Nazi Dentists on Trial: On the Political Complicity of a Long-Neglected Professional Community.

Studies on the complicity of the medical profession in the crimes of the Third Reich are on the rise. This also applies to the question of the extent to which doctors were brought to justice in international trials after World War II. This topic, however, has hardly been considered-let alone systematically investigated-with respect to German dentists. It is precisely this gap that this article will address. First, we quantitatively identify all dentists who were brought to justice in the post-war period. Second, we give a profile of this group. We focus on the following questions: Who among the group was brought to trial, and when? What crimes were they accused of, which sentences were handed down, and how did these sentences affect their future lives? Our study is based primarily on archival sources, which we analyzed with respect to the relevant secondary literature. Contrary to the widely-held assumption that dentists had almost never had been made to stand trial after the end of the war, we identified 48 dentists who were accused in court. The prototypical accused dentist was male, lived in a traditional family model, belonged to the National Socialist Workers' Party (NSDAP) and the Waffen-SS (Schutzstaffel), and was part of the so-called Kriegsjugendgeneration. The most frequent allegations made against these men were the theft of dental gold of murdered Nazi victims, an accusation unique to dentists; (accessory to) murder or manslaughter; and involvement in the deadly selections made in the concentration camps. In total, eight dentists were executed. Generally speaking, the earlier these proceedings and the sentencing took place, the harsher the sentence was. Many of those who received prison sentences subsequently found their way back into the dental profession.

From Pulling Teeth to Promoting Oral Health. Pharmacy and Dentistry 1815-2015.

Two hundred years ago the occupational boundaries between different medical practitioners were blurred and unspecified, with many practicing in several fields. However the 1815 Apothecaries Act had a major impact on both the emerging pharmaceutical and dental professions. The 1878 and 1921 Dentists Acts enabled pharmacists who did some dentistry to continue practicing dentistry. Changes proposed by the British Dental Association (BDA) resulted in the formation of a Chemists Dental Association in 1910 to defend the interests of this group, which continued in existence until 1951. This paper explores the changing relationship between chemists and dentists from the early nineteenth century through to the early twenty-first century. Sources used include the published work of both dental and pharmaceutical historians, documentary sources, and quotations from oral history interviews.

The changing nature of consent.

Consent is a foundational principle of medical and dental ethics. The importance of the concept has changed over time and it is now viewed as more important than it has ever been, both within the profession and by wider society. This article looks at the nature of consent historically, the changes it has undergone, and some of the contemporary challenges in this area. The philosophical basis of consent is considered, looking at two lines of thought relating to autonomy and prevention of harm. The difficulty and appropriateness of providing 'fully-informed' consent is then considered along with some of the modern problems relating to consumerist culture, and the social changes that have caused them. By looking at consent from a social and philosophical standpoint, we can broaden our thinking to give context to the day-to-day practicalities of obtaining consent in practice. These practicalities are addressed in subsequent articles within this issue of the Primary Dental Journal.

The ethics of dental practice in London in the sixteenth century. 2. Sir Thomas More's 'Ordinances' for the Barber-Surgeons, 1530.

Sir Thomas More's Ordinances can tell us much about London dental practice in the sixteenth century, providing an overview of training, development and practice within a healthcare service much like our own.

The American dentists: ethics, technology and education for the twenty-first century.

Throughout the twentieth century, dentistry has been answering a powerful call to embrace science-driven oral health care, and align dental education with interdisciplinary biomedical training. Now, as we enter the twenty-first century, "evidence-based practice" has raised new challenges for scientific collaboration and professional education. Central to this new landscape is the task of realigning the vision of oral health science to provide a more comprehensive view of how dental science and technology can best serve the health of expanding populations, the underserved and global cultures. This article discusses examples of how educational challenges are beginning to be addressed, and how new technologies like teledentistry, while helping solve certain problems of outreach, raise their own challenging ethical questions of professional obligation and responsibility.

[Operation T4 or the implication of the German dental surgeons in the ideology of eugenics and the euthanasia of mental lunatics]. / L'opération T4 ou l'implication des chirurgiens-dentistes allemands dans l'idéologie d'eugénisme et dans l'euthanasie des aliénés mentaux .

Many things have been said about the T4 operation and the sad role played by Nazi doctors. But one could ask the same question about the dentists? They played an important role as they examined, diagnosed and denounciated patients with congenital diseases. Their in-house training serving this purpose was very specialised. Their implication is even more unquestionable when it came to removing dental gold from the mouth of the victims. Once it was collected this gold contributed on a financial level, to the course of the T4 operation.

The sins of specialists.

In medieval times, moralists compiled lists of sins that certain types of persons, such as clerics, lawyers, kings and physicians, were prone to commit. These persons were set aside from the ordinary crowd by their special duties, skills and knowledge. Today, we might call them "specialists" or "professionals". These sins reflected failures to attain the ideals that the specialists were held to. Among the most common sins were actions that took advantage of those who depended upon the specialist's ability to respond to calls for help. While the lists of sins did not include dentists, who did not exist as specialists at that time, this lecture will pursue the theme of the medieval moralists into the time when dentistry emerges as a specialty form of care. In essence, it asks how professional ethics protects patients or clients from exploitation.

What have teeth taught us about culture? Practice, patienthood and ethics in the history of dentistry and public health.

Teeth cut across cultures. They transgress cultural boundaries but also define social boundaries. They provide information about what goes into the mouth, and what the mouth is appropriately used for. Scrutiny of teeth identified a new biomedical space to analyze pain, and created a new culture of medicine for such practices. This paper uses the evolution of dentistry since the 18th century to look at how our social and scientific understanding of teeth has shaped cultural attitudes about pain, politics, beauty and prophylaxis. It then raises questions about how these attitudes in turn create ethical contexts for the practice of dentistry around the world.

Early struggles to identify ethical standards in dentistry: Dr. Benjamin Brown and the amalgam war of the 1840s.

Dr. Benjamin Boyer Brown was one of the leading physicians and dentists in St. Louis during the 1830s and 1840s as well as one of its most esteemed citizens for his charitable and educational works. He was also one of the founders of organized dentistry, first editor of the Dental Register of the West, as well as a respected researcher and educator in dentistry, and a member of the American Society of Dental Surgery, a forerunner of the American Dental Association. This society, declared the use of amalgam to be not only unethical but malpractice, and members were forced to sign a pledge not to use it. Although many dentists opposed this decision and ignored the pledge altogether, Dr. Brown was morally unwilling to remain quiet. He vocally opposed the decision of his colleagues to ban amalgam on ethical grounds. In spite of his appeal for reason and his high profile, he was one of the few dentists to be expelled from organized dentistry. He moved to California during the height of the gold rush to begin a new life. Dr. Brown's experience illustrates several issues in dental ethics that remain with us today.

Painless Parker's legacy: ethics, commerce, and advertising in the professions.

This presentation will review the life and contributions of Dr. Edgar Parker, the infamous and controversial pioneer who specialized in a precarious straddling of the ethics of the commercial marketplace and the ethics of care. Something of a Rorschach test, he was alternatively referred to as a charlatan, the first people's dentist, a renegade, a crusader, a quack, the Henry Ford of dentistry, and "a menace to the dignity of the profession". He eventually owned and managed thirty dental offices, several in San Francisco, as well as the Parker Dental Circus. Because many young, twenty-first century practitioners have little problem with slick advertising, it seems appropriate to revisit Painless Parker's career and contribution to the current state of affairs.

[Story of three SS dentists during World War II: Pr Hugo Blaschke, Dr Hermann Pook and Dr Willy Frank]. / Trois destins de dentistes SS pendant la Seconde Guerre Mondiale: Pr Hugo Blaschke, Dr Hermann Pook et Dr Willy Frank.

This story of three SS dentists shows very clearly that the medical code of ethics, under a totalitarian regime, ends where ideology begins. Professor Hugo Blaschke provided dental care to the most eminent Nazi leaders, but he also was the senior SS dentist. He was in charge of dental care in the Waffen-SS, and therefore, he had responsibility for the stocks of dental gold collected from the mouths of those who died in the concentration camps, in order to make dentures for his soldiers. Dr Hermann Pook was the dentist in charge of all the other dentists practising in the concentration camps. He was responsible for gathering statistics on the dental care provided for prisoners in the camps. His instructions were very clear: "No conservation or restorative treatment. Only extractions, and with no anaesthesia!" He was also in charge of gathering the gold that was collected in the camps, for the financial department of the SS. Dr Willy Frank, an Auschwitz dentist, took part in the selection of some of the convoys for the gas chambers. His participation in the collection of gold from the mouths of the dead was also established. These three men were sentenced to prison for War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity.