Dentists

Some dental schools require only a high school diploma as entrance requirements; most demand one year of college work; very few a college degree. The dental student, realizing the profits a specialist earns, looks to becoming a dental hygienist, radiographer or exodontist. With perseverance, time and money he may become a dentist with a B. S. degree, M. S., or even D. D. S. But the run of the profession know little beyond immediate teeth conditions and their alleviation. In Chicago last week 12,000 dentists attending the 62nd annual meeting of the Chicago Dental Society were reminded by Dr. Sheppard Foster, President of the American Dental Association, that the all-around "family dentist" is urgently needed by the public. He urged against too much specialization, for more preprofessional education.

For probably the first time important medical men attended such a dental meeting, thus prognosticating a closer integration of dental and medical knowledge. Dr. William D. Haggard, President of the American Medical Association, speaking on "Teamwork for the Health of the People," summed up: "Neglect your business if you must; neglect your golf game if you can; your wife if you dare; but do not neglect your yearly health examination."

Dentists have been extracting infected teeth as alleviation of bad tonsils, sore eyes, arthritis and certain heart affections. But this procedure has not always been based on positive proof that the teeth were responsible. Doctors and dentists urged those attending to be cautious hereafter in wholesale extracting.

Startling to the layman was the operation described by Dr. C. Edmund Kells of New Orleans, whereby a decayed tooth in an inaccessible part of the patient's mouth may be pulled, the caries removed, the tooth repaired while the patient goes about his business or pleasures, then later the tooth replaced in the jaw processes. There the roots make connections and presently the implanted tooth is functioning properly.