Discover your ancestor in the dental surgeons directory from 1925. Uncover an address, telephone number and further details about your relative’s career. The list was compiled mainly from returns of the annual circular which was sent to every graduate and licentiate in dental surgery.
Discover your ancestor in the dental surgeons directory from 1925. Uncover an address, telephone number and further details about your relative’s career. The list was compiled mainly from returns of the annual circular which was sent to every graduate and licentiate in dental surgery.
Each record includes an image of the original directory and a transcript for the individual entry.
Transcript
Image
The italic abbreviations in parentheses which follow the qualifications signify the Medical Schools and School of Dental Surgery at which Members of the Profession were educated.
The beginnings of modern Dentistry
A registration system for dentists was established in 1878 with the first Dentist’s Act and subsequently a register recording the names, addresses and qualifications of those registered was published. This was an important step in the regulating of dentists – a discipline that had its roots in the Barber-Surgeons of the Middle Ages.
The Barber-Surgeons’ Company ultimately became The Royal College of Surgeons. The branching off of dentistry from other surgical subdivisions coincided with the recognition of the technicalities and demands required of its practitioners.
History of English Dentistry
The first dedicated Dental School in England was established in 1858 in Soho Square, London. The school was sponsored by Samuel Cartwright and John Tomes, the men behind the first professional association The Odontological Society. Around the same time as the 1878 Act, The Royal College of Surgeons arranged for examinations to be put in place for the licensing of dental surgery.
Another important figure in early English Dentistry was Charles Wallis who began his career as a surgeon on RMS Garth Castle before focusing on paediatric dentistry and helping to set up ‘toothbrush clubs’ to encourage dental hygiene in children.