John N. Crouse--crusader and mitigator.

During the last part of the nineteenth century, John N. Crouse fought hard to defeat the process patents of the International Tooth Crown Company. Prior to that time he engaged in a lucrative dental practice, was a President of the American Dental Association and was a highly respected dentist in Chicago. In the midst of his fight against the International Tooth Crown Company, Crouse organized a dental supply business and a dental journal. After the defeat of the Tooth Crown Company's patents, in an interesting turn of events, Crouse appeared to form an alliance with a party who formed another threat to the dental profession by foisting his patents on it. This article traces the life of a noteworthy man who could rightly be placed among the most important figures in American dentistry.

A chronology of dental education in the United States.

Formal dental education in the United States began in 1840 with the opening of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery. Other dental schools slowly began to emerge, gradually displacing the traditional preceptorship method of training for dentistry. The period of the late 1800s saw a surge in the number of dental colleges in the United States. These schools were largely proprietary in nature, meaning that they were not affiliated with major universities, were private, and were of a commercial nature and, usually, established to benefit their owners. As the trend toward affiliation of dental schools with universities gained impetus at the beginning of the 20th Century, and with the establishment of the Dental Educational Council of America, the trend continued. Finally, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching formed a committee, under the direction of Dr. William J. Gies, to study the entire system of dental education in America. Out of this landmark study came the strong recommendation that all dental schools become affiliated with major universities. Shortly after that study, in the early 1930s, the last proprietary school was abolished. This article traces the histories of dental schools, past and present, in the United States.

The era of high speed development in dentistry.

The development of the high-speed handpiece is a story of fast-moving change. Few of today's practicing dentists worked during the days in which use of low-speed, belt-driven handpieces was the norm for cavity preparation and there were no high-speed drills. During the decade of the 1950s, sweeping changes came about with the introduction of the high-speed handpiece and the associated promulgation of air abrasion and ultrasonic methods for cavity preparation. Researchers and developers from New Zealand, Sweden and the United States played parts in this chronology of events. Dental practitioners have used the high-speed handpiece for over forty years and, although laser technology has been introduced and air abrasion has been re-introduced, there is no prospect of replacement of the high-speed handpiece in the foreseeable future.