History of the Department of Prosthodontics

[From the 1958-1959 Hya Yaka/Yearbook]

The Department of Prosthodontics

During the last fifty years, there have been many changes and advancements in the science and art of Dentistry. In prosthodontics, the changes in teaching and in clinical practice have been evolutionary, so taht today the biological applications receive more emphasis than the purely mechanical phases of oral rehabilitation, but both these sciences are closely associated.

When the present building was built in 1908 and the move made from the former building at the north-east corner of Elizabeth and College Streets, the late W. E. Cummer was head of this department. Dr. Cummer was probably the first dental teacher to organize the scientific teaching of removable partial denture prosthesis and his accomplishments in this field were known throughout the world. He left this school in 1931 to become the Dean of the Dental Faculty at the University of Detroit.

Dr. F. M. Lott, former Director-General of the Royal Canadian Dental Corps and presently the head of the Department of Prosthodontics at the School of Dentistry, University of Sourthern California, was the next department head. He was professor of prosthodontics from 1931 to 1946.

The writer of this sketch was appointed head of the department in 1946.

Many of the former and most of the present teachers are known to the graduates of this Faculty practicing in Canada and in other parts of the Commonwealth as well as in the United States.

Some of the former members of this staff, who made effective contributions in this teaching area, come to mind, many of whom have passed on. One recalls such personalities as W. E. Willmott, son of the first Dean, James, Banston Willmott, J. A. Bothwell, W. G. Switzer, I. H. Ante, R. S. Woollatt, J. H. Duff, F. L. Cole, J. G. Perkin, A. M. Hord, T. N. Scott, R. R. Walker, W. H. Coon, H. H. Halloran, H. H. Cummer, E. A. Grant, and many others.

During the era from 1908 to the present time, many developments and changes in the concept, teaching methods, and techniques of prosthodontics and in dental materials have occurred. Plane line articulators have been discarded for adjustable articulators, and accurate methods of recording jaw relations are standard procedures for all prosthodontic treatment. The use of vulcanite, porcelain gum sections, cast and swaged aluminum, celluloid and phenolic resins, and platinum pin denture teeth have been replaced by other and improved materials for greater effectiveness and esthetic qualities.

The types of impression materials an dtechniques for all prosthetic restorations have changed, providing more accurate results. No longer are plaster of Paris and modeling compounds exclusively employed as impression materials but have been replaced by alginate, agar hydrocolloid, silicone, zinc-oxide-eugenol paste, and rubber base materials.

The types and forms of denture teeth have been markedly improved, but, notwithstanding the advances in design, balanced occlusion in dentures based on the bio-mechanics of the masticatory mechanism is a basic requirement.

The employment of competently trained auxiliary dental personnel is now a common practice enabling the dentist, under his direction, to provide some additional and better service to the public.

The present building has passed through many metamorphoses during the years since it was first occupied. Frpom 1908 to 1918, the freshman prosthetic and dental anatomy laboratory was located at the south-east corner of the top floor.

The sophomore laboratory for operative and prosthetic dentistry was at the south-west corner of the top floor where operative dentistry is still taught.

The junior laboratory was at the north-east corner of the present clinic where the pedodontic clinic is situated.

The senior laboratory was located on the clinic florr just south of the door leading to th emain stairway, while the prosthetic clinic was in the south-east part of the present clinic.

There was a quadrangle where the library and the dental materials laboratory are now located. The new wing, which was built about 1920, provided for the prosthetic clinic of twelve chairs and a demonstration room in the north-east part of this wing.

The dental materials laboratory (Room 10), now used by First Year Dental students, and Room 53 were originally a large assembly hall where dances, various assemblies and social evenings took place.

Following the war of 1914-1918, an army rehabilitation clinic for various types of prostheses was located on the mezzanine floor, College Street side, in several rooms now used as offices.

The new building will provide a prosthodontics clinic of twenty chairs, a large clinical laboratory to accommodate one hundred and twenty-four students of the Third and Fourth Years, and a staff technicians' laboratory for all laboratory services, with space for at least eight technicians—an increase of five over the present number. The clinic and cinic laboratories are on the same floor and in close proximity to one another, and will be furnished with new equipment of the latest design.

Instead of several laboratories to handle the preclinical technical courses in the First and Second Years, a large laboratory to accommodate one hundred and twenty-eight students, two demonstration rooms, and fourth other rooms for casting, processing, polishing, and other services are provided.

Televised clinics and demonstrations in clinical and preclinical teaching will be expanded with the additional facilities.

Dr. Lester W. Burket, in a paper presented at the Fifteenth Congress on Dental Education and Licensure, made the observation that "The discovery of more effective preventive or prophylactic measures for periodontal disease will assist materially in making available dental services for larger segments of the population. We all look with hopeful expectation to developments in this area; however, the most optimistic investigator would hesitate to state that the impact of research findings would be clinically applicable in the immediate future" ... "It is probable that research contributions in the materials and technics areas will have a more immediate effect on increasing the work potential of the dentist than the development of new prophylactic measures."

Until the ravages produced by dental caries and periodontal disease are reduced, there will be an increasing need and demand for the replacement of lost teeth by substitutes that are compatible with the oral tissues.

One can only speculate on what the next fifty years will bring in th eway of discoveries and advances in knowledge, materials and treatment methods. Although the dental course will continue to be based on a thorough understanding of the human organism and of deviations from health, the character of dental education in the future may be difficult in some respects from that existing today.

Richard J. Godfrey.