How a dentist's name became a synonym for a life-saving device: the story of Dr. Charles Stent.

Stents have been used in numerous medical disciplines, as well as in oral surgical procedures. Uses range from rebuilding mandibles and constructing new ureters, to keeping coronary arteries patent after angioplasty. The earliest use of the word "stent" to describe this item was in 1916, when a Dutch plastic surgeon described how he used a dental impression compound as a matrix around which to form tissue in the process of rebuilding a shattered face. What is generally unknown is that the word "stent" derives from the name of an English dentist, who invented this impression compound in 1856.

James Beall Morrison: the visionary who revolutionized the practice of dentistry.

BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW: For centuries, dental patients sat on makeshift contraptions or modified straight-backed chairs, which took a toll on the health of both patient and dentist. In addition, the lack of a suitable drill retarded the development of restorative dentistry, allowing minimum care for only a tiny segment of the population. One farseeing American dentist, James Beall Morrison, changed all that in the 1870s with his innovative, fully adjustable chair, which made sitdown dentistry possible. Moreover, his monumental invention of the foot-powered drill allowed dentists to place restorations that were theretofore impossible. Dentists the world over became able to treat patients more comfortably and satisfactorily, and with less stress to themselves. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: A newly discovered collection of letters in the Smithsonian Institution to Morrison from colleagues in London provides insight into how collaboration between inventor and user helped bring about great changes in the way dentistry is practiced. These letters also shed light on what dentistry was like one and one-quarter centuries ago, how far dentistry has come and what changes may be forthcoming.

A thousand years of dentistry.

As we contemplate what the future holds for dentistry, it is helpful to look back at where it's been and how far it has come.

The life and work of Dr. George Byron Hayes, pioneer maxillofacial surgeon.

When the First World War broke out in April of 1914, an American dentist practicing in Paris offered his services to the French government. He was Dr. George Byron Hayes, a native of a small upstate New York village and a graduate of the dental school of the University of Michigan. The new type of trench warfare led to facial wounds on a scale never before experienced in any conflict. But the military medical services had no experience or skill in dealing with these new and devastating wounds. Dr. Hayes stepped into the breach and performed such exceptional and often miraculous surgery that he was hailed by the entire Western world. The French government made him a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor and the U.S. government awarded him the Distinguished Service Medal, seldom awarded to a civilian. The most prominent surgeon of the day, Dr. Harvey Cushing, brought a team of physicians from Harvard to observe the treatment rendered wounded soldiers in the American Hospital in Neuilly, France, and, in lauding Dr. Hayes' work, stated that his contributions were the most remarkable of all, and that dental surgery should now be recognized as a specialty, the equal of any in medicine.

Driving out the 'toothworm' in today's China.

For thousands of years people have tried to explain toothache as the result of a worm residing in a carious tooth. Fumigation of the carious tooth, with the smoke from burning henbane or leek seeds, was used to drive the "toothworm" out of the tooth. A quack in modern China adopted the same ruse and supposedly drove the worms out of student's tooth. This duplicitous procedure was captured on film by a dentist who witnessed it.

Dentistry: a look backward and a peek into the future.

From the time of Pierre Fauchard in the early 1700s, dentistry has undergone many changes. The introduction over the past two centuries of new materials and techniques has allowed dentists to perform wonders in tooth restoration and retention. Emphasis on better esthetics, more functional prostheses and greater pain control has led to the introduction of materials and techniques undreamed of only a short time ago. The future promises to reveal even more exciting advances.

New York dentistry a century and a quarter ago. Selections from an upstate dentist's diary.

Charles C. Elmendorf, a dentist in the upstate New York village of Penn Yan, kept a daily diary from 1863 to 1910. The author has selected the years 1872 and 1873 for examination, since these were years of major ferment in the practice of dentistry. The foot-treadle drill was invented, the use of the rubber dam and cohesive gold foil became standard practice. Dentists were struggling to use the newly introduced anesthetics. Organized dentistry was in its infancy and licensing was not yet adopted. The profession was also plagued by swarms of poorly trained or even untrained men who entered the field, and by the extortion of dentists by the Goodyear Dental Rubber Co., a practice that ended only after a rousing fight led by the eminent Dr. S.S. White, and a sensational murder case.