Y DEN TA L PER SO N N EL J. Ben Robinson, D.D.S., Baltimore
introduction to dental office man agement of certain types of dental office and dental laboratory assistants during the half century about to close, has produced important changes in the administration of dental practice. T he rapid growth in the numbers of these as sistants has been stimulated by the readi ness of the dentist to delegate to others many essential details of office manage ment and of laboratory procedures which can be transferred with confidence to specially trained personnel. T h e number of persons engaged in the performance of these special tasks has multiplied to the extent that their aggregate efforts have aided materially in increasing the production of the quantity of oral health services now available to the public. T h e auxiliary personnel employed in support of dental practice falls into two general classes which are identified by the nature of the work that each per forms in relation to the dentist. T he first class consists of those persons who co operate with the dentist by assuming re
T
h e
sponsibilities for the details incident to office management, and by performing certain extraoral tasks which facilitate the production of restorations and ap pliances used in patient treatment. These groups are identified as dental office as sistants and dental laboratory technicians. T h e second class consists of those per sons who assume intraoral responsibilities by undertaking to perform operations which are traditionally and legally a part of dental practice, and who m ay be regarded more as adjuncts to dental prac tice than as assistants in charge of office administration. T h e dental hygienist represents this class. Dental O ffice Assistant
A t the turn of the century few office assistants were to be found in dental offices; today almost every dental office has at least one competently trained as sistant who is, in effect, a business m an ager. In the main this assistant looks out for the careful supervision of the office,
J .A .D .A ., V o l. 40, J u n e 1950 . . . 701
1. Johnson, C. N., Twenty-five Years in Retrospect and Twenty-five Years in Prospect. J .A .D .A . 2 0 :i 8 io (Oct.) 1933. 2. Bulletin of Indiana D ental College for 1900-1901. 3; Goodman, N. G., Benjamin Rush , Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1934. (Cited by Gillett, H. W., Fifty Years of Dental Progress. D . Cosmos 78 :i 6o (Feb.) 1936.) 4. Miller, W. D., The Human Mouth as a Focus of Infection. D . Cosmos 33:689 (Sept.) 1891. 5. Hunter, William. Discussion of Oral Sepsis as a Cause of Disease in Relation to General Medicine. Brit. M . J ., 2:1358 (Nov.) 1904. 6 .' Hunter, William, Role of Sepsis and Antisepsis in Medicine and the Importance of Oral Sepsis as Its Chief Cause. D . Register 65:579 (Dec.) 1911. 7. Leatherman, G. H., Dental Education: an Aspect of it With Reference to the American Training. Brit. D . J . 86:88 (Feb.) 1949. 8. Blauch, L; E., Teaching in Colleges and Universi ties: W ith Special Reference to Dentistry , Indianapolis: American Association of Dental Schools, 1945.
9. Horner. H. H., Dental Education Today, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1947. 10. Requirements for the Approval of a D ental School. The Council on Dental Education of the Amer ican Dental Association. Chicago: American Dental Association, 1940. 11. Peterson, S. A., Personal communication. 12. Gies, Wm. J., Dental Education in the United States and Canada , New York: The Carnegie Founda tion for the Advancement of Teaching, 1926. 13. Gies, Wm. J., The International Association for Dental Research, a Brief Outline of Its Organization and Development. / . D . Res. 6:101 (March) 1924. 14. Gies, Wm. J., A Brief Review of the History of the International Association for Dental Research. J. D . Res. 11:55 (Feb.) 1931. 15. Official Program of the 1950 Meeting of the In ternational Association for Dental Research, prepared by Dr. E. H. Hatton, Secretary. 16. Black, R. B., Technic for Nonmechanical Prep aration of Cavities and Prophylaxis. J .A .D .A . 32:955 (Aug.) 1945.
DEN TA L T E A C H E R S A N D T H E IR P R E P A R A T IO N Lloyd E. Blauch, Ph.D., W ashington, D. C .
b o u t 2,300 men and women are serv ing on the faculties of the dental schools in the United States. Approxi mately 500 are whole-time teachers, 300 are whole-time teachers in colleges and universities but devote only a part of their time to teaching dental students, and 1,500 are part-time teachers, en gaged in the practice of dentistry. D ur ing the past quarter of a century there has apparently been no great change in these numbers. T here is reason to be lieve, however, that considerable progress has been made in the service rendered by the teachers.
A
Survey o f 1926
W hen W illiam J. Gies, in 1926, re ported the results of his extensive survey of dental education in the U nited States and Canada1 he gave special attention to the, teaching in dental schools. H e re ported that the basic sciences were “ tol erated rather than taught in some schools,” that instruction in these sub jects was often poor because the teachers were “ either indifferent when drafted from the medical staff, or incompetent
when recruited from other sources.” H e said also, (1) that the instruction in den tal technology was “ usually uninspiring and listless and lacking in effectual or ganization” and (2) that it was “ char acterized by unprofitable repetition,” chiefly because many of the teachers, who were practitioners on part-time and h alf hearted service, had only empirical knowledge of their subjects and pro ceeded “ as they might if they were train ing apprentices in tinkering.” T h e unfortunate conditions, Dr. Gies thought, would . . . probably continue until, in leading uni versities, the salaries o f the teachers of dental subjects are made commensurate with the im portance and value of good teaching and re search in the dental schools; until fellowships are established to help dental teachers to engage in special studies of education; and until adequate opportunities for systematic advanced work in dentistry, with eminent teachers and investigators, are created.
T h e universities most competent to promote these objects, he found, had done nothing important to advance them. Such were Dr. Gies5 gloomy conclu
The J o u rn a l o f the A m e ric a n D e n ta l A s s o c ia t io n
702
sions. Since 1926 there has been con siderable improvement in dental educa tion as is shown by other articles in this issue. Some of the suggestions and rec ommendations made by D r. Gies have been followed and with good results. Survey of 1947
In his excellent comprehensive work entitled Dental Education Today (1947) H arlan H . Horner,2 form er secretary of the Council on Dental Education, re ported that, of the 2,280 dental teachers, 409 held master’ s degrees and 276 held doctor’s degrees other than degrees in dentistry or medicine. Although most of these graduate degrees were held by teachers of the basic sciences, 294 were held by clinical teachers. Dr. H om er re ported also that during a recent five-year period 37 per cent of the clinical teach ers and 67 per cent o f the teachers of basic sciences had m ade substantial con tributions to the professional and scien tific literature of dentistry. Program s for Preparing Dental Teachers
As indicated above, a number of uni versities, through their schools of den tistry, have established graduate instruc tion for the purpose o f training research workers and teachers. Several other pro grams have been in operation in recent years through which a number of dental teachers have been prepared. Am ong these is one at the Y a le University School of M edicine, inaugurated in 1929. O f the 16 fellows who had completed their courses by M ay 1949, seven had gone into full-time academic work in dental in stitutions, four of them on a full professor rating. Perhaps the best known of these programs was begun in 1930 at the School of M edicine and Dentistry o f the University of Rochester. U p to M ay 1949 a total of 46 fellows had enrolled and 19 had received graduate degrees. W ith but
a few exceptions, these graduates were serving on dental faculties. T h e W alter G. Zoller M em orial Clinic, established at the University of Chicago in 1936, has also prepared a number of dental teach ers. By M ay 1949, 20 fellows had been enrolled. Eleven of them had received graduate degrees and most of these were teaching in dental schools. Since 1944 the Surgeon General of the United States Public H ealth Service has been authorized to award research fel lowships to brilliant and promising stu dents and scholars in medical and allied fields. T h e field of dentistry is included in the provision. Special recognition has been given to dentistry through the cre ation of the National Institute of Dental Research in 1948. Here is offered another opportunity whereby dental graduates m ay prepare themselves for research and teaching.
O th er Factors
In addition to the developments de scribed above which are helping to im prove dental teaching, several others may be- noted. Certainly one of these is the stimulation of dental research through the International Association for Dental Research and its excellent publication, the Journal of Dental Research discussed by Drs. H om er and H ine and by M r. Foley in this issue. A report made to the Am erican Asso ciation of Dental Schools in 1949 by its Committee on Teaching showed that a m ajority of the dental schools in the United States and C anada have em ployed specific means for im proving their teachers and teaching. Am ong these means are: providing time and facilities for research; furnishing teaching aids; providing special lectures and courses on teaching for the faculty; holding faculty meetings to discuss methods o f teaching and examining; encouraging members o f the faculty to pursue graduate work;
H o rn e r
J .A .D .A ., V o l. 40, J u n e 1950 . . . 703
and paying travel expenses for faculty members to attend educational meetings. Conclusion
The developments described in this article indicate that there has been con siderable improvement in dental teach ing during the past quarter of a century or more. There is little ground, however, for complacency. Dental schools currently experience difficulty in recruiting a suf ficient number of capable and inspiring teachers, and not enough are being well trained for the future need. There is still too much reliance on part-time teach ers. Not enough is being done by dental
schools to discover likely students for teaching careers and to encourage them in preparing for such service. Not enough effort is being m ade to provide the spe cialized training a teacher needs to per form well his function as a guide to, and instructor of, students. A nd finally, not enough fellowships with sufficiently large stipends are available for graduate stu dents who would prepare themselves as teachers.
1. Gies, W. JM Dental Education in the United States New York: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1926. 2. Horner, H. H., Dental Education Today, Chi cago: University of Chicago Press, 1947. 3. Blauch, L. E., Teaching in Colleges and U ni versities; With Special Reference to Dentistry, Indian apolis: American Association of Dental Schools, 1945. and Canada,
A U X IL IA R Y DEN TA L PER SO N N EL J. Ben Robinson, D.D.S., Baltimore
introduction to dental office man agement of certain types of dental office and dental laboratory assistants during the half century about to close, has produced important changes in the administration of dental practice. T he rapid growth in the numbers of these as sistants has been stimulated by the readi ness of the dentist to delegate to others many essential details of office manage ment and of laboratory procedures which can be transferred with confidence to specially trained personnel. T h e number of persons engaged in the performance of these special tasks has multiplied to the extent that their aggregate efforts have aided materially in increasing the production of the quantity of oral health services now available to the public. T h e auxiliary personnel employed in support of dental practice falls into two general classes which are identified by the nature of the work that each per forms in relation to the dentist. T he first class consists of those persons who co operate with the dentist by assuming re
T
h e
sponsibilities for the details incident to office management, and by performing certain extraoral tasks which facilitate the production of restorations and ap pliances used in patient treatment. These groups are identified as dental office as sistants and dental laboratory technicians. T h e second class consists of those per sons who assume intraoral responsibilities by undertaking to perform operations which are traditionally and legally a part of dental practice, and who m ay be regarded more as adjuncts to dental prac tice than as assistants in charge of office administration. T h e dental hygienist represents this class. Dental O ffice Assistant
A t the turn of the century few office assistants were to be found in dental offices; today almost every dental office has at least one competently trained as sistant who is, in effect, a business m an ager. In the main this assistant looks out for the careful supervision of the office,