Nuala Mary Brigid Mitzi Macey-Dare (née Coyle) (1934-2022): leading community dentist, forensic odontologist and her family.

For many people, being a parent of five children is more than enough to keep oneself occupied. Mitzi Coyle (Macey-Dare) did that, and gained a top post in the community dental service, with a string of dental and other postgraduate qualifications. Her children are equally talented.

Medicine and dentistry: Shall ever the twain meet?

BACKGROUND: Oral health and general medical health are intimately linked. However, medical and dental practitioners often work in isolation from each other and have separate training, funding, regulatory and administrative systems. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this article is to explore the history behind the divide between medicine and dentistry, and the challenges this raises. DISCUSSION: The siloed nature of the two professional groups may be attributed to historical backgrounds, deficiencies in interdisciplinary education, government funding discrepancies and differing models of care. The two professions have evolved with different social drivers and scientific underpinnings, with only a recent appreciation of the many connections between the health of the mouth and the health of the body. Solutions to overcome this divide should be considered in order to ensure better outcomes for patients, the community and perhaps the professions themselves.

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.

The New York Herald's Very First Report on Dr. Horace Well's Arrest and Suicide-An Original Article Found in New York City Public Library.

The accounts of Dr. Wells' personal life, particularly those of his tempestuous final days, have remained somewhat speculative. On January 24, 1848, a troubled Dr. Wells raced outside of his home and practice on Chambers Street and threw sulfuric acid (vitriol) on two alleged "loose" Broadway girls. We were able to find an original copy of an article published by the New York Herald in the New York City Public Library describing the events of Well's final days.

Etymology of Letheon: Nineteenth-century Linguistic Effervescence.

In late 1846, following his successful public demonstrations of surgical anesthesia, Boston dentist William T. G. Morton selected Letheon as the commercial name for the ether-based "preparation" he had used to produce insensibility to pain. We have not identified a first-hand account of the coinage of Letheon. Although the name ultimately derives from the Greek Lethe, the adjective Lethean, much in use in the mid-19th century, may have influenced Morton and those he called on to assist in finding a commercial name. By one unverified account, the name Letheon might have been coined independently by both Augustus Addison Gould, M.D., and Henry Jacob Bigelow, M.D.

From Pulling Teeth to Pulling Legs: How Dentist-Anesthetist Samuel J. Hayes Was Mistaken for President Rutherford B. Hayes.

Newspaper editor AH Beitch recorded an anecdote in which a group of barbers gave complimentary treatment to dentist-anesthetist SJ Hayes, whom they had mistaken for US President Rutherford B. Hayes.

Related Gunmen Paddock Committed Murder-Suicide in 1888 and in 2017.

Genealogical and periodical research reveals that two distantly related gunmen surnamed Paddock, a retired dentist-anesthetist and a retired accountant, committed murder-suicide in 1888 and in 2017, respectively.

"Karius and Baktus": A Critical Appraisal of Enger's Seminal Storybook.

Karius and Baktus, first published in 1949, is one of the most influential storybooks with dental caries as main theme and it remains in wide use for domestic health education. This study aimed at assessing oral health related contents of the historic storybook in the light of the current body of cariologic evidence. Two investigators independently identified phrases in the storybook with cariologically relevant content. Dental health related contents were systematically evaluated with respect to the current body of cariologic evidence. Karius and Baktus highlights important etiopathogenetic and preventive aspects such as sugars consumption and tooth brushing with toothpaste. Its behavior management techniques and narrative health didactics concerning dental care for children are, however, outmoded. The cariologic core statements in Karius and Baktus have remained valid whereas certain narrative features may have some drawbacks when employing the historic storybook for educational purposes for young children.

Charles Darwin and the Dentists.

Charles Darwin suffered relapsing, debilitating illness for most of his adult life with many symptoms. His most prominent complaints were episodic nausea, retching and vomiting. As is common in patients with repeated vomiting he developed dental problems, problems that may be dated back to his voyage on the Beagle and his vomiting due to persistent seasickness. Dental problems continued after the voyage and he was one of the first patients to have extractions under chloroform. Watching a dental procedure caused Darwin great distress, much as surgical and obstetric procedures had previously caused him distress with onset of symptoms. Darwin's dental experiences are consistent with the proposed diagnosis of his lifetime illness- patients with similar illnesses today have much the same dental problems. Dentists also helped Darwin with his researches and collection of specimens. In Darwin's day, dentists, like country clergymen, had time to follow other interests. Dentists contributed to Darwin's dental health, to the dental health of his family and to Darwin's work and biological studies. Dentists, in their own right, were also prominent in developing our biological understanding.

The Perfect and Famous Anesthetic Known as Methyl in Boston in 1895.

Extravagant claims were made for proprietary dental anesthetics in Boston, MA, in the late 1800s. For instance, in 1883, Urial K. Mayo introduced an inhaled Vegetable Anaesthetic comprised of nitrous oxide that had been uselessly pretreated with botanical material. This misguided concept may have been inspired by homeopathy, but it was also in line with the earlier false belief of Elton R. Smilie, Charles T. Jackson, and William T.G. Morton that sulfuric ether could volatilize opium at room temperature. In 1895, the Dental Methyl Company advertised an agent they called Methyl, a supposedly perfect topical anesthetic for painless dental extraction. The active ingredient was probably chloroform. Anesthetic humbug did not cease in Boston on Ether Day of October 16, 1846.

From Dental to Mental Institutions: An American Dentist and a British Psychiatrist Highlight Insanity Following Nitrous-Oxide Administration.

In 1887, American dentist Samuel J. Hayes published reports associating unoxygenated anesthetics with asphyxia and insanity, and then British psychiatrist George H. Savage published a report of cases of insanity following nitrous-oxide anesthesia in British journals.

From Dental to Mental Institutions: Asylum-Bound Dentist Zacheus Rogers Oxygenates Nitrous Oxide.

American dentist Zacheus Rogers taught surgeon Edmund Andrews-and indirectly anesthesia pioneers SJ Hayes and FW Hewitt-to oxygenate anesthetics. Ironically, Rogers may have himself suffered neurologic damage by failing to oxygenate the nitrous oxide that he is speculated to have abused personally.