THE DENTIST'S PROBLEM-SATISFACTORY RESTORING TEETH
MATERIAL FOR
I,. 0.BRIOETPIELD, DENTAL SCHOOL, UNIVERSITY OPMARYLAND, BALT~ORB, MAR~AND
From Mount Vernon in 1799, George Washington wrote to John Greenwood, a dentist in New York, complaining that his "sett" of false teeth had turned dark. The dentist replied that the discoloration was probably caused by drinking port wine which is "sour and acid and has a tendency to soften every kind of teeth." The artificial teeth of those days were carved frbm bone or ivory and were fastened to metal plates. They were crude in appearance as well as efficiency. Early dentistry in the American colonies was far from a highly developed profession. It was practiced usually as a side line to barbering or to some mechanical trade. Paul Revere in Boston was both a silversmith and a dentist. The instrument maker or the ivory worker often undertook to make dental restorations. But in the early part of the 19th century the profession of dentistry began to make progress. Men who had the advantage of medical education took up dental work, and efforts be& to be made to apply the sciences and arts to the profession. Advancement, however, was at first slow, but from about 1850, when Goodyear applied his discovery of vulcanite to the making of dental plates, many modern changes have taken place. The dentist's work has always been chiefly that of restoration-?
