A Sourcebook of Dental Medicine: Being a Documentary History of Dentistry and Stomatology from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Twentieth Century (review)

Many readers may be surprised to learn that the most revered book in dentistry, Le chirurgien-dentiste, ou Traité des dents, published in French in 1728, was not translated into English until 1946—this despite its author, Pierre Fauchard, being known as the Father of Dentistry and thought to have coined the term "surgeon dentist." Gerald Shklar and David Chernin have produced a monumental and much-needed work that translates a number of equally important primary sources from Arabic, Greek, French, German, and Latin. They have provided the English-speaking world with new tools for a better understanding of the history of dentistry. Additionally, many texts that were previously translated by others have their sections relating to dentistry included in this book.

The authors point out that they are not professional historians—but their academic and clinical backgrounds are more than ample credentials, as the reader will quickly find. This sourcebook contains 839 pages plus 21 additional pages for the preface, introduction, and table of contents. The body of the book is divided into four parts containing twenty-two chapters, followed by a person index and a subject index. The four parts follow a chronological order: Part 1, "Knowledge of Dental Medicine in Primitive Times and Early Ages of Civilization" (seven chapters); Part 2, "The Classical and Middle Ages" (four chapters); Part 3, "The Renaissance and Its Influence" (seven chapters); and Part 4, "The Modern Era" (four chapters). The last chapter of "The Modern Era" is entitled "Development of Dental Science and Practice in the Twentieth Century" and is subdivided into four parts.

This work highlights the important influences that dentistry has had on other medical disciplines. The contributions of dentists to the discovery of surgical anesthesia are again stressed in an effort to correct the historical record. The book is not footnoted, but there is an extensive list of references at the end of each chapter; these are vital additional sources for the researcher.

I had one initial criticism of this book: its subject index is a mere one and one-half pages. I had occasion to research dental floss for a project, but was unable to locate any references in the subject index. This led me to the person index and to some of the early names closely associated with oral hygiene advocacy: Woofendale was there, but Levi Spear Parmly and Charles C. Bass were not. Parmly is believed by some to have invented dental floss (he did not, but he at least popularized its use). C. C. Bass, a physician and dean of Tulane University of Louisiana School of Medicine, did the groundbreaking research beginning in 1941 on the mechanical disruption of plaque and the optimum characteristics of toothbrushes and dental floss; he introduced an era of prevention in dental practices that remains with us today.

I suppose that with any ambitious project there will always be omissions, and the authors beg for these exclusions to be brought to their attention. Perhaps a future work is in the offing. These minor shortcomings pale in comparison to the impressive task accomplished. This is a valuable book for clinicians, teachers, researchers, and medical and general historians.