EDUCATED DENTISTRY. 
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS, 
DELIVERED BY 
Dr. J. IT. DUD HA 
BEFORE THE 
1 & State Dental Association, 
AT 
CHARLOTTE, JUNE, 1885. 
WILMINGTON, N. C.: 
JACKSON & BELL, WATER POWER PRESSES. 
1885. EDUCATED DENTISTRY. 
Presidential Address delivered before the N. C. State 
Dental Association, at Charlotte, June, 1885. 
Gentlemen.—When the practice of Dentistry first 
claimed the attention of the early writers of the east, it 
had not advanced to such an appreciable extent as to im- 
press upon the minds of those who then gave it an occa- 
sional passing notice, the belief that it would in future 
years grow and develop into the magnificent proportions 
which we of the present day behold. The first dental ope- 
rations of which we have any account by the ancients, 
were so simple in their nature and so limited in extent, 
consisting at first, and for a long time thereafter, exclu- 
sively in the extraction of teeth, that they did not create 
the admiration and enthusiasm for study which graver and 
more important operations upon the living subject excited. 
They were executed by unskillful and unintelligent opera- 
tors, with crude and imperfect instruments, and were re- 
garded by the more intelligent as being almost entirely a 
local remedial agent, whose field of usefulness, while it was 
furnished by the human subject principally, yet was exteria 
and its avenues of approach easy and simple. Its obvious 
want of importance and significance, then, at that early age, 
only entitled it to a mere existence, without any claim for 
further development. It was not of such a nature as to give 
assurances of any depth whatever, in which there was con- 
cealed so much inestimable good which has accrued to the 
human family ; all of its virtues seemed to be plainly visible 
upon the surface, and furnished no field of labor in which 2 
the inventive genins of man could exercise itself in the 
least. 
We find among our first intelligent impressions of human 
nature, to encounter and overcome difficulties is one of its 
pre-dominant features; but the extremely limited extent to 
which dentistry had advanced in the early history of civili- 
zation fails to produce an obstruction that would arouse the 
mental faculties to anything like a respectable effort. This 
state of affairs, coupled with a want of an intelligent apptk' 
Ration of the good ultimately to be derived from so simple 
an operation as the extraction of a tooth, is why for years 
and centuries it struggled for an existence, while other arts 
and sciences whose origin was cotemporaneous with that of 
dentistry, marched rapidly to the front and engaged the in- 
telligence of civilization until the light of the present cen- 
tury dawned upon a generation of people, the startling 
results of whose mental capacities have revolutionized the 
world, and approach in point of wonder and admiration the 
mysteriously wrought miracles of the early prophets. 
Dentistry, like medicine, in the earliest history of the 
world, and ere the light of civilization had dissipated the 
dark clouds of ignorance and superstition, had its origin 
through necessity ; that it is akin to and closely allied with 
medicine we admit; that it is one of the several specialties 
which, when taken collectively, constitute the profession of 
medicine, we do not deny, but do not admit that the dentist 
is the offspring of the physician, because the nature of the 
necessity which created one is totally different from the 
nature of the necessity which created the other. For 
instance, the cause or causes which Tiecessitated the first 
dental operation were very different in character and loca- 
tion from those which necessitated the first internal admin- 
istration of a drug, the performance of both events mark- 
ing the beginning of the two professions. It is claimed by 
some that our origin as a profession is the result of the 
more perfect development of medicine, and by others, that 
in consequence of the nature of our origin we have to im- 3 
bibe of the fountain of medical literature in order that we 
may practice our profession intelligently. The date of the 
origin of the two professions, and the early history of this 
so-called medical knowledge of the human subject, will not 
substantiate these claims ; for the origin of one was cotem 
poraneous with that of the other, and we have ancient his- 
torical authority for saying that the first attempt to discover 
the anatomical arrangement of the human body was made 
by dental operators four or five hundred years before Christ. 
In view of these facts, then, we claim to be representa- 
tives of a profession of science whose origin was not inci- 
dent to nor dependent upon that of any other. That the 
intelligent dentist is as indispensable as the oculist or 
aurist, in the complete make-up of the profession of medi- 
cine, no one will deny ; but dentistry, unlike any other 
specialty of this learned and honored profession, can be 
practiced to a much greater extent without invading the 
domains of medicine proper, its operations being of such a 
character as to not often necessitate the internal adminis- 
tration of a remedy for the successful accomplishment of 
the object for which they were intended. But why consume 
time in attempting to show the intimate relationship of the 
two professions, and the indispensability of the one to the 
complete successful, intelligent practice of the other, when 
the intelligent patient of to-day realizes the scientific prin- 
ciples of both ? It would be a poor compliment to the 
educated dentistry of to-day to say that Ave are constantly 
clamoring for equal recognition with the medical profession 
in order that we should be meritoriously appreciated. The 
scientific ground-work upon which we stand to-day is of 
sufficient strength and durability to send us down the 
corridors of time fit and honored companions of all the 
arts and sciences of the present age. Our merits and the 
good the public derives from our operations are our defence 
and protection, and have gained for us an entree to the 
higher walks of social life, which a recognition by any 
particular profession could never have accomplished. 4 
The age in which we live, by its wonderful discoveries 
and startling inventions, hasbeent fitly termed one of rapid 
progression. Waste places have been filled up and profit- 
ably utilized, and new life imparted to enterprises hertofore 
considered dormant and worthless. It is an age in which 
the crowning point of the perfection of human ingenuity 
seems to have been reached, and is wrapped in the grandeur 
of its own unrivalled sublimity ; it is an age in which civili- 
zation has chased to the remotest corners of the inhabitable 
globe ignorance and superstition. there to await the probably 
slow, but inevitable approach of their common enemy ; and 
every vocation in life, from the humble, though honorable, 
tillers of the soil, to the great rulers of mighty empires 
and proud republics, seems to have caught its inspiration 
and had emblazoned upon their banners the symbolic motto 
of Upward and Onward. In the beginning of this great 
era, and ere its rising sun had climbed high in the eastern 
horizon of this period of rapid progression, and kissed the 
dew-drops of the fading morn of a once great age in the 
world’s history, the advocates of dentistry did not allow it 
to grovel in the dust by the wayside, to watch the onward 
march of other arts and sciences to future victory and im- 
perishable fame ; but arousing themselves from the Rip 
Van Winkle slumbers of old, arose, as befitting knights, to 
the emergency of the occasion, and with colors flying and 
armed and equipped for the fray, marched side by side 
with the leaders of other sciences and with them planted 
its banner with pride and honor upon “Fame’s eternal 
camping-ground. ’ ’ 
For dentistry to have attained to its present exalted 
position required no little time and no mean effort; it had 
to overcome a vast amount of ignorance and outlive a great 
many prejudices. It was not till within the last half 
century that any degree of intelligence embarked in its 
behalf and imperfect instruments were cast aside as per- 
petuated relics of ancient barbarism. It was not till within 
the last half century that the inventive genius of man 5 
turned its attention to the limited field of labor which it 
then presented in all of its departments, and by its bene- 
ficial results began to rob it of some of its terror and ex- 
cruiating pain. And chief among the results of this human 
ingenuity may be mentioned Anesthesia, the greatest 
remedial agent to suffering humanity the world has ever 
known. It was within the memory of tlie dental student 
of only a few years ago that the hum of the engine and the 
click of the electric mallet rendered a dental outfit incom- 
plete without them ; and the same period that gave to the 
dental world these two indispensable appliances took an- 
other step in advance and revealed to the perplexed operator 
and anxious patient the blessings and comforts of the 
“ Rubber Dam.” Nor did the spirit of revelation quit the 
field of dentistry at this point, as the practical value of 
more recent appliances will testify, but finding its bounda- 
ries far-reaching and its resources for quickening human 
ingenuity so abundant, that it disported itself in its whole- 
some atmosphere, until to-day, when in point of rapid 
development and perfection it stands abreast with any art 
or science of the present time. What better proof, and 
more conclusive from its very nature, would a skeptic upon 
this assertion want than the undeniable fact that the pro- 
fession which claims us as an offspring is daily invading our 
domains in quest of our remedial agents with which to 
perform painless operations, and our appliances with 
which to accomplish better results in the practice of 
surgery. For who will attempt to deny but that to the 
dental profession anasthesia owes its existence ? For it 
was none other than a dentist who discovered its practical 
application and inestimable good to suffering humanity. 
Having glanced slightly at the earliest inception of den- 
tistry, as inaugurated by the ancients, having noticed the 
many difficulties it had to overcome, that it might for years 
and even centuries claim only a living share of intelligence 
and ingenuity; and having glanced at the false and fre- 
quently insignificant position to wdiich it has been assigned, 6 
we come now to study its merits and to rejoice with those 
who have received its many benefits, that it occupies an 
exalted position among other arts and sciences, and lias a 
hold upon the intelligence of the country which gives to it 
the characteristic features of a well-defined, isolated indi- 
viduality. 
W e mean here advanced, intelligent dentistry, such as 
practiced by an educated and skillful operator, and not 
that which has been so productive of mischief to the public 
and so instrumental in bringing ridicule upon the pro- 
fession. And here we are reminded by the history of suc- 
cess in our own profession, as well as by that in all others, 
that the ultimate success in any enterprise, of whatever 
nature it may be, depends more largely upon a thorough 
preliminary mental preparation on the part of those en- 
gaging in it than upon any other one element entering into 
its organization ; and the negligence of this first and most 
important step in the embryonic stage of any undertaking 
is surely to be followed sooner or later by the inevitable 
construction of an unsightly monument to ignorance and 
stupidity. It is necessary then, therefore, in this, as well 
as in all other learned prolessions of this enlightened era, 
that the mental capacity of him who contemplates its study 
shall be of such depth and cultivation as to render him a 
contributor and an ornament, rather than a disgrace and a 
hindrace to it. We have already in our profession too 
many of those whose mental capacity, either from nature 
or from a negligence of early cultivation, are insufficient to 
permit, however good may be their intention, an honest and 
conscientious discharge of the duties devolved upon them. 
It is therefore ignorance, and not a want of a high degree 
of merit in our profession, that has given origin to the un- 
dignified and unprofessional terms of “tooth doctor” and 
“ tooth carpenter.” And this source of ignorance owes its 
existence in our ranks, as well as in the ranks of a great 
many other vocations in life, to a want of an intelligent 
appreciation of this state of affairs on the part of our leg- 7 
islators. As they strive to enact laws for the protection of 
society, personal safety and property, they should also feel 
it a duty equally incumbent upon them to enact stringent 
laws for the protection of unfortunate and suffering hu- 
manity against the injuries and frauds of quackery. This 
protection has been given to the public of North Carolina, 
and upon our exertions, individually and collectively, 
depends its successful perpetuation, and it now remains 
with this Association to so elevate and maintain the standard 
of dentistry that it shall be worthy of the official source 
from which its succor emanated. 
The merits of dentistry do not consist in mechanically 
stuffing, iilling or plugging a cavity with gold or any other 
filling material; they do not consist in the mere extraction 
of teeth, nor altogether in fashioning an artificial denture 
to take the place of the natural organs ; yet the arrest of 
decay by a successful filling, and the relief of pain which 
follows the extraction of an offending tooth and the com- 
fort derived from an accurately adjusted denture, entitle 
these mechanical operations to that amount of merit which 
an intelligent patient invariably bestows upon them. But 
the principal merit of dentistry, that which elevates it 
above the plane of the mechanic, and gives to the profession 
a position of dignity and learning, is an intelligent appre- 
ciation of all the maladies of the oral cavity from an anato- 
mical, physiological and therapeutical stand-point. An 
operator having the anatomical arrangement of the 
muscular, circulatory and nervous systems of the human 
body plainly delineated in his mind, and knowing their 
physiological action, finds it compartively easy to arrive at 
an intelligent diagnosis of the disorders submitted to him 
for investigation and correction ; and his knowledge of 
therapeutics will enable him, theoretically, to apply his 
remedies with a reasonable assurance of success. No one, 
however clever he may be by nature, can correctly solve the 
mysteries which are daily arising in this profession from 
disordered organs, without first having taken the prelimi- 8 
nary steps to provide himself with their anatomical struc- 
ture and physiological properties. IS"or would he be but 
slightly advanced should he, after arriving at this point, dis- 
regard the knowledge of the therapeutical action of internal 
and local remedies ; for it is to the advanced stage of this 
branch of science that not a few operators owe their enviable 
reputations as skillful and successful practitioners. 
Our merits as a learned profession are frequently put to 
the test by the knowledge we display of the structure nnd 
functions of the organs to which our attention is directed 
in search of trouble, and nothing so readily and effectually 
impresses upon the mind of an intelligent patient the exist- 
ence of this quality, as our success in revealing the source 
of trouble and its complete eradication, either by a skillful 
application of some of our mechanical appliances or by an 
intelligent administration of some of our therapeutic agents. 
As a profession, we would not be looked upon with any 
degree of suspicion whatever, in regard to possessing this 
particular virtue and qualification for intelligent apprecia- 
tion, but for the fact that our ranks heretofore have been 
unprotected against the shameful invasion of ignorance 
and illiteracy. The life-blood of educated dentistry has 
been sapped by a set of merciless vampires, whose greed 
for gain falls but little short of theft, and the skeptic, ever 
alert to propagate and strengthen his individual doubts, 
does the truly meritorious an injustice by seeking to dis- 
credit the virtues of an honorable qualification, obtained by 
laborious and patient study. Kow often have we heard 
the discrediting remark by those who unfortunately fell in 
the clutches of the horde of quacks that so extensively 
figured in our profession only a short time ago, and to a 
certain extent now% that “they would be better olf if a 
dentist had never looked in their mouths.” And even now 
the skeptic will greet you with the unsatisfactory remark 
that when you start to the dentist you have to keep it up, 
or the contemptuous expression that “Dr. A. or B. ruined 
my teeth,” when really the condition of affairs is the result 9 
of a flagrant want of cleanliness, or a gross violation of 
the laws of nature. Could a more excellent opportunity 
than this be presented for educated dentistry to rise to the 
full height of its dignity and importance, and with the 
effectual requirements of the occasion, assume witli full 
force and effect the defensive, and convert this inexcusable 
ignorance, begotten of unreasonable prejudice, into an in- 
telligent appreciation of the merits of the present state of 
perfection of the dental profession ? What more favorable 
opportunity would an educated operator want, to let his 
professional light so shine that the “wayfaring man, 
though a fool, shall not err therein” ? 
Educated denistry has other and far more important 
duties to perform than the filling and extraction of teeth. 
These are operations which any trained mechanic can do, 
and should be an educated operator’s last resort in his 
process of correcting and restoring disordered and impaired 
nature. And chief among those duties is the education of 
the public to a proper appreciation of the vital importance 
of observing strictly the laws of nature governing the 
growth, development and care of the teeth. He who suc- 
ceeds, theoretically, in the discharge of this duty, is a 
pioneer in the further development of intelligent, scientific 
dentistry, and is far more meritorious of an honorable 
recognition by a grateful public than he who seeks by his 
mechanical means and appliances to repair an injury which 
in all probability has resulted from his ignorance and 
stupidity. 
Our profession has advanced to such a state of perfection, 
and our knowledge of the circumstances under which the 
dental organs are most apt to suffer, is of such an unerring 
nature as to warrant an educated operator, first, in the 
adoption of preventive measures, and second, in the adop- 
tion of restorative measures when the former fail. If by 
preventive measures, such as intelligent advice in the de- 
velopment and growth of the teeth, an operator succeeds, 
even partially, in warding off the attacks of decay, he has 10 
made a rapid stride in the ultimate fulfillment of the 
mission upon which we are all journeying. The object of 
our mission is to watch over the early development, growth 
and future care of these organs, just as it is the duty of 
the entelligent physician to watch over the growth and de- 
velopment of a child from embryo to manhood. If then 
we labor intelligently and honestly to discharge our duty, 
nature will greet us with a fall measure of her part of the 
contract; for in the wise dispensation of Providence “every 
wrong has its right, every vice its virtue, every poison its 
antidote, and every malady its remedy,” and upon our in- 
telligence of the mysterious manner in which nature, under 
favorable circumstances, performs well her work, depends 
our successful application of the many resources placed at 
our disposal. 
That we may not, then, be blind leaders of the blind, 
and that we may not grope our way in darkness through a 
profession whose beacon light now sheds a halo of lustre 
over every civilized part of the inhabitable globe, we must 
familiarize ourselves, as far as the dental literature of the 
present day will enable us, with nature’s wants, and having 
done that, we will have constructed the groundwork of a 
bright prospect for a future fruitful career. The rest is 
comparatively easy, the source from which we gather our 
elements of supply being ever present and inexhaustible. 
It then only remains for us to direct the kind and propor- 
tion in which they are to be utilized, that we may the more 
easily and successfully accomplish the object for which we 
are striving. 
The question, then, that naturally presents itself to the 
student of dentistry at this point is, what is the simplest, 
surest and most ready method by which a confiding public 
can derive any good from our knowledge of the wonderful 
mechanism of the process of disintegration and repair, 
through which the whole human system is maintained in a 
healthful normal condition. It is that method which will 
give rise to the adoption of those modes of living that will 11 
assist rather than retard nature in the perfect discharge of 
her duty ; it is that method by which we select the proper 
articles of food which will supply, the 
elements, both animal and mineral, which we find, upon a 
chemical analysis, enter into the composition of a perfectly 
developed tooth ; it is that method which, when universally 
adopted, will sound the death-knell of chalky and imper- 
fectly developed teeth. The intelligent mechanic displays 
his superiority in his special department by his thorough 
knowledge of the material with which he has to deal ; the 
physician builds up the shattered constitution of his patient 
by knowing nature’s demands and supplying them ; and 
why should not an educated dentist be as efficient in his 
sphere in availing himself of the many valuable resources 
which a kind Providence has placed at his disposal? To 
say that lie is not would be to acknowledge ourselves inad- 
equate to the I ask we have chosen to perform. To render, 
then, an educated operator efficient in his practice and to 
place him in a position where he can call nature to his 
assistance, necessitates on his part a merciless and unrelent- 
ing war upon some of those senseless, fastidious habits 
which have crept in the mode of living in latter years. 
Is there one among us who has read the dental literature 
for the past half century, who cannot see the vast differ- 
ence in the structure of the teeth then and now ? Was the 
profession then appalled and dismayed by the overwhelm- 
ing array of chalky and imperfectly developed teeth which 
it is our misfortune of the present day to encounter ? The 
answer to this is most satisfactorily and happily seen in the 
mouths of those old patients of ours whose vital forces 
were not deprived of those elements of nutrition which 
performed such an important part in contributing to the 
perfect development of all their organs by the time they 
arrived at the age of maturity. Do we not find in the 
mouths of these old landmarks of the past an unmistak- 
able evidence of a radical wrong, and knowing the state of 
perfection to which our profession has been brought, is it 12 
not reasonable to suppose that this condition of affairs is 
attributable more to the recently acquired habits of society 
than to a want of a proper appreciation on our part of the 
anatomical and physiological structure of these organs? 
Then away with these injurious, fastidious habits of life, 
and let us, one and all, return to those old, simple, yet 
sensible, modes which have contributed more solid comfort 
to the human family than we have ever been able to bestow 
upon it by all of our filling materials and mechanical 
appliances. 
Nature never provided a nursey in which to rear a child 
as we would a tender plant in the hot-house, and yet wre 
are daily surrounded with evidences of this mistaken pro- 
tection. It requires no effort on the part of him who is an 
observant student to behold the frightful results of misap- 
plied natural resources. What stronger proof of the exist- 
ence of this fact do we want than that which is to be found 
in a comparison of the rich with the p >or, the civilized with 
the uncivilized? In the former we find a typical specimen 
of aborted nature, but in the latter we behold the beauties 
and strength ot her perfect handiwork. Why this discrep- 
ancy in individuals belonging to the same race and genera- 
tion, and living in the same locality abundantly supplied 
with nature’s choicest articles of food ! This is easily 
accounted for by visiting the palace of the one and the 
humble cottage of the other ; the inmates of the former are 
constantly breathing impure air, and from a ridiculous 
notion live on articles of food which have been largely 
deprived of those elements of nutrition which perform a 
most important part in the perfect development of the 
osseous system of the human body; and it is the perfection 
or imperfection of this system that makes the resistive and 
recuperative powers of an individual strong or weak. The 
latter, quickened by the necessities of want, live more in 
the open atmosphere and enjoy wholesome exercise so in- 
dispensable to healthy growth and development, and con- 
sume those articles of food which have not been deprived 13 
of their properties of nutrition. (It is then, in a theoretical 
point of view, of some advantage to be poor.) We might 
ask, and very reasonably too, whether or not civilization 
has been a benefit or a curse, as touching the preparation 
and consumption of the elements of health-giving nature % 
The circulatory system, which is one of the three impor- 
tant factors in the tripod of life, is the great medium 
through which the whole animal economy is fed ; and it is 
herein this medium, in the perfectly developed being, we 
find a full stock, and in their proper proportions, of the 
elements of nutrition which are being freighted to the organs 
and systems for which they were created as food. And 
when this common carrier has been deprived of any element, 
or part thereof, of its valuable cargo, when the source from 
which it derives its ingredients is inferior, then the whole 
system depreciates below its normal healthy condition ; 
for upon the perfect performancee of the functions of one 
organ or system depends the normal standard of the others. 
So, then, when our articles of food, such as are consumed 
by the fastidiuus, are deprived of any of their natural 
elements, that organ or system whose supply is thus cut 
short suffers in consequence. 
Then it is the duty of the intelligent dentist to war un- 
ceasingly upon those false modes of life which have con- 
tributed so largely to the production of the vast array of 
perverted nature, and insist upon the general adoption of 
those habits and diet which will soon begin to eliminate 
from the nomenclature of dentistry the deceptive and 
muchly despised chalky tooth. What more beautiful dis- 
play of the practical good and virtues of educated dentistry 
do we wish to behold than that shown and derived from the 
intelligent advice given by an educated operator to our 
female patients, during the terms of gestation and lactation. 
We know that during this period of reproduction a certain 
amount of bone-producing material is diverted from the 
mother and carried to develop the skeleton of the foetus, 
and it is upon occasions of this kind that the former beau- 14 
ties of nature are kept up to their normal standard by a 
timely and judicious interference of educated dentistry in 
advising an increased supply of those elements of nutri- 
tion to meet these new demands. 
The educated dentist having the love and welfare of his 
profession at heart, as well as his love for his fellow-man, 
and knowing the composition of this new being that is 
about to be launched upon the arena of life, foretells the 
untold misery to which it will be subjected in consequence 
of an arrest of development, steps into the breach, and 
with the sceptre of authority, born of education, defies 
the insidious attack of disease, and contributes his 
might to aid nature in the perfect reproduction of her kind. 
He knows the elements requisite for the perfection of the 
work nature has begun, and he so disposes of the resources 
at his hand as to enable his patient, intelligently and physi- 
ologically, to partake of them, thereby filling, in a marked 
degree of success, his grateful mission of intercession 
between health and disease, or perfection and imperfection. 
The teeth of the ancients were not of this latter-day fab- 
ricated mass of chalk. And why? Because they con- 
sumed the articles of food as it had been given to them by 
nature, and not as it is remodeled by an erroneous process of 
civilization. Their teeth served well their purpose, as is 
evidenced by their perfect development, and the present 
state of perfection of whole sets now to be found in the 
mouths of Egyptian mummies centuries old. We know 
from the history of our profession, ere it winged its flight 
from the shops of the mechanics, that the dental organs 
were of sufficient strength and durability as to almost com- 
pletely resist the then slight tendencies to decay. But how 
is it now ? Tha deplorable state of the teeth of our young 
patients of to-day tells us in unmistakable language the 
sad degeneracy of these organs. Then whole sets of teeth 
followed their owners to the grave, many without repair, 
after long years of constant and profitable use. 
In the light of the present age, and knowing the 15 
chemical constituents of these dental organs, and having 
ready access to all the natural elements that surrounded 
the ancients, it will be an irrasible stigma upon this latter- 
day civilization and progressive dentistry, if these chalky 
teeth do not become, in a great measure, a thing of the past. 
It is here in this state of affairs and upon this imperfect 
groundwork of nature that the great secret of failure in so 
many beautiful operations is to be found. Then why not 
devote our services, to the best of our ability, as co-laborers 
with nature and enthrone her once more upon her pinnacle 
of virtuous protection, instead of devoting so much of our 
time in becoming skillful in stuffing these dental organs 
full of unsightly masses of gold and amalgam ? It is not, 
however, to be understood, that we deprecate for one 
moment the many virtues of skilled operations when resto- 
rative measures are resorted to. 
This, gentlemen, is a sparsely and poorly defined picture 
of preventive, preservative educated dentistry, and he whose 
efforts are crowned with the greatest success in it, is he who 
contributes the greatest amount of relief to suffering hu- 
manity and is its greatest blessing.