On the present position of dental surgery, and its advancement as a branch of medical education : a letter addressed to Dr. Robert Omond, President of the Royal College of Surgeons / by John Smith, M.D.

  • Smith, John, M.D.
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the present position of dental surgery, and its advancement as a branch of medical education : a letter addressed to Dr. Robert Omond, President of the Royal College of Surgeons / by John Smith, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    really is at all; and yet, where is the practitioner, whore is the dentist, who will not undertake its treatment from beginning to end? How many instances are met with where the anomalous nature of the diseases, to which the teeth are liable, and the modifi- cations of treatment required in them, are known only in the most vague and imperfect manner,—how many cases where even the number of teeth which should exist within the mouth, at any given age, is scarcely any better understood. While, as for the amount of pretence and quackery, at the same time, attaching to dentistry as practised by many such imperfectly qualified individuals,—that may be satisfactorily ascertained by a glance at the advertising columns of most of the leading newspapers of this and almost every other country. Under the existing circumstances, however, little if any fault can be found with such as undertake the treatment of diseases connected with this branch of surgery, without having received any competent surgical education. On the contrary, this proceeding on their part, in the existing state of matters, appears warranted and quite justi- fiable ; unless a better system of education is provided for dental practitioners than at present exists, or some regulation be enacted so as to ascertain a certain amount of fitness for this profession, no alteration or amendment in this respect can be looked for. The general feeling of the dental profession itself, however, is most certainly that at least some more adequate means of instruction, especially in the physiology and surgery of the teeth, would be most desirable ; and there is no doubt that the superiority even of a complete surgical education, did circumstances permit of it, is by many equally well recognised and admitted. Beneficial as might be even a par- tial surgical education, specially in this branch, as proposed in some quarters, and diflicult as it is to find a remedy at once sufficiently mild and yet sufficiently powerful for the present exigencies of the case, any such limited mode of education does not really strike at the root of the matter ; and this will be more and more clearly perceived, according as a greater amount of knowledge is imparted, and dis-