Contents - IADR/AADR

Great Britain, where systematic scientific observations finally replaced haphazard empiricism. Some twentyfive
years later, while the chemist Duchâteau and the dentist de Chémant together struggled in France to
produce a denture of porcelain, they were visited by Giuseppangelo Fonziof Italy. By 1815, Fonzi had achieved
considerable fame through his successful production of porcelain teeth securely attached to the denture base by
precious metal pins. The fame of these "incorruptible teeth" spread from Fonzi's native Italy to the Bavarian
court at Munich, to the Czar of Russia, and thence to the Spanish Bourbons.
The French influence in dentistry also extended to America. James Gardette came to the colonies in
1771, where he enjoyed a large practice and also taught many young men in the dental art. One of these was
Josiah Flagg, additionally motivated by Paul Revere, who showed him the use of silver in dentistry. Flagg
emphasized oral hygiene and proper diet and is said to have invented the first dental chair by adding an
adjustable headrest to a Windsor chair. Captured during the War of 1812, he was transported to London, where
he was permitted to practice dentistry and thereby spread his new knowledge in the Old World.
A contemporary of Josiah Flagg in Boston was John Greenwood. As a young man, Greenwood learned
dentistry in New York City from his brother and became so skillful that by 1789 he made the first of a number
of dentures for George Washington, then President of the infant American Republic. He used considerable
ingenuity in his work for Washington, whose one upper denture was probably the first swaged gold denture ever
made in America, if not in the world.
About 1840, in England, John Tomes conducted his historical investigation of dental enamel which led
to his vivid description of the microstructure named after him, Tomes' fibrils. He also designed several forceps
which replaced the dental keys used for extracting teeth up to this time. For these and other worthy efforts he
was elected the first President of the British Dental Association.
INNOVATIONS IN AMERICA
By the middle of the nineteenth century, the geographic center of innovative achievements in Dentistry
definitely turned to the United States, where it remained until the time of the IADR founding and beyond.
(These many innovations were in essence applied research, while the more basic science research continued to
flourish in Europe until a much later date, as pointed out in the first chapter.) This applied research, however
empirically achieved, reverberated around the world. For example, it was on the 11th of December in 1844, that
Horace Wells of Hartford, Connecticut, first demonstrated effective general anesthesia with nitrous oxide for
the painless removal of one of his own molars. Less than two years later, 16 October 1846, a colleague, William
T. G. Morton, demonstrated in the Massachusetts General Hospital that ether as an inhalant could produce
anesthesia for general surgery; he had also extracted teeth quite painlessly with ether before this publicized
public demonstration. Both these dentists had conducted applied research in their own unique way, but their
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR DENTAL RESEARCH (IADR) – THE FIRST FIFTY YEAR HISTORY PAGE 17