01 basker obituary - British Dental Association€¦ · £30.00 overseas dental student ... guided tours of the museum and outreach and education events. The award is presented for

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D E N T A L H I S T O R I A N

NUMBER 63 (2)

July 2018—––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-––––––––––––––––––––––––

Contents

Lindsay Society Officers 2017/18.........................................................................................................iii

Membership Details..............................................................................................................................iii

Editorial.................................................................................................................................................iv

A Tribute to Emeritus Professor Robin M Basker OBEStuart Robson and Jim Ralph...............................................................................................................39

Enid Muriel Spencer MBE (3 October 1930 - 30 May 2018)Stanley Gelbier......................................................................................................................................43

Frederick Ballard (1882-1962) tireless champion of NHS dentistryChris Stephens ......................................................................................................................................45

Malcolm Bishop and the CE Wallis Lecture at the Royal Society of MedicineStanley Gelbier and Julie Papworth.....................................................................................................52

Museum Man – The overlooked influence of Joseph Lewin PayneNeil Handley……………………………………………………………………………………..……56

Evolution of the dentist’s image in Francophone comic strips. Part 1Remi Esclassan, Pierre Baron, Mariane Fautrier, Gerald Bernardin , Jean-Noel Vergnes ............62

The Special Contribution of Pat O’Driscoll to the Practice of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery inthe Late 20th Century.Martin Mace, Patricia Reynolds and Stephen Challacombe...............................................................69

History of the National Examining Board for Dental Nurses: 1943-2018Nairn H F Wilson..................................................................................................................................82

Gibbs, Colin Davis, the Oral Hygiene Service and its predecessors

Stanley Gelbier, Sue Lloyd and BA (Polly) Munday…………………………………………………93

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Dental Historian

The Dental Historian (DH) is an international journal that publishes peer reviewed papers, biographiesand descriptions of historical artefacts. The DH accepts manuscripts online. It is a condition of acceptanceof a manuscript that it has not previously been published or is not under consideration of publication inany other journal. If more information is required then please contact the Editor. Persons wishing tosubmit a paper for publication should send it to Dr Margaret Wilson, Editor [email protected]

Manuscripts should be single spaced, Times New Roman, font size 12 and left justified. The publisherand editor cannot be held responsible for errors or any consequences arising from information in thisjournal. The views and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher and editor. Authors arereminded that it is their responsibility to obtain permission for publication of images in the DentalHistorian.

The Dental Historian is sent free to members of the Lindsay Society.

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President David McGowan [email protected]

Immediate past-president [email protected]

Hon Secretary Brian Williams [email protected]

Treasurer Noel Stamp [email protected]

Editor of Dental Historian Margaret Wilson [email protected]

Committee members Rachel Bairsto

Stuart Geddes

Roland Hopwood

Craig Rushforth

Andrew Sadler

Associate Editor Nairn HF Wilson

Membership DetailsMembership applications should be sent to the Honorary Secretary, Dr Brian Williams, 14 Howard Road,Great Bookham, Surrey, KT23 4PWEmail: [email protected]

£28.00 UK member£46.00 UK joint membership-both at same address£35.00 for overseas member, payable in sterling.£55.00 for overseas joint members-both at same address, payable in sterlingFree to UK student members of the BDA£30.00 overseas dental studentSingle issues can be bought by sending a cheque for £16.00 + P&P made out to the “Lindsay Society forthe History of Dentistry” to the Distribution Manager, Stuart Geddes, Ysgubor Argoed, Tregagle/Monmouth,NP25 4RY. Email: [email protected]

Lindsay Society Officers 2017/18

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Editorial

This year marks the 70th anniversary of thefounding of the National Health Service in July1948. At that time the advice given by the BDA toits members was not to provide NHS treatment.This advice was ignored by the majority of dentistswho almost overnight found themselves busier thanthey had been for years. In fact NHS dentists wereoverwhelmed by the number of patients havingextractions and requesting dentures to replace thosemissing teeth. This was also the era that saw therise of pain free restorative treatment, under localanaesthetic. The provision of dental treatment underthe NHS was surely wonderful, but this state ofaffairs was not going to last. Over the years therehave been many changes in the delivery of dentalservices, both in how dental services are providedand of course the introduction of patient charges,which have increased over the years. Given thesqueeze on money available to provide all NHStreatment, many of us question what NHS resourcewill be available for dentistry in the future. Couldthe adoption of more restrictions in what treatmentsare available result in only certain groups ofpatients able to access “free” treatment with the restof the population only having access to anemergency and diagnostic service? If thepercentage of the NHS budget remains the same inan environment where the increasing costs ofdelivering oral health care greatly exceeds inflation,the time is rapidly approaching when existingarrangements are unsustainable. Factor into thisequation the growing population, the babyboomers, myself included, who were part of theheavy metal dental generation, then a watershedmoment is surely fast approaching. Only time willtell.

At the 50th Anniversary of the NHS in 1998, theBDJ issue number 185 was a special edition,marking 50 years since the inception of the NHS.The editor of the BDJ at that time, Mike Gracemade the comment, “NHS dentistry is notnecessarily the only dentistry that can be provided.In fact for many people, NHS dentistry is not thedentistry they want”. He also noted that money orthe lack of money for NHS dentistry meant thatdentists could not provide the quality service theyfelt their patients deserved.

In the same issue of the BDJ, there were a seriesof letters from high profile dentists, giving theiropinion and forecast for the future of dentistry. Allof the authors praised the NHS for helping toimprove the nation’s oral health.

Tony Kravitz, then Chairman of the GeneralDental Services Committee, predicted, “thestereotypical NHS dental practice will become lessusual”. He thought dentists would offer a mix ofNHS and private care and foresaw the rise of dentalbodies corporate.

Paul Batchelor, at the time a senior researchfellow at Kings College School of Medicine andDentistry, London, observed “there is recognitionthat technology is expensive. The rationing debatehas re-emerged. Priorities need to be set”. Hepredicted that oral health care would remain withinthe NHS.

Richard Whatley, then at Kavo, predicted theequipping of modern surgeries with intra-oralcameras, digital x-ray systems and PC basedpractice management software. He noted thatfinancial investment in practices would besubstantial and significant. He thought that moreadvanced treatment with better aesthetics would beprovided under private contract.

Nigel Pitts, at that time the Dean of Dentistry,University of Dundee, predicted the rise of theintegrated dental team lead by the dentist. Moresurprisingly he thought that NHS services would becharged in Euros onto a personal health smart cardto be used in any member state of the EU.

John Lowry, consultant maxillo-facial surgeon,then the Chairman of the Dental Committee forHospital Dental Services predicted the continuingpressure on acute hospital demands. Thecontinuation of an unrelenting trauma workloadresulting from ferocious inter-personal violence. Healso foresaw the establishment of the emergingdental specialties.

Bill Allen, then the Chair of the BDA Council,thought there would be a move to the formation ofgroup practices and that dental corporate bodiesmight become more important. He also questionedwhether the training of dental health care workersshould be a state activity.

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With the wisdom of hindsight, it is easy tochallenge, be amused or nod sagely at some of thepredictions. It is however worrying that commentsmade 20 years ago regarding the lack of funding,quality of treatment, the need for huge financialinvestment resonate today. Twenty first centurydentists continue to invest huge amounts of moneyinto dental surgeries in order to apply advances in

technology and clinical techniques. Whatever thefuture holds, it is my opinion that the original visionfor dental services in the NHS will continue to beeroded with a widening gap between what the NHSis prepared to pay for dental treatment and whattreatment can be provided in the private sector. Onlytime will tell.

British Dental Association honours BDA Museum Volunteer

On the 10th May 2018, the BDA awardedRosemary Rabin the Certificate of Merit forservices to the association. Rosemary graduatedfrom dental school in 1962 and after a very fulldental career, volunteered for the BDA Museumafter she retired from clinical practice in 2000. Shehas been an invaluable help to the museum,cataloguing the George Cunningham lantern slidecollection, which is now an internationallyrecognised resource for researchers and historians.

She also initiated the archiving of the dental healtheducation posters in the museum. She has publishedseveral papers on subjects relating to the history ofdental public health and has been an active memberof the museum team, helping on school visits andguided tours of the museum and outreach andeducation events. The award is presented for anoutstanding contribution and services to the BritishDental Association and Rosemary certainly fulfilsthis accolade

Fig 1 Rosemary receiving her award from SusieSanderson, President of the BDA Fig 2 Rosemary and Rachel Bairsto in the BDA

Museum

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The President of the Lindsay Society, David McGowan, extends a warm welcome

to Glasgow

The Annual Meeting of the Lindsay Society willbe held on the 5th to 7th October in Glasgow.

The meeting venue is the Royal College ofPhysicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, withaccommodation for delegates at the nearby HotelIndigo - just a city block away.

The RCPSG was founded in 1599 and is theonly UK College of both physicians and surgeons,and now of dentists as well. The founder wasMaister Peter Lowe, a French educated Scottishsurgeon who petitioned King James VI of Scotland(and later I of England) for powers to regulate thepractice of medicine in the city and South WestScotland. The former Royal Faculty was re-titledThe Royal College in 1962 and its activities arenow essentially similar to the other medical andsurgical colleges. In 2017 the college had just over14,000 members worldwide of whom 23% weredental professionals.

Dental matters were supervised from 1935 bya Dental Committee, and from 1967 by the DentalCouncil, until in 1990 the Dental Faculty wasformed lead by a Dean. In 1998 the Dean of theDental Faculty became ex-officio the Vice-President Dental ranking equally with the Vice-Presidents Surgical and Medical. The Collegegranted their first LDS in 1879 and offered theHDD (Higher Dental Diploma), from 1920 till1967 when it was succeeded by the Fellowship inDental Surgery in parallel to the other surgicalcolleges. The Diploma in Dental Orthopaedics, firstoffered in 1949, was the first postgraduate diplomafor orthodontists in the UK.

The present College building was acquired in1862 and has been extended and modernised toprovide up to date educational and social facilitiesin an elegant setting. The meeting plans includevisits to the College’s collections of items of dentalinterest and the rare book collection, as well as atrip to the Menzies Campbell Collection which ishoused in the Surgeons’ Hall Museum at the sistercollege in Edinburgh. The meeting will also includethe annual Menzies Campbell Lecture to be givenby Dr Margaret Wilson. Other papers will cover theusual wide variety of topics but will includereferences to the centenary of WW1 and ofWomen’s Suffrage.

The city of Glasgow offers an enormous rangeof historical, cultural and commercial attractionsfor visitors to enjoy and the College and theconference hotel are right in the city centre andeasily accessible by all means of transport. See youthere!

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Dental Historian 2018 63 (2) 39 -42

A Tribute to Emeritus Professor Robin M Basker OBE

Stuart Robson and Jim RalphRobin Basker had a long and distinguished career in dentistry. He was a loyal member of theLindsay Society and also served as Chairman. We are also saddened to hear of the death of hiswife Jacquie who was also one of our members. The Lindsay Society has lost two great supportersand our thoughts will be with Robin and Jacquie’s family at this very sad time.

Obituary

Robin Basker OBE, Emeritus Professor of Den-tal Prosthetics and former Dean of University ofLeeds School of Dentistry died in November 2017aged 80 after a long struggle with Parkinson’sDisease.

He graduated from the University of London in1961, where he was an active member of the shoot-ing club, being awarded half colours in that sport.In the same year Robin married Jacquie Bowles towhom he was happily married for 56 years. Theyhad two daughters, Sally and Kate, and two grand-daughters, Robyn and Laura.

Following a short period in general dental prac-tice, in 1963 he was appointed as lecturer in DentalProsthetics at Birmingham University under Pro-fessor John Osborne, where he gained his DDS.After a very successful time in Birmingham, Robinwas appointed in 1978 to the newly establishedChair in Dental Prosthetics in Leeds bringing awealth of clinical and academic knowledge andexperience which he used to radically update theundergraduate prosthetic curriculum focussing onclinically relevancy. In addition he contributedmany clinical papers which were widely publishedincluding a series in the BDJ, often focussing onthe problems of gerodontology. Also, in conjunc-tion with John Davenport and others he producedparticularly successful books on denture designwhich were widely used in other dental schools inteaching prosthetics to undergraduates. In additionProf. Basker ran many postgraduate courses manyof which were oversubscribed.

Professor Basker become Dean of the School ofDentistry in 1985, succeeding Professor FreddieHopper, and he contributed very successfully andenergetically to the running of Leeds University byserving on the Senate, on the Honorary Degreescommittee and many other internal committees. Itwas a period of significant change to the deliveryof primary dental care which encompassed a needto expand role of dental nurses encompassing theiradditional training, and to foster greater teamwork

in practices, all of which he stimulated and encour-aged.

Robin also represented the University on theGeneral Dental Council for almost 15 years andduring this long tenure was a member of the Pro-fessional Conduct and Preliminary ProceedingsCommittee, Registration Committee, and especial-ly noteworthy was Chairman of the EducationCommittee. Additionally he was also active in theBritish Standards Institution, and was an interna-tional UK expert on ISO affairs relating to dentalmaterials at conferences around the world.

After many years of contributing to British Den-tal Association affairs he was awarded the BDA’sJohn Tomes Medal for outstanding services in2000, and was an active and most popular Presi-dent of the BDA’s Yorkshire Branch. On retire-ment from the University in 2000, he was awardedthe OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for hisservices to dental education. Shortly after this hewas elected Chairman of the Lindsay Society forthe History of Dentistry, hosting a most successfulannual conference in Ironbridge.

Robin Basker had a great enthusiasm for hischosen speciality, an enthusiasm he passed onto

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countless under and post graduate students with hisquiet determination and enjoyable humour. He andJacquie enjoyed a shared love of music and formany years were members and participants inHarrogate Choral Society’s productions. Theywere keen gardeners keeping their large gardenhorticulturally interesting and furthermore theywere warm and generous hosts to their friends andcolleagues.

It seems especially poignant that there is a sadpost script to this obituary, as within a month of thepassing of Robin, Jacquie also died having suf-fered with pancreatic cancer which she largelyoverlooked during Robin’s illness. Having lostboth parents within a short period of Christmas, weextend our sympathies to the Basker family.

Stuart Robson and Jim Ralph

A tribute from technicians who worked withRobin Basker in Birmingham Dental Schooland Hospital

In the late 1960’s through to the early 1970’s,Mr Basker worked at Birmingham Dental Schooland Hospital, England. He is fondly rememberedby the dental technicians who undertook his pros-thetic laboratory work. He was a dentist who want-ed to work closely with all his staff to achieve thebest outcome for his patients.

He was intense, consistently well read with thelatest techniques that were being published month-ly in the British and North American journals ofthat era. He knew that he was causing extra workfor his dental technicians when he would changehis mind on the technical finish of design of thecomplete or partial denture even if it had beennearly finished! But long term, the fitted resultswere as perfect as could be obtained for the pa-tient’s wellbeing.

Consequently dental technicians that undertookhis laboratory work had to be, above all else, pa-tient and devoted. But they soon realised they wereproducing appliances that were following the latesttechniques and consistently achieving admirableresults with hardly any remakes.

Straight forward hinge articulators were theeveryday articulator in dental laboratories through-out Britain in the 1960 – 1970 decades. Mr Baskerhad Birmingham Dental School and Hospital pur-

chase sufficient lateral occlusal moveable Freeplane articulators for everyone in the ProstheticsDepartment so that their dentures could have animproved occlusion.

Mr Basker was well liked by all staff and under-graduates. He had the listener’s attentive ear sothere were no misunderstanding or miscommuni-cation problems with him.

I started at Birmingham Dental School at thebeginning of 1974 as a dental instructor associatedwith the preclinical large teaching room we thenknew as the Phantom Head Room. When MrBasker was teaching his numerous Prosthetic pre-clinical teaching courses to 3rd and 4th year under-graduate groups he would always have by his sidea wooden clip board with a large “bulldog clip”holding down a file of lined A4 paper on which hewould have: his teaching notes, his observations,points raised during the courses and students indi-vidual progresses. I knew him affectionately asClip Board Basker. He was never without his triedand tested aide-memoir, these days it would proba-bly be a smart phone. From my recollections healways conducted himself in a professional mannerand was interested in all the undergraduates and theinstructor staff. He used to encourage the "fast"students to repeat a technique so they would hope-fully improve their skills and understanding beforethey started their clinical studies. He also wouldspend extra time with those that had trouble pick-ing up the new skills or handling new materials sothat they would feel more confident when theybegan treating patients on the clinics.

Tony Landon

Short extracts from the transcript of an inter-view with Robin Basker. The whole interviewcan be accessed via the BDA Museum JohnMcLean Archive.

The intention of the British Dental AssociationMuseum is to preserve these recordings, their tran-scripts and associated photos, documents and arte-facts in the John McLean Archive and by beingassigned copyright to make them publicly availa-ble for research, education and talks through publi-cation in print, electronic media, public broadcastand the internet, whilst protecting the privacy ofthe interviewees.

The questions are in italics and the responseshave been abridged. The full text continues with

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his later years at Leeds University and his timespent at the General Dental Council.

This interview is carried out on behalf of theJohn McLean Archive: A Living History for Den-tistry. Today’s interview is with Emeritus Profes-sor, Robin Basker. Welcome, Robin, and thankyou very much for agreeing to the interview. I amthe interviewer and my name is Stuart Robson andthe interview is taking place at Robin Basker’shome on 3rd December, 2011.

On the choice of a dental school:

I only applied to one school, the London asit was called then of course, and now the RoyalLondon, and there are two reasons. First, onesummer when we were on holiday I think inTorquay, we met up with another family andthe father was Bill Keyser who was one of thechiefs at the London in the dental department.Also, the doctor in our village, who lookedafter me over the years, he was trained at theLondon, so it was pretty obvious that I wasgoing to go to the London if they would haveme. And so I applied and went for interviewand there must have been about six very expe-rienced questioners and they gave me a placeand, as I say, I had to get physics and chemistryand zoology at A-Level and botany at O-Level,and the latter proved quite a difficulty. I did getit but when I sent in the results to the London Igot a letter back saying, ‘You should havefollowed the A-Level course in botany but anO-level pass on the A-Level course would havebeen sufficient, but as you only did the O-Levelcourse you’ll have to do first MB at QueenMary College, first MB in biology.’ And thatwas one term or the first term before startingdentistry in Whitechapel.

So probably you were just badly advised on that?

Well, I suppose it’s one of those things.Cynically I think to myself- was it a case ofputting a group back by six months becausethere was only room for twelve people in thephantom head room?

So now, in the phantom head room, what was theintake in the first year?

I suppose it was twelve every six months.

That’s quite a small intake.

Oh very small. And so we got to know eachvery well and the staff got to know us very well.

On achieving a higher degree, research and teach-ing

Yes, at the end of the sixties, I did the MDSwhich was converted to the DDS. Just aboutthat time John Osborne had arranged for me todo an exchange visit to Copenhagen. Jacquie(and two children now) and myself we wentover to Copenhagen for about four monthswhere I worked with Professor Niels Brill whowas a tremendous guy, a great friend of JohnOsborne’s. I learned a great deal, especiallyanother way of approaching prosthetic dentist-ry, so that it broadened my outlook and I’malways extremely grateful to John for givingme the opportunity and Niels Brill for teachingme a lot of other things.

You say that opened your eyes to other aspects ofprosthetic dentistry. What were the significant dif-ferences if you can recall?

Well one was their approach to partial den-ture design and the use of a sublingual bar andvarious other factors and also the importance ofplaque control. Another one was the betterunderstanding of the jaw mechanism whichwas one of Niels Brill’s special interests. Hewas writing a major paper on this at that timeand used to give me the drafts.

We left it, Robin that you were in Copenhagen forfour months and then after that you…?

Returned to Birmingham, full of new ideasthat had come from Niels. John Osborne wasparticularly kind in allowing some of these tocome on to his teaching programme. So by thatstage I had got a senior lectureship with con-sultant status, so that was a very happy time forme. Then another stroke of good luck came,because John suggested that there was room fora new textbook on complete dentures. To cut along story short Bob Tomlin and John Daven-port and I started to do this and the first editionwas in 1976. I think I should say that one of themost important features was in the choice ofco-authors because we knew each other partic-ularly well and found that it was so important

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that when having a multi-author book that onecould talk to one’s colleagues and say, ‘Youcan’t say that,’ without people feeling hurtabout it. So we had a very happy time puttingthis book together. In fact it’s just had a fifthedition in 2011, so it ain’t done too badly.

We did a book on overdentures for the BDJ.This was a booklet they produced for severalyears. It had started off with a day in Londonwhere the whole aspect of overdentures wasconsidered. Then we had a book on partialdentures and John Davenport was the seniorauthor. Again the group of us who got togetherwere able to get along like a house on fire andas I say you could say to anyone, ‘You can’tsay that,’ and no friendships fall apart.

You’ve had quite a history, authorship if one cancall it that haven’t you?

Yes, and it’s been one of the great enjoymentsof my life,

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Dental Historian 2018 63 (2) 43 - 44

Enid Muriel Spencer MBE BA MLE (3 October 1930 - 30 May 2018)

Stanley Gelbier

Obituary

Many older readers will remember MurielSpencer (or Muriel Cohen as she later came to beknown). She was a great influence on both the BDAlibrary and the Lindsay Club. Muriel was born inthe north of England, in Leicester. However thefamily came south to London when Muriel was fouryears old. Her secondary education was receivedfrom the Mary Datchelor Girls School inCamberwell. With an excellent intellect shedecided to study classics. So for her tertiaryeducation Muriel went to Westfield College inHampstead, part of the University of London.There she achieved a Bachelor of Arts degree withhonours.

It was fortunate for dentistry that she thendecided to take up librarianship as a career. Aftergraduation she spent fifteen months at the NationalCentral Library, which was later absorbed into theBritish Library. Next came one year ofpostgraduate study at the School of Librarianshipand Archives at University College London. Therefollowed a month’s experience at the library of StMary’s Medical School. A major success came forMuriel when she was appointed to the library of theRoyal Society of Medicine, where she remained fornine years.

For dentistry, Muriel’s glory days began at theend of 1965 when she was appointed as its librarianby the British Dental Association. At that time theassociation was still at its old headquarters in HillStreet, but was soon to move to Wimpole Street.For the library, a move to more spacioussurroundings was a blessing. At the time much ofits stock was stored in boxes in the cellar andcupboards, so it badly needed more space. Murielrapidly rose to the challenge and re-invented theBDA’s library into the 20th century entity manyreaders will know. Over the year’s she vastlyincreased the stock of books and special packages.And she developed new services for members.

Muriel was a member of a number ofcommittees. It was an honour for the profession aswell as her that she was appointed to the BritishLibrary’s Advisory Group for the Provision and Useof Medical Literature. Unusually for a non-dentistMuriel was a member of the Board of the

International Endodontic Journal. She contributeda chapter on Dental Literature to Lesley Morton’sThe Use of Medical Literature. Perhaps it wasdue to her classical education that Muriel took aninterest in the history of the dental profession andthus began to attend meetings of the Lindsay Club(renamed the Lindsay Society for the History ofDentistry at the end of 1989). In 1972 she becameits secretary, a post she occupied until 1980. Eventhen she stayed on the committee for a further year.At the time Ronald Cohen, the eminent dentalhistorian, was the chairman. Importantly, he waschairing a working group tasked to draw up whatbecame the well-respected centenary history of theBDA.1 Muriel was the secretary of the group soplayed a major role. 1981 saw Muriel marryRonald Alban Cohen. Retiring from the BDA shejoined Ronald in Leamington Spa. There shegained three stepchildren. In 1984 Muriel Cohenbecame the first female and first non-dentistchairman of the Lindsay Club, remaining until 1986.

In 1977 Muriel gained a well-deserved awardof Member of the Order of British Empire (MBE)in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list. It was forservices to the BDA library. On 23 March shewent to Buckingham Palace to receive her medalat an investiture from Queen Elizabeth the QueenMother.

Fig 1 Muriel Spencer in the BDA library

1 RA Cohen (ed) The Advance of the DentalProfession: a Centenary History, 1880-1980,

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Muriel had many outside interests. As acommitted Anglican her Christian faith meant a lotto her, as did music: she sang in the City of LondonChoir. Muriel was a member of the Royal Societyfor the Protection of Birds and National Trust. Shealso enjoyed visits to art galleries and museums.

Muriel was predeceased by Ronald, who diedin November 2001. She is survived by John Cohenand his sisters Margaret Ann Cohen and JenniferSusan Tallamy.

Fig 2 Muriel at Buckingham Palace afterreceiving her MBE

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Frederick Ballard (1882-1962) tireless champion of NHS dentistry

Chris Stephens

Abstract: The story of how dentistry was included in the NHS. The influence of FrederickBallard on the inclusion of dentistry into the NHS

Key words: NHS dentistry, orthodontics

It has long been maintained that the only reasonorthodontic treatment was included within NHSdentistry in 1948 was that Clifford Ballard’s father“had the ear” of Aneurin Bevan, the Minster ofHealth in the post War Labour Government1. Is thistrue and who was Clifford Ballard’s father to enjoysuch influence?

So who was Frederick John Ballard?

Frederick was a Londoner. His father Williamhad been born in Clifton, Bristol but by the timeFrederick was born the family were living in StJohns Wood, London where his father was workingas a guilder and frame maker as well as a cab driver.They would soon move to Kensington from whereFrederick and his brother William Joseph attendedSaint Mark's National School Westminster. By 1901Frederick was living with his widowed mother andtwo sisters in Marylebone and appeared to berunning a dental practice but he held no dentalqualification and described himself as a dentalmechanic.2 This was because following the passingof the first Dentists Act of 1878 only those whowere registered with General Medical Council werepermitted to call themselves “dentist” or “dentalsurgeon”. Those who could register were requiredto either hold the LDS or to be practising dentistryat the time, and register before the deadline ofAugust 1879.

In 1909 Frederick married Eliza Wilkinson inPaddington and had three children of whom CliffordBallard, later to become the renowned Professor ofOrthodontics at the Eastman Dental Institute wasthe eldest, born in 1910.

Dentistry in the early 20th CenturyThe early history of British dentistry is well

known and has been extensively reportedelsewhere.3 By the early 20th century apart from theOdontological Society, which adopted a non-polit-ical stance, there were two representative dentalsocieties. The British Dental Association was setup in 1879 immediately after the passing of the first

The Ballard Family Tree

Dentists Act but only accepted members holding adental or medical qualification. The majority ofthe remainder who practised dentistry were repre-sented by the Incorporated Dental Society Ltd.,(IDS).4 It is likely that Frederick became a memberof the IDS in the 1920s.

In the early 20th century concern aboutunqualified practice continued to grow and in 1916,reacting to pressure from the General MedicalCouncil, the Privy Council established an advisorycommittee under the chairmanship of the Rt. Hon.(Sir) Francis Dyke Ackland. Their wide-rangingreport published in 1919 recommended theprohibition of the practice of dentistry byunregistered persons, the establishment of a publicdental service and that a statutory Dental Board ofthe GMC be set up to regulate the training andpractice of dentists. This lead to the passing of the1921 Dentists Act and the setting up of a DentalBoard of the GMC under the chairmanship ofFrancis Dyke Ackland with which all dentists wererequired to register on payment of an annual fee of£5. As a further consequence of theserecommendations a third representationalorganisation, the Public Dental Service Association(PDSA), came into being in 1923. Frederick

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Ballard joined this also and in due course wouldbecome its chairman.

Such was the rush to register in 1921 that afurther Dentists Act was passed in 1923 extendingthe time for registration. Frederick Ballard wasgrandfathered on to the Dentists Register in 1922.5By 1924 those registered with the Board wereidentified as follows:

Holding the LDS: 5032Registered under the 1887 Act : 768Grandfathered under the 1921 Act: 7301

In other words, the majority of those providingdental treatment at this time, like Frederick Bal-lard, held no dental qualification.

Changes in attitudes to orthodontics 1920-1940

Orthodontics in the 1920s was unavailable to themajority. It was practised by a few mainly Londonbased dentists, usually using fixed appliance tech-niques which had been learned in the United States;George Northcroft the founder of the British Soci-ety for the Study of Orthodontics was one of these.It was perhaps the BSSO’s report on the teachingof orthodontics published in 1922 which was thestarting point of the changes which would lead toorthodontic treatment being available to the major-ity of UK children.6 This report was soon followedby the Dental Board’s Lectures on “The growth ofthe jaws, normal and abnormal in health and dis-ease”. These were delivered in all the major citiesof the UK in early 1924.7

In 1923 Sheldon Friel of the Dublin DentalSchool who would later be appointed first profes-sor of orthodontics in Europe, had given the annuallecture at the BDA Conference entitled,” Theteaching of orthodontics to graduates and post-graduates”. This was immediately followed by aBDJ editorial suggesting that a specific member ofstaff should now be put in charge of the teaching oforthodontics in all UK dental schools.8 In the sameyear the Labour Magazine published a paper re-porting on the urgent need for a public dentalservice in which it proposed the setting up of adental section of the Ministry of Health with adental director.9 Three years later the first limitedpublic orthodontic service was instituted by locallyfunded public dental officers at the Heston DentalClinic working in cooperation with the Royal Den-

tal Hospital.10 By this time a number of reports onfacial growth and surveys of the incidence of mal-occlusion were in train or had been published,some funded jointly by the Dental Board of the UKand the Medical Research Council.11,12, . At thistime it was widely believed that the majority ofmalocclusions were caused by environmental fac-tors, such as mouth breathing, and were consideredto be preventable. This concept later fitted com-fortably with the idea that many diseases prevalentin Britain could be cheaply prevented within anorganised national health service.

Dental treatment after the National InsuranceAct of 1911

In 1908 Lloyd George, the LiberalGovernment’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, hadvisited Germany and became convinced thatBritain, which at the time was still reliant on a seriesof Poor Laws dating back to the time of QueenElizabeth 1st , should follow the German exampleand introduce compulsory national insuranceagainst sickness. The result was the LiberalGovernment’s National Insurance Act of 1911which allowed Approved Societies to collect thecontributions of their members. These wereforwarded to the National Insurance Fund. Inreturn, workers could take paid sick leave andgained access to free treatment for tuberculosis.13

They were also eligible for other treatment if agreedto by a panel of doctors but dependants were notcovered by the Act. By 1913 about 15 millionworkers were covered.

Dentistry was not a high priority because of thecost of coping with society’s other ills, howeversome Approved Societies introduced a dentalbenefit and it is likely that some of Frederick’searnings in the 1920s came from this source. Therehad initially been considerable argument betweenthe three societies as to who should provide thistreatment and what fees were appropriate but theproblem was eventually solved by the formation ofthe Dental Benefit Joint Committee of 1926 onwhich all three dental societies were represented.

By the mid 1930s Frederick Ballard had becomean influential member of the profession and hadbeen a member of the Council of the IDS for someyears. He had always had a keen interest in bothpostgraduate education and dental health educationand was now chairman of the IDS Postgraduate

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Education and Research Committee. In 1936 hewas elected as one of two members who served onthe Dental Board of the GMC to represent dentistsregistered under the terms of the Dentist Act1921.14 Not surprisingly he was immediatelyplaced on the Board’s Education and ResearchCommittee. His subsequent reports on the Board’swork made to the Committee of the IDS were clearand detailed. They were almost alwaysaccompanied in the Minutes of the Society by ahearty vote of thanks for his diligence. Ballard hadby this time become a founder member of theSocialist Medical Association (SMA) which hadbeen set up in 1930 and so was in contact with anumber of Labour Members of Parliament.15

Aneurin Bevan who had been elected Member ofParliament for Ebbw Vale in 1929 and would laterbecome Minster of Health in the LabourGovernment of 1945 must have been aware of theSMA’s discussions though he seems never to havejoined the Association. It is of significance that theIDS had existed in South Wales since 1911 andwhile there was little cooperation at that timebetween the three national dental societies therewere soon strengthening links between these threegroups in South Wales. This was achieved throughBDA members such as T.L.Brown andL.G.Denner. Brown held joint membership withthe other two societies.

In 1930 Frederick Ballard’s eldest son Cliffordentered the Royal Dental Hospital and in 1934qualified LDSRCS Eng. He began to work in hisfather’s practice at 47, Okehampton Road, Willes-den, London but the following year, perhaps hav-ing observed that to make a career in a UK dentalschool one required a medical qualification, Clif-ford entered the Charing Cross Medical School.He qualified LRCP MRCS in 1940 and immedi-ately joined the undergraduate teaching staff of theRoyal Dental Hospital, then headed by Sir NormanBennett and including the remarkable lecturer andresearcher K Corisande Smyth who at the time wasworking with the influential Professor J.C.Brash.Clifford Ballard soon took up an appointment asorthodontist to Middlesex County Council andbegan his research, working with Gwynne Evansat the Upper Respiratory Clinic of the VictoriaHospital for Children Tooting which was later tobecome part of St. George’s Hospital.

47 Okehampton Road Willesden today

The effect of the Second World War

In 1938 the increasing likelihood of War causedthe then coalition Government to set up two CentralEmergency Committees of Joint DentalAssociations (one for Scotland and the other for therest of the UK). Their task was to establish andmaintain a register of dentists from which could bedrawn those who would be called upon to serve inthe armed forces in the event of War. The CentralEmergency Committee set up a series of localDistrict Committees to carry out this work. One ofthe most active was in London and became knownas the Emergency Committee of Joint DentalAssociations for District 5(3) serving Paddington,Hampstead and N.W. Middlesex. This was set upat a meeting at the Eastman Dental Institute calledby Frederick Ballard (perhaps because he was amember of the Dental Board who was resident inLondon). Ballard outlined to the well attendedmeeting the many duties it had to carry out amongwhich was the need to protect the interests of thosewho had to leave their practices if subsequentlycalled up or had their professional premisesdamaged though enemy action.16 It is ofsignificance that the meeting was held at theEastman Dental Hospital. Ballard was a strongbeliever in postgraduate education and insubsequent years urged the IDS to support theHospital. While it is not known quite when he didso, Ballard became a Trustee of the Eastman whichhad been established by a donation in 1926 fromGeorge Eastman to provide specialist dental andoral health treatment for the benefit of poor childrenof Central London.17 Nine years after it opened theHospital reported that 20,488 children and 2,793adults were being treated annually and that theirOrthodontic Department had 8 full timeofficers.18,19

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When war broke out in 1939 the EmergencyCommittee of Joint Dental Associations for District5(3) was renamed the District 5(3) Dental WarCommittee. It would prove to be the case that thenecessary wartime cooperation between membersof the three societies within these committeesnationally would lead to a high degree of respectbetween the members of the three dental societiesand would lay the foundations for lateramalgamation. The death of Sir Francis DykeAckland in June 1939, who had been the firstchairman of the Dental Board,20 prompted anEditorial in the British Dental Journal on “Unity”.In this it was noted with regret that once again avote to admit non-dental qualified members of theprofession had achieved “too small a majority tocarry a change in the Articles of Association of theBDA to achieve an Association representing thewhole of the profession”.21,22 It was by nowrecognised by many, including Frederick Ballard,that without a unified voice the hopes of Sir Francisthat the profession might become independent andself-regulating would not be realised.23

Ballard, who was now President of theIncorporated Dentists Society (1938 –1941), wasre-elected to the Dental Board of the UK in 1939and became its Treasurer in 1942.24 In 1946 he wasagain re-elected to the Board and so played a majorrole in dental politics during the next importantyears.25

The coming of the NHS

In June 1941 Arthur Greenwood, the Labour MPand Minister without Portfolio in the coalitionGovernment, had announced the creation of aninter-departmental committee which would carryout a survey of Britain's social insurance and alliedservices including workmen's compensation, and tomake recommendations. This was intended to bemerely a tidying up operation but in the eventthe Committee interpreted its role very broadly.Frederick Ballard was a member of the three-mangroup which submitted evidence on behalf of theIDS. The report , drafted by the Liberal economistWilliam Beveridge and published in November1942, concluded that it was a time for revolutionand not for patching. The Report proposed a"comprehensive policy of social progress" whichincluded a National Health Service partly fundedby an extension of existing national insurancepayments but mainly by the Exchequer. Itsrecommendations received strong public support

and as a result the Government published itsproposals in February 1944.26 But while theseacknowledged that a full dental service for thewhole population, including regular conservativetreatment, was a proper aim for a National HealthService, it observed that there were not at that timesufficient dentists in the country to provide thatlevel of service. As a result, a further Committeeunder the chairmanship of Lord Teviot was set upby the two Health Ministers to consider and reporton “how the public can be provided with asatisfactory dental service, how enough dentistscan be secured, and how research into dentaldisease can be promoted.”

There was a danger that the inclusion ofdentistry within the NHS could have foundered atthis point. Like the BMA, the BDA had seriousreservations about such a scheme believing it wasthe Government’s aim to have a fully salariedservice. The BDA also maintained that there werealready sufficient dentists! The Labour Partythough had a long-standing commitment to aNational Health Service, frequently voiced throughthe Socialist Medical Association and these werereaffirmed in the National Service for Health policydocument of 1943. Unlike the BMA the SMArepresented all sections of healthcare provisionincluding dentists, nurses, midwives andpharmacists. Its Bulletins and articles in MedicineToday and Tomorrow kept up pressure on the issuesraised by the Beveridge report and a series ofleaflets on the subject were issued. Doubtless at theinstigation of Ballard, Medicine Today andTomorrow, gave considerable space to the positionof dentistry in a national health service andmaintained that all the arguments which Beveridgehad advanced for a complete medical serviceapplied equally to dentistry.27 However, the attemptby the Labour Party within the coalitiongovernment to force the pace of health servicereform in 1943 failed and they were forced toaccept the Government’s 1944 White paper andlittle further progress was achieved until the end ofthe War.

With the Labour election landslide of 1945 andthe appointment of Aneurin Bevan as Minister ofHealth things changed. Bevan moved quickly tore-establish the Ministry’s supremacy in policymaking and in March 1946 the National HealthService Bill was published and on 6th November1946 it passed into law.28 However many mattersremained unresolved and negotiations with both the

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medical and dental professions went on right up tothe appointed day of 5th July 1948. Ten monthsearlier in September 1947 Ballard had advised theIDS Council (as Chairman of the Dental Board’sPostgraduate Education Committee) that theoutcome of the present negotiations withGovernment might include the establishment of apostgraduate dental institute in London and if so hehoped that the Eastman Clinic would see its wayto create this foundation.29 In April of the followingyear he informed the IDS that he had been asked toserve on the new Dental Estimates Board but hadhad to decline to do so because of the pressure fromhis other roles and duties.30 He was still very activein promoting dental health education and was soonable to announce that the Dental Board hadauthorised the purchase of teaching films and a newcouncil had been set up to promote dental healtheducation in schools.

Frederick Ballard was by now a member of theN.W. Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board and amember of the University College Hospital Boardof Governors as well as of the Eastman DentalHospital. He soon found himself on the CentralHealth Services Council set up under the Act, whichhad direct access to the Minister, and wasimmediately nominated by it to serve on theDepartment of Health’s new Standing DentalAdvisory Committee. There was by nowconsiderable pressure from within the profession tocreate a single representational organisation whichcould speak to government with one voice. InJanuary 1948 the IDS had applied for legal aid inorder that their solicitor might formulate a schemefor amalgamation. On the eve of amalgamation ayear later, (which would result in the IDS’sabsorption into the BDA), the IDS conferred LifeMembership on a number of its past presidentincluding Frederick Ballard. Sadly, his contributionto amalgamation was never acknowledged by asubsequent Life Membership of the BDA thoughmany of his IDS presidential colleagues were sorecognised.31 This may of course have been becauseBallard felt that his continuing involvement as amember of the Dental Board (and later the GDC)made it inappropriate for him to accept such anhonour at this time.

Between 1946 and its introduction in 1948, theBritish Medical Association (BMA), led by CharlesHill, had mounted a vigorous campaign against theproposed NHS legislation. In one survey of doctorscarried out in 1948, the BMA claimed that only

4,734 doctors out of the 45,148 polled, were infavour of a National Health Service. The BDAsupported their medical colleagues and shared theirconcerns,32 but in the debate on the Health Service’s“Appointed Day” in February 1948 it was rightlysuggested that the BDA did not speak for the wholeprofession. Mr Baird (Wolverhampton East)pointed out that 18 months earlier the Associationhad tried to lead the profession into a strike againstnational insurance dentistry but that within 12months “ the great major of its members hadcrawled back and were working in the schemeagainst the advice of their own leaders”.33

Nevertheless on January 31st 1948, despite thisearlier indication of its membership’s views, theBDA Representative Board resolved to askmembers not to participate in the new State DentalService.34 Understandably it was believed at thetime by Bevan, by the public and the press that thereason for the BDA dentists’ dissatisfaction withthe Act was “on the old grounds that they wantmore money”.

The IDS on the other hand remained firmlycommitted to the prospect of a new comprehensiveservice and its President and Secretary found itnecessary to hold a short Press conference with thesupport of the Public Dental Service Association,of which Ballard was now Chairman, pointing outthat they were not to be associated with recenthysterical press comments and had told membersof both their organisations to decide for themselveswhether or not to join the new Health Service. BySeptember 1948 it had become clear that a largemajority of the profession had decided to enter thenew Service.35 This was not surprising, for, as wasremarked later by an eminent general dental prac-titioner at the time, “Before the NHS the averagedental practitioner enjoyed the same income andsocial status as the local plumber”.36

The Evening Standard’s view of Dentists’ reactionto the NHS Act (July 1948)

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The Profession Unites

The mutual cooperation and respect which themembers of the three dental societies achievedduring the war, and the realisation when the NHSAct was passed in 1946 that the profession nowneeded to speak with one voice, lead to a “GroupMovement” pioneered from London. In thefollowing year an Amalgamation Committee forthe three societies was set up with the secretary ofthe Pharmaceutical Society, Sir Hugh Linstead M.P.acting as the interdependent Chairman.37 In May1949, Ballard proposed to the Council of the IDSthat it be empowered to sign the Agreement ofAmalgamation on behalf of its members.38 Thiscame into effect under the British DentalAssociation’s title on January 1st 1950. Six yearslater the General Dental Council was establishedby an amendment to the Dentists Act 1948 with itsfirst president Sir Robert Bradlaw. FrederickBallard continued to serve as Senior Treasurer onthe new Council and received the OBE in the NewYears Honours of 1955.

Frederick Ballard’s contribution

In the opinion of the author, the role thatFrederick Ballard played in the evolution of UKdentistry was far wider and more significant thanrecognised hitherto. Had he been dentally qualifiedhis name would surely have appeared veryfrequently in the pages of the British DentalJournal, yet as it is, he is barely known today. Atthe Annual Conference of the Socialist MedicalAssociation in 1950 he was described as “A foundermember and recognized leader of the dentalprofession”39 and the summaries of his lifecontained in the three obituaries published in theBritish Dental Journal in 1962 confirm thisaccolade.40

Ballard’s energetic and far sighted efforts toimprove dental health, dental health education andparticularly postgraduate training in the UK weretruly remarkable and were sustained over more than25 years. On May 21st 1948, Wilfred Fish in hisChairman’s address at the Dental Boards 54thSession was able to announce the establishment ofthe Eastman Postgraduate Dental Institute and paidthe following tribute:

“Particularly do I feel that I shall be speaking withthe approval of all who have the welfare of dentaleducation at heart, both on the Board and else-where, when I express our appreciation and admi-

ration of the enthusiasm with which Mr Ballard hascarried out his duties as Chairman of this Commit-tee and Conference ( The conference had been setup at Ballard’s suggestion to consider the positionof postgraduate dental education under the NHSAct and its relation to the British PostgraduateMedical Federation). I know how long he has cher-ished the dream of a postgraduate institute andhow efficiently he has striven ever since he servedon the Board’s Clinical Investigation Committee.41

However, the idea that orthodontic treatmentshould become generally available to children in asocialised healthcare system was not FrederickBallard’s alone and there is no evidence that itrequired his efforts to ensure that orthodontictreatment was included it in the dental provisionsof the 1948 NHS Act. In the 1930’s and 40’s it waswidely believed that malocclusion was harmful tothe life of the dentition.42 Its treatment thus fittedwell with the beliefs of the SMA and Bevanhimself.43 Seventy years later it is intriguing towonder if state funded orthodontic treatment wouldhave been achieved in 1948 had it been known thenthat, with few exceptions, the majority ofmalocclusions are genetically determined, that theircorrection may require life long retention, and thattreatment confers little long term dental healthbenefit on the recipient apart from an improvementin the patient’s dental appearance and oral hygiene.

References

1 Rose J.S., et al. A history of the British orthodontic societies1907-1994. The British Orthodontic Society, 2002. p.192 National Census,19013 Gelbier, S. 125 years of developments in dentistry: Parts 5-7Br Dent J 2002; 199: 685-9; 746-50; 794-8.4 This had adsorbed the Incorporated Society of Extractorsand Adaptors of Teeth Ltd, (established 1892), in September1911.5 He was then living at 14, Wrentham Avenue, Willesden,London.6 Report of the Education Committee of the British Societyfor the Study of Orthodontics. Trans BSSO 1922; 11: 56-67.7 Later published by the Dental Board in 1924. A second serieson “The aetiology of irregularity and malocclusion of teeth”would be given in1929 and was also subsequently publishedby the Board.8 Editorial. The teaching of orthodontics, Br Dent J 1923;44:1123.9 Report. Br Dent J, 1923; 44: 1284.

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10 Gelbier, S. Britain’s first Community Orthodontic Scheme:for the children of Isleworth and Heston, Medical History1985; 29: 414-432.10 British Orthodontic Society. Hold that smile!http://www.dentistry.co.uk/2017/09/18/bos-launches-hold-smile-retention-campaign/ (Accessed April 30, 2018).11 Smyth, K.C. Facial measurements Transactions of theBritish Society for the Study of Orthodontics 1927; 16: 42-46.12 Smyth, K.C. & Young M. Facial growth in children.Medical Research Council Report No 171 193213 Even in 1947 there were 23,000 deaths from tuberculosisand 50,000 new cases reported annually. Rivett G. From thecradle to the grave – a history of the NHS 1947-1987. TheKings Fund, 1998, p16.14 Br Dent J 1936; 60: 596-599. (He would serve on theBoard and its successor, the General Dental Council, for 25years).15 By 1945 the SMA had 9 MPs among its membership.16 The advance of the dental profession. London: BritishDental Association, 1979. p.176.17 Central Health Services. Br Med J 1948; 2: 350-1.18 Eastman Dental Clinic Annual Report Br Dent J 1939; 66:747.19 Clifford Ballard would become its Head of Departmentand Senior Lecturer in Orthodontics, University of Londonin 1948.His former teacher Miss K. Corisande Smyth becameReader in Orthodontics at the Royal Dental Hospital in thesame year.20 He was succeeded by Edward Sheridan LDS FRCS thefirst dentist to be so appointed.21 Editorial. Br Dent J 1939; 66: 641-2.22 A further attempt to include those registered under theprovisions of the 1921 Act as eligible for BDA Membershipwas defeated in 1945. Br Dent J 1945; 78: 24.23 Ackland, Sir Francis D. Address to the 35th Session of theDental Board, November, 1938.24 Incorporated Dental Society Ltd. Minutes, 3rd January1943.25 Dental Board Elections. Br Dent J 1946; 80: 421.26 A National Health Service. Cmd. 6502, 1944.27 Murray DS Why a National Health Service- the part playedby the Socialist Medical Association. Pemberton Books 1971,Chapter 428 Webster C. The National Health Service - political history.Oxford: University Press, 2002, 12-1529 Incorporated Dental Society Ltd. Minutes, 16th September,1948.30 Incorporated Dental Society Ltd. Minutes, 7th April, 1948.31 The advance of the dental profession. London: BritishDental Association, 1979. p.263.32 The NHS Bill. Br Dent J, 146; 80: 318-320.33 Hansard 9th February 1948, 447: 35-160.34 Meeting of the Representative Board January 31st 1948.Br Dent J 1948, 84: 81-2.

35 Incorporated Dental Society Ltd. Minutes, 19th October1948.36 A.D.Robinson BDS LDSRCS Eng (1911-1995). PersonalCommunication, 1966.37 Incorporated Dental Society Ltd. Minutes, 7th January1948.38 Incorporated Dental Society Ltd. Minutes, 5th May 1949.39 Murray, D.S. Why a National Health Service- the partplayed by the Socialist Medical Association. London:Pemberton Books, 1971, Chapter 5.40 Obituary: Frederick John Ballard. Br Dent J 1962; 106:215—6.41 Ballard had been appointed Chairman of the Dental BoardsPostgraduate Education Committee in May 1946 and later thechairman of a Joint Committee of Postgraduate DentalEducation set up by the Board.42 Smyth, K.C. Address to the BDA Annual Conference,Edinburgh. Br Dent J1946; 81: 179-182.43 Smith, E.G., & Cottell, B.D. A history of the Royal DentalHospital of London and School of Dental Surgery 1858-1985.Athlone Press, London 1997, p.105.44 British Orthodontic Society. Hold that smile!http://www.dentistry.co.uk/2017/09/18/bos-launches-hold-smile-retention-campaign/ (Accessed April 30, 2018).

Author Biography

Chris Stephens OBE is Emeritus Professor ofChild Dental Health, University of Bristol

Address for [email protected]

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Malcolm Bishop and the CE Wallis Lecture at the Royal Society of Medicine

Stanley Gelbier and Julie Papworth

Abstract: This paper discusses the origins of the eponymous CE Wallis lecture at the RSM,including his career. It goes on to list the prestigious lecturers and their subjects beforesummarising the latest lecture, by Malcolm Bishop

Keywords: CE Wallis, Royal Society of Medicine, Eponymous lecture, Malcolm Bishop, Dentalhistorians

Charles Edward Wallis

On 16th October 2017 Malcolm Bishopdelivered a CE Wallis lecture at the Royal Societyof Medicine. But who was Wallis? CE Wallis wasborn in London in 1869 and received hisprofessional education at King’s College Hospital(1894, MRCS LRCP) and the Royal DentalHospital (1897, LDS).1 In between he was asurgeon on the Royal Microscopical Society’sRoyal Mail Steamer, Garth Castle. Later he spentvacations as a ship’s surgeon sailing to the Arctic,Tropics, Canada, Cape Colony and the USA. In1899 he became an assistant dental surgeon atKings College Hospital. When A SwayneUnderwood retired in 1911 Wallis was electeddental surgeon.

At King’s he developed an interest in thetreatment of children. He also treated them at theVictoria Hospital for Children, Chelsea and underthe London County Council and MetropolitanAsylums Board. After Wallis’ appointment as anAssistant Medical Officer (Education) by the LCChis research reports led to the establishment of itsschool dental treatment service.

Things were very different in those days.Hubert Humphries wrote of a story told by Wallis:2

“The bilateral extraction of molar teeth inchildren was about the commonest operation hewas called upon to perform. The injection of localanaesthetics had not then been introduced intodentistry, general anaesthetics were not normallyavailable in schools, so he trained himself to extracttwo molars simultaneously, one with each hand,while an assistant held the patient’s head. This hurtthe child once instead of twice; but by the standardsof today it seems a primitive procedure.”

Wallis was an active member of manyorganisations and among these he served on therepresentative board of the British DentalAssociation for six years and, from 1908 to 1919,

he was a member of the BDA’s Editorial Board,becoming Chairman in 1914.

He was widely read in history and archaeology,published papers and devoted much time to theHistory of Medicine Section of the Royal Societyof Medicine (RSM). Wallis was an authority onold London and Paris and wrote on Marat and theFrench Revolution, Malthus, Cagliostro andGaribaldi. At the time of his death he was writinga history of Harley Street.3

Dr E Graham Little MP, in a tribute to Wallis’memory, praised in particular a lecture on the ‘Artof War’ which Wallis had based on the Latin textDe Re Militari (Concerning Military Matters).4John Davy Rolleston made a special mention of apaper that Wallis had read at the SeventhInternational Dental Congress in Philadelphia in1926, entitled ‘Recollections of Lister’, to whomWallis had been a dresser during his student years.5

Lilian Lindsay remembered him as “a man ofwide reading and retentive memory, a man of manyinterests, chief among which was an interest inchild welfare which found expression in his workas a school dentist”. She remarked how “hisretentive memory provided material for hisentertainment of children whom he delighted withhis stories and recitations”.6

Charles Edward Wallis died frombronchopneumonia, in 1927, aged only fifty-nineyears. He left a fine legacy behind him.

The CE Wallis lecture fundHis brother Ferdinand presented the RSM with

£100 to found a ‘CE Wallis Lecture’ on the historyof dentistry in memory of his brother. It was to begiven every five years by a lecturer appointed on arecommendation from the sections of Odontologyand the History of Medicine. Wallis emphasisedthat he or she must be a fluent and interesting

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lecturer and should provide “illustrations such aslantern slides”.7

The CE Wallis lecturers 8

Very fittingly the first person given the honourof presenting the memorial lecture was LilianLindsay. She remembered Wallis as a personalfriend who sat next to her at meetings of the Historyof Medicine Section at the RSM. Lindsay recalledhow an interest in the history of dentistry hadformed a bond of sympathy between them. Manyother notable speakers followed her. They were:

1933, 24th April, Lillian Lindsay, “The Sun, theTooth drawer and the Saint”.

1938, 14th November, Sir Frank Colyer, “OldInstruments for the Extraction of Teeth”.

1944, 20th December, John Davy Rolleston,“The Folk-lore of Toothache”.

1949, 28th March, Frederic Nicklin Doubleday,“The Contribution of King’s College, Londonto the science of dentistry”.

1954, 3rd February, Prof HumphreyHumphreys, “Dental Operations Practised inPrimitive Communities”.

1959, 27th April, Ronald A Cohen, “Methodsand Materials Used for Artificial Teeth”.

1964, 23rd June, Sir Zachary Cope, “TheMaking of the Dental Profession in Britain”.

1970, 15th April, W Fraser-Moodie, “Struggleagainst Infection”.

1975, 5th February, Prof John R Garrett,“Changing Attitudes on Salivary Secretion – AShort History on Spit”.

1981, 7th January, J Archie Donaldson, “TheLife and Times of Sidney Spokes”.

1984, Prof Harry J T Blackwood, “A New Lookat the Use of Analgesics in Dentistry”.

1990, 14th June, Prof Bertram Cohen,“Observation, induction and deduction – JohnHunter, Pathologist”.

1994, 27 June, Prof Gordon Seward, “TheElephant Man”.

1999, Dr Caroline Grigson, “John Hunter’sLondon”.

2006, 19th June, Prof Stanley Gelbier,“Peripatetic Dentistry: An Out of SurgeryExperience”.

2011, 12th September, Dr Adrian Padfield,“Fifty Years of Dental Chair Anaesthesia andMortality”.

The actual dates for the 1984 and 1999 lectureshave not been traced.

Refusals

At least two people turned down the invitationto speak. Amongst the reasons given by BernhardWolf Weinberger of New York in March 1948 was:“Within recent dates much has been heard of thepossibility of a new conflict in Europe and underthe circumstances it would not be advisable tocommit myself until we learn if there is a real dangeror not.”10 Of course the American papers wouldhave been full of news of the coup by theCommunist Party of Czechoslovakia which, withSoviet backing, assumed control of Czechoslovakiaon 25th February 1948.

The second refusal came from John MenziesCampbell in 1958, due to illness: “chronic asthmaand bronchitis, and an acute allergy to all tobaccosmoke”.11 By then he had been confined to hishouse for four months.

The publications

Most of the lectures were published:

L Lindsay,The Sun, the Toothdrawer and theSaint, Proc RSM 1933; 26: 1377-1388.

J D Rolleston,The Folk-lore of Toothache, BrDent J 1945; 78: 225-230; 257-262.

F N Doubleday, The contributions of King’sCollege London to the science of dentistry, ProcRSM 1949; 42: 783-790.

H Humphreys, Dental Operations Practised inPrimitive Communities, Proc RSM 1954; 47:313-316.

R A Cohen, Methods and Materials used forArtificial Teeth, Proc RSM 1959; 52: 775-786.

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Sir Zachary Cope, The Making of the DentalProfession in Britain, Pro. RSM 1964; 57:919-926.

W Fraser-Moodie, Struggle against Infection,Proc RSM 1971; 64, 87-94.

J R Garrett, Changing Attitudes on SalivarySecretion – A short history of spit, Proc RSM1975; 68: 553-560.

G Seward, Elephant Man – Joseph Merrick,This was recorded on tape in the form of acassette. It is held in the archives and is yet tobe transcribed.

S Gelbier, Peripatetic Dentistry: an out ofsurgery experience.

Dent Hist 2007; 45: 45-58.

Malcolm Bishop, 2017 lecturer

Malcolm Bishop continued the fine traditionwhen he delivered the 2017 lecture to a jointmeeting of the Section of Odontology and theHistory of Medicine Society (successor to theHistory of Medicine Section) at the RSM on 16thOctober. He qualified from Guy’s Hospital andlater gained an MSc in dental radiology followingstudy at King’s College School of Medicine &Dentistry. Bishop was a general practitioner, apart-time clinical lecturer at King’s and a pastpresident of the British Society of Dental andMaxillo-Facial Radiology.

He is now an honorary research fellow in theUnit for the History of Dentistry at KCL. Overmany years Bishop has researched and publishedaspects of medical and dental history, including onJohn Tomes and the influence of the Royal Society,science and technology in Georgian times, publichealth theory and practice in the 16th century, thedevelopment of professional ethics, chemist-dentists and the education of dentists, whetherdoctors should be the judges of medical orthodoxy(The Barker case of 1920) and dentistry and toothdrawing in the18th and 19th centuries.

The 2017 lecture

The title of Bishop’s lecture was ‘The ebb andflow of ethical governance in a medical sub-specialty; dentistry in the 18th 19th and 20th

centuries’. He provided an overview of thechanging nature of ethical governance in dentistry

over the last three centuries. Bishop emphasisedthat for a profession to exist and be trusted, goodgovernance must prevail, which at any given timeis a complex weave of social institutions andinfluences; and both change with time. Central toany changes are individuals who promote them.Much of dentistry is based on dentists’relationships with their patients. Initially theyalone were responsible for high standards.However, State and commercial enterprises latertook on responsibilities for the provision of dentalcare and with it aspects of governance.

Bishop reminded the audience how both CharlesEdward Wallis (1869-1927) and Lilian Lindsay(1871-1960) were examples of movers and shakersof their times. Lindsay knew Wallis well and madeit clear that the adjustment of the governance ofdentistry to give priority to the needs of childrenand younger patients was a driver to his career. Inher lecture she had noted that in 1908 he pleadedfor the institution of school clinics as the only wayto deal with the condition of the teeth of childrenin elementary schools. So this changed the thennorm; instead of dentists responding only to thoseseeking care it was the profession’s responsible toseek out those in need.

The institution of the Dental Board of the UnitedKingdom and later the General Dental Councilmade the State responsible, albeit via a third party,for high standards in dental education and theirmaintenance during a lifetime of practice. TheNational Health Service brought with it newmechanisms to govern standards, both in actualcare and use of State-provided funds. Later thisform of governance was extended to privateorganisations such as BUPA and Denplan. And ofcourse the protection organisations have playedtheir part.

Dr Malcolm Bishop delivers his lecture

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Many of the advances have relied on a feedbackcycle. Thus problems, both perceived and real, feedback to the GDC and the dental schools, which haveslowly changed what has been taught over the years.Bishop stressed that not all governance changeshave been perceived as positive. He itemised someof the ebbs to give perspective and balance to thegenerally progressive pattern of flow.

References

1 S Gelbier and S Randall, Charles Edward Wallisand the rise of London’s school dental service,Med Hist 1982; 26: 395-04.

2 H Humphreys, Introduction to his C E WallisMemorial Lecture, Proc. RSM 1953; 47: 313. 3 [Obit] C E Wallis, The Times 6 January 1927, p12.4 [Obit] C E Wallis, Br Dent J 1927; 48: 125.

5 J D Rolleston, Introduction to his C E WallisMemorial Lecture, ‘The Folk-lore of Toothache’.Part one. Br Dent J 1945; 78: 225-230.6 L Lindsay, Introduction to her C E Wallis Memo-rial Lecture, ‘The Sun, the Toothdrawer and theSaint’. Proc RSM 1933, 26: 1377-1388.7 RSM Council Minutes, June 1927.

8 Extracted from the RSM Archives.

9 Lindsay, 1933, op cit.10 B W Weinberger, letter to G E Edwards, Secre-

tary RSM, 8 March 1948.11 J Menzies Campbell, letter to R T Hewitt,

Secretary RSM, 22 February 1958.

Address for correspondence:

1 Dr Julie Papworth:[email protected]

2 Prof Stanley GelbierUnit for the History of Dentistryc/o Central OfficeKing's College London Dental InstituteGuy's TowerGuy's Hospital London SE1 [email protected]

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Museum Man – The overlooked influence of Joseph Lewin PayneNeil Handley

Abstract: The quiet role of a committee chairman in establishing the dental profession’s historicalmuseum is given its due acknowledgement

Key words: museum, British Dental Association, Joseph Lewin Payne, Herne Bay

The present BDA Dental Museum leaflet andwebsite attribute the foundation of the museumcollection to the Librarian, Lilian Lindsay, in 1919.Whilst these public-facing promotional sources arequick to stress the small scale of the collection, anddraw humour from the fact that it was stored byLindsay in a box under her bed (in a flat atheadquarters), others have seen in this episode thebeginnings of a wider movement, whereby, ‘It maybe argued that the historical collections arosespontaneously from members’ pride in theirprofession and their Association because historicalitems of interest and rarity were received among themany generous gifts of books’.1 Lindsay’s deservedshining light has meant, unfortunately, that some ofthose proud members, without whom the museum,would never have been formed, have receded intothe comparative shadows. One of these is JosephLewin Payne OBE, Chairman of the LibraryCommittee.

The establishment of museums of theprofessions

The BDA (established 1880) was not alone informing an historical museum during the twentiethcentury. Other ‘new’ professions to do so includedthe British Optical Association (established 1895,museum founded 1901), the Royal College ofObstetricians and Gynaecologists (established 1928,museum founded circa 1931-37), the Associationof Anaesthetists (established 1932, museumfounded as the result of a gifted collection 1953)and the Royal College of General Practitioners(established 1952, museum founded almostimmediately in 1953). As the century progressed,therefore, museums came to be seen almost as anessential characteristic of such bodies alongsidesuch things as a prestigious headquarters, a library,grant of arms, presidential badges or even amember’s tie. There had been very early calls forthe BDA to follow this path. The BDA goldenjubilee publication of 1930 noted that at aRepresentative Board meeting in 1891 GeorgeBrunton, of Leeds: ‘…with that foresight that is oneof the characteristics of his race, suggested that the

Association should institute a Museum andLibrary, only to receive the reply which was to bereiterated with wearisome monotony throughsuccessive years, that until the Association had ahome of its own there could be no thought of suchimpedimenta as books and museum specimens toadd to the burdens of its wanderings’.2

This is interesting for implying that, hitherto,there had been more than one call to establish amuseum, but of ‘specimens’ rather than historicalitems, and that the call came from a member basedin the regions, whom one might reasonablyconsider less conveniently placed to take directadvantage of such a facility.

The gradual accumulation of artefactsSuch historical museums could, however, grow

almost by accident. In 1920 it was reported that‘the Library Committee had considered thequestion of a Museum, and were of the opinionthat, for the present at any rate, a Museum shouldnot be included’.3 Nevertheless, the following year,‘Mr Lewes has again added, besides books, a mostinteresting photograph and a plaster plaque ofEverard, the incomparable maker of dental

Figure 1 – Joseph Lewin Payne OBE (18721939). This picture, thought to be him, is a detailfrom a panoramic photograph of a meeting heldat the BDA headquarters in Hill Street, the largerpremises to which the Association moved on 99-year lease in April 1935 © BDA Dental Museum,11674

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forceps’. It was proposed to frame and exhibit aninvoice for dental instruments from the 1840s.4Thus we observe an early failure of the library toconfine itself to books and the placing of historicitems on display. In 1926 the BDA formallyrecorded a specific gift (to the library) of a dentalkey, early forceps and early mouth mirror,5 and ayear later formed what was referred to at the time,though not subsequently, as a library and museumtrust fund of £750.6 In 1928 there is evidence thatthe Amalgamated Dental Co had transportedpictures for free from donors to the BDA’sheadquarters7 in Hill Street and considerableexcitement was raised in 1930 by the gift of aqualification certificate from the College ofDentists of the 1850s. This was clearly seen as animportant treasure to be protected, as it promptedan appeal that, if another one could be found, itwould be an excellent addition to the museum.

A museum or a temporary display?What was this Museum Committee? It is a

potential source of confusion to the unwaryhistorian that the term ‘museum’ was used by theAssociation from as early as 1888 to denote atemporary, clinical exhibition held each year inconjunction with its national meeting. For example,the account of the annual ‘museum’ for 1922demonstrates that it was considered an ‘event’ atwhich a ‘noteworthy collection’ of pathologicalspecimens was temporarily assembled. Differentmembership regions submitted exhibits, includingsome drawn from established medical museums ofthe traditional didactic type, including that of theUniversity of Durham.8 The museum in 1923 wasdevoted to modern prosthetic methods andappliances. It featured contributions mainly fromindividual dentists, but three dental schools alsoillustrated their courses in dental mechanics.

The annual ‘museum’ of 1930 was a greatsuccess but also a significant departure fromprevious events. A brief mention in BDJ confirmsthat it was seen as historically-focused, but relatingto the past fifty years, that is the history of theprofession as entwined with the development of itsprofessional body.9 The opening Presidentialaddress laid emphasis on the longevity of theAssociation: ‘…the study of history is not merelya matter of intellectual interest, but should affordsome guide to the attitude of mind which we shouldtake up in considering present conditions and theway in which possible future developments may be

controlled. From the history of dentistry or anyother branch of medical science one learns manythings and I think the chief of these should bemodesty and a sense of proportion’.10

These comments were clearly intended to assigna contemporary relevance to the study ofprofessional history, notable for coupling it withdesirable professional character traits. Frommember reactions it seems the comments werejustified. The museum was seen by about athousand people. BDJ reported that: ‘A visit to theMuseum was by no means the least interesting partof a busy days’ engagements. Very appropriatelythe exhibits chiefly related to the history of theAssociation and of dentistry during the sameperiod, and it is scarcely necessary to remark thatthese material reminders of fifty years’ progressreceived careful and critical examination’.11

A full report on the temporary museum stated:‘… it seemed fitting that the Museum at the AnnualMeeting should illustrate principally the activitiesof the Association as well as the evolution of certainoperations, with the instruments used in carryingthese into effect during these five decades’. Thisapparent elision of what sociologists term ‘theprofessional project’ with technologicaldevelopments of the same period is by no meansuntypical. Some members who attended seem tohave recognised the event as a trial run for a futurepermanent display. In a letter to the editor, WalterHarrison of Hove, ‘one of the older members’,praised the Council for the fact that they were‘looking ahead by raising a fund for a morecommodious home, with better accommodation forthe offices, the library…and the museum’.12

That this would be an historical rather thanspecimen-based museum is demonstrated thefollowing month when BDJ devoted a fullparagraph to The Annual Report of the Museum ofthe Royal College of Surgeons, noting new displaysat that organisation and stating ‘It is gratifying thatso many dentists recognise its value by sendingspecimens to the energetic Curator’ (a referenceprobably to Arthur Keith)…’we hope that ourreaders will remember that the right place for rarespecimens of dental interest is the OdontologicalCollection of the Hunterian Museum’.13 That is tosay that the BDA clearly held no plans to competewith its Royal College on pathological oranatomical specimens.

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The BDA Museum is establishedThe formal beginning of the BDA Dental

Museum therefore dates to the 1930s and followsthe success of the temporary trial. One BDJ editorialon the library constitutes a remarkable text on howa library can be augmented by objects andspecimens and the wider value of tangible heritageas something that amplifies printed descriptions. Itstates that if more space could be acquired manyselected exhibits of a special nature would‘probably’ be acquired, (including on temporaryloan) to show methods, instruments and appliances.Anticipating possible voices of dissent from theregions it went on: ‘it is well that the members, bothLondon and Provincial, should realise how almostinestimable a heritage and possession they havewithin their reach’.14 One may note also thiseditorial’s reference to collectors within theprofession, some of whom might need to bepersuaded that the Association was the mostappropriate home. This suggests an awareness thatthe museum would have to compete for the bestmaterial. Indeed, as late as 1934 the ManchesterDental Hospital was absorbed into the localuniversity at which point the East Lancashire andEast Cheshire Branch of the BDA (formed 1919)handed over its library, cases and museum, in returnfor free use of the facilities. One may wonder if thiswould have happened if a museum had already beenin existence at national headquarters.

In 1933 Joseph Woods commented that theLibrary committee ‘might almost be called aLibrary and Museum Committee’, because giftstowards a museum were gradually beingaccumulated. The same minutes record that some‘specimens’ (by which is surely meant historicalobjects) had been sent round schools andrecommended the acquisition of a filing cabinet forthe storing of negatives of photographs ofdistinguished dental surgeons.15

Joseph Lewin Payne OBE (1872-1939)The Library Committee was chaired by Joseph

Lewin Payne OBE, consultant dental surgeon atGuy’s Hospital. It was Payne who recognised thatuncontrolled collecting in what was now referredto as ‘the rare book and museum side of the library’would soon leave insufficient room for growth.Furthermore, his fears for the weight-bearingcapacity of the floor prompted the removal ofheavier books,16 but these were as nothing comparedto the weight of ‘old workshop appliances’, i.e. the

tools of the trade, a gift of which was recorded in1932.17 It took an illness of Lilian Lindsay, through‘overwork’, before the Committee recommendedto the Board ‘the appointment of an ad hocCommittee to consider and report on the care anddisplay of the specimens at present deposited underthe care of the Hon. Librarian, and the conditionsunder which the care of a Museum of theAssociation might be instituted’.18

The Smith Turner Historical MuseumPayne also chaired this ad hoc committee which

was active in Mrs Lindsay’s absence. The outcomewas a suggestion that ‘a museum be formed and becalled the Smith Turner Historical Museum, itsscope to be limited to specimens, pictures, prints,instruments, appliances, &c., illustrating the growthof the science and art of dentistry’. Specifically,anatomical and pathological specimens were to beexcluded.19 Display cases were to be funded by theSmith Turner Memorial Fund, named in honour ofthe BDA’s first Secretary who had died in 1904. Afamily descendant, Mr J. G. Turner, expressed thedesire that the museum should be ‘solely a historicalone’,20 and it was noted that the contents had alreadybeen put to good use the previous autumn as a‘special attraction’ at the meeting of SouthernCounties Branch, ‘when an account was given ofsome of the rare books and specimens collectedthrough the last fifteen years’.

By July 1935 the bye-laws of the Associationhad been altered to form a joint museum and librarycommittee. The newly-named museum wouldmirror the library, already named in honour ofLilian Lindsay’s late husband Robert. ‘It wasconsidered very fortunate that there was an earlyopportunity of placing in the Articles those twonames side by side—Lindsay and Turner, men whohad done so much for the Association in the past’.21Nevertheless it is ironic that the museum was to benamed after a man, Turner, who had nothing to dowith its creation and concerning whom no interestin the history of the specialty is evident.

If Payne was the influential committee chairmanwho enabled Association officers and volunteers topursue a historical collecting project, it appears that,following the formal endorsement of the scheme,both he and Lilian Lindsay rather stepped aside.BDJ reported that ‘The task of instituting the SmithTurner Historical Museum has fallen under theCommittee and has been borne almost entirely bythe recently-appointed honorary curator, Mr George

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Northcroft’.22 This report may, in part, beconsidered a deliberate attempt by Payne, or indeedLindsay (as editor of the journal), to share the credit.

Mr George Northcroft first Honorary Curator

Northcroft, though only slightly older thanLindsay, fits much better the classic impression ofa financially comfortable, self-supporting honorarycurator, coming to the role only in retirement andtreating the task as a hobby, albeit that is not todownplay in any way the commitment and effortexpended. He was an influential figure of status,having served as Chairman of the Board. BDJcredited this ‘Chairman’ later in 1936 with the work‘he had done single-handed in establishing thehistorical Museum in a very short period’.23 LikePayne he was a prominent orthodontist and, indeed,had co-founded the British Society for the Study ofOrthodontics (BSSO) with Harold Chapman in1907. Unlike the BDA, the BSSO refused to engagein political activities and had established its ownmuseum within its first year of existence. Northcroftmay therefore be seen as temperamentally suited tointroducing the learned society approach to theBDA’s activities .24 There is also evidence thatNorthcroft made ‘some personal expenditure’ tomake the museum a success and bring ‘order out ofchaos’.25 He is mentioned as having prepared acatalogue (non-extant) and having had access topeer advice in the form of Mr Bradlaw, Curator ofthe Royal Dental Hospital Museum, who wasco-opted to the joint committee.

The galleries on the second and third floors ofthe Hill Street premises had already been allocatedto the museum.26 Large items, including dentalchairs, were to be displayed on the second floor andcabinets of small items, such as forceps and handinstruments, on the floor above. This was an overallocation of space because it was confidentlypredicted that the collection was likely to increasewith the accommodation so provided.27 At this timea tantalisingly vague record was made of the gift of‘old instruments and early teeth’. Artistic anddecorative gifts were also forthcoming for the lowerfloors too, including a statue of the Cumaen Sybil,which was heartily approved by one writer becausesuch gifts added to the ‘dignity and attractiveness’of the headquarters.28 It was down to Payne to urgecaution. He said that ‘for the present the museumwould be confined to the walls of the gallery of thethird floor. The cases would be illuminated byinternal lighting, and it was hoped they would be

so arranged as not to project inconveniently, thoughthe gallery was a narrow one. In making a beginningit was thought wise to confine attention to this onesection and afterwards to ask for permission toenlarge’.29

During the remainder of the 1930s, in line withPayne’s counsel, comparatively modest expenditurewas made on the museum. For example, in 1936,Finance Committee suggested a grant of £20towards fitting cases in the lower gallery. Thiscontrasts with the £176 lavished on sculpting thestatue of the Sibyl to stand outside the Library.30

Maybe it was a deliberate policy not to conflate thecost of maintaining the museum with widerdecorative schemes. In any case historical objectshad spilled out to other parts of the building, with‘diplomas and pictures of dental interest’ beinghung in Committee Room No 3 and three historicaldental chairs also housed alongside them.Furthermore, in order ‘to better display the paintingpresented by Miss Tomes, the display of portraitsof past-Presidents had been removed from theBoard Room annex and would be re-hung insuitable positions to be selected by the Committee.The engravings in the Common Room had beenrehung so as to permit of the coronation chairpicture being displayed to better advantage’. On theother hand it sometimes proved politic to mixceremonial and historical functions. The report ofthe gift of a gavel from Australian colleagues makesclear that it was intended as a ceremonial workingitem but states that it would be on exhibition on theshelves of the Museum.31 Such items weresubsequently provided with special portable casesso they could be carried away safely when requiredfor use.

Payne’s involvement in other museums. 1)Herne Bay Museum

The question remains as to whether Payne wasjust the sympathetic chairman and ‘critical friend’to others who actually did the work of establishingthe museum. My own recent research has suggestedthat this may be to underplay the enthusiasm andmotivation behind Payne’s involvement, for hetruly was a ‘museum’ man. A brief reference in hisBDJ obituary recorded that he was a co-founder ofHerne Bay Museum and ‘always insisted…onlimitation to objects locally found or of localinterest’.32 This museum has undergone severalchanges of form in the intervening years and hasonly recently re-emerged as the Herne BayHistorical Records Society. On turning, however,

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Figure 2 – Second page of the HonoraryTreasurer’s letter, 13 February 1939. ©HerneBay Historical Records Society, item as yetuncatalogued

Figures 3 and 4 – Tower adjoining Bishopstone Manor overlooking coastal land donated to the townby Payne. The Oddfellows Hall in Mortimer Street, the premises offered by Payne as the originalpremises of Herne Bay Museum. ©Photographs by Neil Handley, 2017

to an article on their own website and the relatedWikipedia entry on the formation of the Society Ifound mention only of the local doctor, ThomasArmstrong Bowes (1869-1954).33 Bowes was a nearcontemporary of Payne but had the good fortune tooutlive him by several years and to survive theSecond World War which may partly explain hisgreater lasting memory.

On a visit to the HBHRS in November 2017 Iwas able to pursue this apparent omission from theirhistoric account. The voluntary staff were unawareof Payne’s co-founder status although one of theirTrustees, Margaret Burns, could vaguely recall thename. I am grateful to Margaret for helping me tounearth documents in their archive that were asinteresting to the Society as they were to me.

Herne Bay Museum was founded in 1932, sototally contemporaneously with the work Payne(about to enter his sixties and still vigorous) wasdoing as Chair of the ad hoc committeerecommending the formation of a dental museum.We have found a tenancy agreement signed byPayne and dated 10 December 1934, which statesit is a continuation of a previous agreement madein July 1932. This relates to the intended premisesfor the new museum at 53 Mortimer Street, aka theOddfellows Hall, which it turns out was owned…by Payne. A further document, a solicitor’s letterfrom 1939 following Payne’s early and suddendeath at his London practice, recounts that theSociety had fallen into financial difficulties in 1937and Payne had volunteered to forego the rentalthough the Society had been determined not totake up the offer.

Indeed he later offered to sell the building anddonate the proceeds to the Society in order to saveit. In the event this had not proved necessary. TheSociety’s Honorary Treasurer replied to thesolicitor in February 1939 that the museum wasshortly to be moved to different premises on theHigh Street but that ‘the late Mr Payne took anactive part in the arrangements which are beingmade and it was entirely in accordance with his

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wish’.34 This active involvement, cut short bydeath, is confirmed in local newspaper obituarywhich reveals that he had been a major benefactorfigure in the town since 1909 and notes he was amajor donor of coastal parkland, also in 1932.35

2) Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons ofEngland (the Hunterian)

There is evidence that Payne had also helped SirFrank Colyer arrange and catalogue the teeth of fishat the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeonsof England,36.

Enough information has emerged to demonstratethat even if Payne was primarily an amateurdabbling in museums at one remove, he hadevidently learned from the practical experience ofinvolvement with other medical museums. Hishistoric interests were wider reaching than themedical sphere, and he could clearly back up hisinterest with financial support.

In the intervening years many reviews of themuseum have made great humorous play of the factthat a trip to the dentist used to fill the patient withdread of pain but that a visit to the museum ispainless. Let the historic account of the museum nolonger be Payne-less.

References1 J. Archibald Donaldson, ‘The British Dental Association

Museum’, Br.Dent.J, 164 (8) (1988), 261. 2 BDA, The Jubilee Book of the British Dental Association(London: John Bale, Sons & Danielsson, 1930), p.112.3 ‘Association Intelligence’, Br.Dent.J, 41 (9) (1920), 439.

4 ‘Librarian’s Report’, Br.Dent.J, 42 (4) (1921), 175-76.5 Br.Dent.J, 47 (16) (1926), 924.6 Br.Dent.J, 48 (9) (1927), 532.7 Br.Dent.J, 49 (10) (1928), 570.

8 Br.Dent.J, 43 (18) (1922), 933-34.9 ‘Jubilee of the British Dental Association’, Br.Med.J, 1(3620) (1930), 965.

10 N. Bennett, ‘British Dental Association: its Origin,Progress and Advance’, Br.Dent.J, 51 (11) (1930), 579. 11 Br.Dent.J, 51 (12) (1930), 654.12 ‘The Annual meeting’, Ibid., 661.13 Br.Dent.J, 51 (14) (1930), 801.14 Br.Dent.J, 53 (10) (1932), 666f.15 Br.Dent.J, 55.2 (10) (1933), 532.16 Br.Dent.J, 53 (4) (1932), 218.17 Br.Dent.J, 53 (5) (1932), 362.

18 Br.Dent.J, 56.1 (11) (1934), 590. 19 Br.Dent.J, 56.2 (10) (1934), 555. 20 Br.Dent.J, 58 (9) (1935), 448-9. 21 Br.Dent.J, 59 (1) (1935), 43-5.22 Br.Dent.J, 61 (2) (1936), 93. 23 Br.Dent.J, 61 (10) (1936), 616.

24 The BSSO collection was eventually deposited at theMuseum of the Royal London Hospital in 1992, but its latetwentieth century successor, the British Orthodontic Society(BOS), has revived an historical museum in the presentdecade. British Orthodontic Society, A History of the BritishOrthodontic Societies 1907-1994 (London: BOS, 2002). 25 Br.Dent.J, 61 (4) (1936), 241.26 Br.Dent.J, 58 (4) (1935), 181-82.

27 ‘The New Headquarters’, Br.Dent.J, 58 (7) (1935), 327.28 Br.Dent.J, 58 (11) (1935), 563.

29 Br.Dent.J, 59 (1) (1935), 32.30 Br.Dent.J, 61 (10) (1936), 616.31 Br.Dent.J, 60 (4) (1936), 193-94.32 Obituary, Br.Dent.J, 66 (x) (1939), 257.33 Mike Bundock, ‘The origins of the Herne Bay Historical

Records Society’, HBHRS Quarterly Newsletter, 1 (Spring2016), 2.

34 Herne Bay Historical Records Society: Letter from theHonorary Treasurer, Herne Bay Records Society to MessrsGuscotte, Wadham, Thurland and Howard, 13 February 1939.35 Obituary, Herne Bay Press, 4 February 1939.36 Obituary, Br.Dent.J, 67 (7) (1939), 374.

Author Biography:Neil Handley MA, AMA, FRSA, Museum

Curator, College of Optometrists, 42 Craven Street,London WC2N 5NG. The author is currentlypursuing a part-time PhD on the historicalmuseums of the medical professions in the 20th

century at Birkbeck, University of London

Address for correspondence:[email protected]

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Evolution of the dentist’s image in Francophone comic strips. Part 1.Remi Esclassan, Pierre Baron, Mariane Fautrier, Gerald Bernardin , Jean-Noel Vergnes

Abstract: The aim of this article was to analyze the evolution of dentist’s representation infrancophone comics, historically from the seventies to the present day and their impact in termsof societal patterns. Our hypothesis was that comics may cultivate a negative and caricatured imageof the dentist in the general public.

Keywords : Comics, odontology, history, dental treatment

IntroductionThe dentist and dental treatment have been

stigmatized for a long time in paintings, literature,theater and cinema, which often portray screamingor frightened patients and incompetence of thedental professional1-4. In the film industry forinstance, there are countless examples of films inwhich the dentist is caricatured with mostlynegative aspects concerning pain and extractions5.In painting, many examples can also be found inmuseums, offering a subjective view of thisprofession in which fear and humor share the samespace6. As part of this cultural heritage, the mediumof comics is a worthy heir to the tradition ofrepresenting dentists through frightening or funnysituations and is also an interesting way to “take thetemperature” of the dentist’s image in a period oftime 2. For Mc Cloud (1994) and Green (2013),“comics refers to a medium that combines imageswith a text, in sequence, to tell a story where theimages complement and/or enhance the text”7-8.Comics can come in a variety of formats (e.g. singlepanel cartoon, comic strip, graphic novel), and maybe expressed via different genres (fiction/non-fiction, comedy, romance, memoir, etc.). From amedical point of view, comics facilitate empathybetween author and readers by “offering a portalinto the individual’s experience of illness”8.According to Williams9, if medical stories in comicsare “nothing new”, health in general and odontologyin particular, have always had a place in theuniverse of comics10 (Figure 1).

In this context, the aim of this article was toanalyze the evolution of the dentist’s image inFrench-language comics from the 1950’s to thepresent day and to analyze their evolution and theirimpact in terms of societal patterns.

Material and methodsAn iterative method has been applied, based on

various sources:

1) Bibliographical research on specializedwebsites

a) www.bdmedicales.com/etudes/theses.htm,(which is the French “pubmed” of medicalcomics, founded in 2005)

b) http://www.graphicmedicine.org/, the mostpopular international website in graphic medicineand

2) personal reading of French-language comicsby the authors and relatives with the two followingcriteria: a) Dentist or dental surgeon must be clearlyrepresented and b) the odontological or medicalsituation must be clearly represented and havemajor impact of the story.

ResultsFollowing the criteria, 18 stories published

between 1971 and 2014 were selected (Table 1)

Figure 1 : Cover from : Videlier P, Piras P. Lasanté dans les bandes dessinées. Paris, ed. Frison-Roche/CNRS Ed. 1992. 191p.Bubble translation: “He makes the second shot…Aow! It’s not the right one yet!

DiscussionAccording to our hypothesis that comics may

cultivate a negative and caricatured image of dentist

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Table 1 : Francophone comics with dentists and dental situations clearly identified

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Figures 2 and 3 : extracts from Franz et Vicq : « Les aventures de Korrigan : l’arracheur de dents ».Le Journal de Tintin. n°5149, 1975, 6p.

Bubble translation: “ove brave people, bourgeois and manants, gentlemen and villains, ladies and mates,sweet ladies and young men and women, I, the toothpicker, claim to have the power to practice withoutyou feeling pain”.“Liar!”“Your suffering will finally end my poor Aubin Marie”.“Not too soon. I suffer so much!I'm in such terrible pain that I'm going to go crazy.”

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in the general public, four main items emerged fromour selection: 1) Pain, 2) Fear and the waiting room3) Clinics and dental specialties, 4) Gender andreputation.

Pain, fear and the waiting room are treated inpart one of the study and the other items will be inpart 2.

Pain.In representations of odontology in comics,

whatever the historical period considered, pain isomnipresent. In an episode of Korrigan, entitled“l’arracheur de dents”11, the charlatan is drawn onhis platform haranguing the crowd and telling themabout his great skill as a surgeon, pretending toextract teeth “without you being able to feel anypain” (Figure 2). A poor suffering patient is afraidbut decides to try the experience. Shee is wearinga bandage around her face and has difficultyspeaking. Her pain is represented through littlestars, confirming the radiating character of the pain(Figure 3). The authors did not forget to show theswelling of her cheek, confirming a probablecellulitis. In this case, the artist has done someinteresting historical research, especiallyconcerning the décor. In this period (17th-18thcentury), the tooth puller was a “charlatan” (fromthe Italian word “ciolare”, talkative/chatty) whoused to talk to the crowd in public places on apodium and was considered as a kind of “actor”.He often had an associate who played the role of a“patient in pain” making believe that he wassuffering6. The “charlatan”, would pretend toextract the tooth painlessly but, in fact, it was a trickinvolving a false tooth and chicken blood6. In Paris,the most popular was named Jean Thomas (the“Great Thomas”) (Figure 4). However, toothpulling was effective and many authenticallysuffering people were ready to undergo thisunfortunate experience. In another comic album,set at the beginning of the 20th century, Tardirepresented the tooth in question and the tears ofhis favorite heroine, Adèle Blanc-Sec12. She issuffering and has tears in her eyes. The funny pointwas that she tried to relieve her pain with alcohol,which, finally, did not work. So, there is a “medicaland pedagogical” message from the artist telling thereader that this technique is not available! (Figure5). In a more recent book (“Shenzen”, 2006), GuyDelisle describes his frightening experience ofdental pain when he was working in Shenzen,China13. One of his teeth was hurting and, having

Figure 4 : Portrait from Jean Thomas : extract fromBaron P. « L’art dentaire à travers la peinture ».ACR Editions Vilo Paris. 1996. 250p

Figure 5 : extract from Tardi. « Adèle Blanc-Sec :le mystère des profondeurs ». Paris, ed. Casterman2007, pp.7, 30.

Bubble translation “Oh, what a pain!”

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asked one of his colleagues to take him to a dentalhospital, he arrived in an unhealthy dispensary.What he saw really frightened him: an atmospheremore suited to a busy railway station, neon lighting,an old patient moaning in pain, dirty gowns andfloors… (Figure 6).

However, in the end, he suffered more fear thanpain as the dentist found there was nothing to worryabout (Figure 7)

Fear and the waiting roomWhen seen in comics, it may also be called the

“panic room”! For artists (and also for patients), itis a place of nightmare and anguish, before beingconfronted with the dental surgeon. For instance,Adèle Blanc-Sec does not feel very comfortable andimagines what is happening to the previous patient12

(Figure 8). The same anguish is evoked butpresented in a funnier and more caricatural way inEdika’s comic strip (2001), with a dentist calling“Who’s next?!!” and with nobody coming forward,each patient pointing at another14 (Figure 9).Finally, in Bercovici and Cauvin’s comic strip: “Lesdentistes”, the authors described the differentpatients waiting in the waiting room: the youngwoman, earnest and with good teeth, used to comingonce a year for a check-up, the worried patient whohas already had a nasty experience of extraction andis afraid to lose another tooth, the one in a panic,coming for the first time, and the emergency patientin pain15 (Fig. 10). This is a realistic andsociological description of what frequently happens

Figures 6 and 7: extracts from Delisle G. “Shenzen”. Ed. L’association, 2006.

Bubble translation « station hall atmosphere “, “neon lightning”, “guys walking around”, “a little oldman moaning in pain”, “cotton pads full of blood in the basket”, “dirty blouses and floors”,

“What? What does he say?”. “He's glad. This is the first time he has had the opportunity to observe astranger”. “They usually go to the American hospital.” “What? There is an American hospital?”“Otherwise for your teeth there are no problems. Nothing to pull out”

Figure 8 : extract from Tardi. « Adèle Blanc-Sec :le mystère des profondeurs ». Paris, ed. Casterman2007, pp.7, 30

in daily practice. The dentist is represented as aserious, competent professional, extracting thecarious tooth without pain.

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Figure 9: extract fromEdika. « Relax Max : lajournée d’un dentiste ».Paris, ed. Fluide Glacial,2001, pp : 7-12.

Bubble translation “Who’snext ?!!”

Figure 10: extract from Bercovici, Cauvin. « Lesdentistes ». Ed. Dupuis, 2011.

Bubble translation « You have to know that youwill rarely be alone in a dentist's waiting room. Youwill meet other people there”.

References1. Schuman, NJ., Owens BM., Johnson W., andD.S. Moore. 1993. “Dentistry as portrayed inmotions pictures and television”. CompendiumContinuing Education Dentistry 14:102-6.2. Mandel, I. 1998. “The image of dentistry incontemporary culture”. Journal of the AmericanDental Association 129(5): 607-613.3. Thibodeau, E., and L. Mentasti 2007. “Who stoleNemo ?”. Journal of the American DentalAssociation 138(50):656-60.4. Bohl, JB., Bracconi, M., Herve C., and P. Pirnay.2015. « Pour en finir avec la peur des soinsdentaires ». Odontostomatologie Tropicale38(150) :58-60.5. Claveria, M. 2016. Fear of the dentist portrayedin cinema. Revista National d’Odontologia Mexico20 (1):6-7.6. Baron, P. 1996. « L’art dentaire à travers lapeinture ». ACR Editions Vilo Paris.. 250p.7. Mc Cloud, S. 1994. “Understanding Comics: TheInvisible Art.” New York: Harper Perennial.8. Green, MJ. 2013. “Teaching with Comics: ACourse for Fourth-Year Medical Students.” Journalof Medical Humanities 34:471–476.9. Williams, ICM. 2012. “Graphic medicine :comics as medical narrative”. Medical Humanities38:21-27.10. Videlier, P., and P. Piras. 1992. « La santé dansles bandes dessinées ». Paris, ed. Frison-Roche/CNRS Ed. 191p.

11. Franz and Vicq 1975: « Les aventures deKorrigan : l’arracheur de dents ». Le Journal deTintin n°5149, 6p.12. Tardi. 2007. « Adèle Blanc-Sec : le mystère desprofondeurs ». Paris, ed. Casterman, pp.7, 30.13. Delisle G. 2006. “Shenzen”. Ed. L’association.14. Edika. 2001. « Relax Max : la journée d’undentiste ». Paris, ed. Fluide Glacial, pp : 7-12.15. Bercovici and Cauvin. 2011. « Les dentistes ».Ed. Dupuis.

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Address for correspondence :Rémi Esclassan, Toulouse Faculty of

Odontology. Laboratory AMIS UMR 5288 CNRS.03, Chemin des Maraîchers, 31062 Toulouse cedex09, France. / [email protected]

Authors Biography :Remi Esclassan,, DDS, PhD, is senior lecturer

in prosthodontics at the Dental Faculty of Toulouse.He belongs to the French Society of Dental ArtHistory (SFHAD) and is interested for many yearsby the links between odontology, history and comics.

Pierre Baron, DDS, PhD, historian and ancientassistant at the Dental Faculty of Paris V. He is theactual President of the SFHAD.

Mariane Fautrier, DDS has a private practicein the south of France. She wrote a thesis aboutcomics and dentistry.

Gerald Bernardin is a medical Doctor (MD). Hehas created the most popular French websitespecialized in comics and health(http://www.bdmedicales.com).

Jean-Noel Vergnes, DDS, PhD, is seniorlecturer in Epidemiology at the Dental Faculty ofToulouse. He is very much involved in Graphics inMedicine.

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The Special Contribution of Pat O’Driscoll to the Practice of Oral andMaxillofacial Surgery in the Late 20th Century.

Martin Mace, Patricia Reynolds and Stephen Challacombe

Abstract: ‘Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.(Shakespeare, Twelfth Night: Act 2, Scene 5). Pat O’Driscoll was undoubtedly the first two. Thistribute describes the special contribution to the practice of Oral Surgery of Pat O’Driscoll, SeniorOral and Maxillofacial Surgeon at Guy’s Hospital, 1966-1999. It reflects the small steps andconsequent giant leaps forward in the practice of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in the late 20thCentury. This was a time of huge change in both surgical practices and the NHS. Far more thanan obituary, this paper catalogues the advances and pioneering spirit of a man who changed theway that oral and orthognathic surgery was developed. But he left his greatest legacy in those hetrained. His surgical trainees took forth his work ethic, and pursuance of excellence in clinical care,to levels that have ultimately benefitted many more thousands of patients, far more than one personcould have done alone. His life story is one of dedication, empathy and excellence, whilst balancinghis varied pastimes and sporting interests. ‘A life well spent’.

Key Words: Patrick O’Driscoll, Biography, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Orthognathic Surgery,Dental Training

Introduction“His unending teaching in every situation butparticularly in theatre when I saw what skillfulhands he had - better than any I had seen in therest of my training. The care with which hetreated his patients and his sympathy to thedeformed… I have nothing but fond memoriesof this great man.” MM

From the book of condolences for Pat O’Driscoll

Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, and in particularOrthognathic Surgery were taken to the highestlevel by the pioneering work of Pat O’Driscoll whowas Senior Consultant Oral Surgeon to Guy’sHospital from 1966 until his retirement in 1999 (Fig1). Determined and dedicated, with good humourto the end, he passed away on 19th October 2016battling pneumonia. Even during this last briefillness he made comment that he ‘didn’t think thatthe junior staff knew what they were doing’ andmade every effort to escape from the hospital. Suchwere the high standards that he always expected,and the inspiration he gave to generations of Oraland Maxillofacial Surgeons who benefitted fromthe outstanding legacy that he gave them all.

This article will highlight the life and times of agreat gentleman; his contribution to thedevelopment of the profession and specialty in thelate 20th Century; and his especial lasting impact.

Figure 1. Pat O'Driscoll 1993: “He was a hugeinfluence on the students he trained, an enthusiastwho inspired generations” MG, From the Book ofCondolences for Pat O’Driscoll.

Personal Biographical FeaturesPatrick Michael O’Driscoll was born in a private

nursing home off of Sloane Square, London on 20thMarch 1934. He was the first-born son of DavidJoseph O’Driscoll, a Dental Practitioner in Pimlico,London (Fig 2a), and his wife Lilian ConstanceHarris, who had been a rising film star, feted in theIllustrated Sporting and Dramatic News of 19301.

Pat’s father, Joe O’Driscoll, had qualified LDSin 1923 at the National University of Ireland (Fig2a), based in Cork, the city of his birth in 1899 andmoved to Lowestoft in 1926, and London in 1928where he practiced at 80 Warwick Way SW1 until1970. Before training as a dental surgeon, he fought

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in the First World War at Gallipoli and won medalsfor his service in the Medical Corps.

Pat was the eldest of four boys, Kevin, Roderickand Brian, born before the Second World War, andtwo sisters, Undine and Rosemary, born after theWar. They lived at the Grange in Horton Kirby inKent, that subsequently became a BUPA nursinghome. Pat attended the local school in Farninghamin Kent, before being sent to Ampleforth Collegein Yorkshire, followed by his three brothers.

At Ampleforth Pat excelled in sports, includingrugby, sailing and skiing, and developed his passionfor fly fishing. He was a Sea Cadet who learnt tosail during School trips to Quarr Abbey on the Isleof Wight. He even made the BBC radio news whenaged 16 in 1950, he fixed the failing engine in thenick of time in a boat destined for Holland with hisscout masters and fellow scout2.

His skiing prowess was such that talent spottersfrom the English team training in Kandersteg inSwitzerland, asked him to train for the WinterOlympics (Fig 3). However, Joseph, his father,insisted that Patrick went to Dental School, instead.The rest became history.

Patrick’s School Certificate from the Oxford andCambridge board were in the Arts, where heexcelled in French, not surprisngly as his mothercame from a lineage of French speakers of Hugenotheritage. He was enrolled in First BDS in 1951 togain basic medical science training, beforecompleting 2nd BDS and 2nd MB in 1952. Severalof his classmates were destined for greatness,

Figure 2. Joseph O'Driscoll (father) qualifyingLDS in Dentistry, University College, Cork, 1923(Fig 2a) and Pat O'Driscoll qualifying BDS inDentistry, 1957 (Fig 2b).

Figure 3. Swiss Skiing Certificate signed by thefather of the future President of Switzerland,Adolf Ogi, 1940 (left). After the Second WorldWar, the English Olympic Squad asked Pat totrain for the Winter Olympics, but his father saidhe must go to Dental School instead! Not bedeterred at age 70 Pat completed the 'Wall ofDeath', skiing down the sheer drop from Avoriaz,France into Switzerland (right).

including Lord Ian McColl seen in the Class Photoof 1952 (Fig 4).

Patrick enjoyed his undergraduate career atGuy’s Dental School where he made life-longfriends, such as Henry Pritchard, Lyn Howard andPeter Stubblefield who sailed with him over 60years. He also played rugby and tennis for Guy’sas an undergraduate. He made good use ofThatchings, a country retreat donated to Guy’s forthe recreation of students at weekends (Fig 5).Naturally there were quite a few stories ofescapades, but tennis and swimming were the sportsthat they particularly enjoyed in the retreat nearBognor Regis.

Figure 5. Pat O'Driscoll (right) and class mateLyn Howard at Thatchings, the weekend retreatin Sussex for Guy’s, 1956

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Pat completed the dental degree, BDS withhonours in 1957 with a Distinction in Pathology andBacteriology (Fig 2b). He won the Frank Sturdyprize for prosthetics and was an all round success inhis studies. Organised and methodical, he was adiligent student, learning from many great names ofthe era, such as Professors Martin Rushton and WE Herbert and Mr Alan Thompson.

Patrick’s academic success enabled him to pursuethe combined medical and dental courses qualifyingin Medicine in 1961 (Fig 6). His House Surgeon andPhysician posts in 1961 were held at St Alfege'sHospital, in Greenwich.

Pat found time to pursue various sportingactivities throughout his career. He was a respectedskier and led student parties to Austria (Fig 7). Hewas a fly fisherman who tied his own flies, but hisgreatest achievement was as a sailor with his yacht,

Figure 7. Ski Team in Lech, Austria, organisedby Pat in 1958.

Figure 4. Second MB Class 1952. Pat is in the middle, second to back row and Lord Ian McColl,second row, far right. Back row: Clayton-Jones, Terry, Smith, Wood, Tyrer. 4th row: Hopwood,Morgan, Cooke, O’Driscoll, Sherwood, Whitlow. 3rd row: de Groot, Yefman, Hewitt, Copley, Murray,Forman, Roberts. 2nd row: Coucher, Morphy, Paul, Williams, Robertson, Simpson, McColl. Frontrow: Sutchir, Whatmore, Tuddenham, Ridley, Warner, Maggs, Avison, Watson

Crimond of Wight, moored in Shalfleet, on the Isleof Wight. He once described sailing as ‘an allconsuming occupation that necessarily took youaway from everything else’ (Fig 8).

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Professional DevelopmentWhen Patrick O’Driscoll arrived as the first

Consultant Oral Surgeon at Guys Hospital in 1966.All other consulting colleagues had been ‘DentalSurgeons’ until that time. Remarkably, he was only32 years old (Fig 9). He had been trained surgicallyas a registrar and senior registrar by many highlyknowledgeable, practically skilled and respectedfigures at the time. At the Eastman Dental Hospitalas a registrar he worked with Norman Rowe andProfessors Killey and Kay all of whom were writingthe early books on the specialty of Oral Surgery3.Norman Rowe in particular had developed andcontinued developing surgical procedures for thecorrection of bony facial deformity, procedures westill recognise today4. He had made great friendswith Hugo Obwegeser in Zurich who was the worldleader in Craniomaxillofacial Surgery and Pat waslater to spend some time with Obwegeser for whomhe developed an enormous respect5,6.

Figure 8. The day Pat’s Westerly Konsort yacht,‘Crimond of Wight,’ was sold in July 2014 (left).Fly fishing on the River Darenth, Kent circa1990 (right).

Figure 6. The Douthwaite and Hardwick Firm July 1958 on the steps of Guy’s Hospital MedicalSchool. Patrick is back row second from the left. Back row: McKenzie, O’Driscoll, Nurick, Heald,Nicholson-Lailey, Harley. 2nd row: Weinstraub, Cockerill, Pearce P, Pearce W, Hallpike, Gross,Hartfall, Huddy. Front row: Parsons Esq, Hardwick Esq, Squire, Douthwaite Esq, Robinson Esq,Kelsey-Fry Esq

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Having won the Kelsey Fry Prize (another Guy’sman) for Oral Surgery in 1964, he returned to EastGrinstead as Senior Registrar. The Queen VictoriaHospital was a centre of excellence where so manyfacially war injured patients were treated. ‘TheGuinea Pig Club’7 was pioneered by Sir ArchibaldMcIndoe and his team8. They managed largenumbers of patients who had been the victims ofserious facial trauma and a burgeoning cohort ofpatients with facial deformity. The techniques usedin their treatment were relatively unsophisticatedseen from a modern perspective which gave Patambitions to follow and develop more precise andless visible means for osteotomy and fracturefixation and encouraged him into minimal invasivesurgery for which he developed a well-earned

reputation. Part of his training was with thedistinguished Sir Terence Ward9 who haseponymous instruments such as the Ward’sretractor and carver. Figure 10 shows Pat andcolleagues attending Sir Terry’s 70th birthday in1976.

When Pat joined the Senior Staff in the DentalSchool at Guys senior undergraduates includingtwo of the authors, shared slight trepidation andawe at his arrival. About to graduate they wereintroduced to his excellent clinical teaching as herapidly established his name, treating surgicalconditions of the mouth and jaws that we had notseen before. It was his clear, informative teachingthat endeared him to a generation of under andpost graduates. His teaching clinics wereoversubscribed particularly by undergraduatesapproaching their finals. Any junior staff with

Figure 12. Shaking hands with the Chancellorof the University of London, The Princess Royal.Guy's Centenary, 1989.

Figure 9. Appointment as Consultant Oral Sur-geon to Guy's Hospital 1966, aged 32 years. Max-imum part-time included Saturday morning butallowed one day in private practice.

Figure 10. Celebration of Sir Terence Ward's70th Birthday. L to R Pat O’Driscoll, GeoffreyForman, Sir Terence Ward, Andy Brown andPatrick James.

Figure 11. Primary Treatment Unit, Floor 23,Guy's Tower, Guy's Hospital, 1988.

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Figure 13. Filming in theatres for McMinn'sInteractive Head and Neck Anatomy DVD, 1996.

time to spare would attend too. This continuedunabated for two decades.

He was offered a Chair in Oral Surgery, butrather than take on further academic pursuits, hecontinued his part-time private practice at No 1Harley Street with Clive Debenham, includingsetting up some of the first dental implantologyfacilities. He worked with Branemark, himself, inDublin to hone his implantology skills10. Pat wasalready a recognised Teacher and Examiner for theUniversity of London and Hon Senior Lecturer aspart of Guy's Dental School. His research workincluded publishing on neurofibromatosis, andorthognathic surgery11,12, 13, 14. He also completed amajor chapter on Oral Surgery in the large surgicaltome ‘The New Aird’s Companion in SurgicalStudies’ (1992)15.

Pat was integral in planning the first design ofthe new Oral Surgery Department in the Tower afterthe closure of the old Dental School in 1974. Hemeticulously planned the new Oral Surgery Floorincluding the Primary Treatment Unit that was soably run by Ray Shaw, a character in himself, andhis Senior Dental Nurse, Noreen Clare (Fig 11).Jane Saunderson and Virginia Hartley were thenursing sisters who ensured the highest standardsprevailed.

The ‘Surgeon of the Day’ was instigated byrotating clinics and ‘on-call’ with his Consultantcolleagues, Robin Bret-Day, Dick Haskell and DonGibb from the 1970s. The dedicated Day Stay Unitand extraction rooms, recovery and nursing stationson Floor 23 of Guy’s Tower, was supported bymany well known anaesthetists, including Drs RossWatkin, Mike Thompson, Ron Jones, Penny

Hewitt, and John Helliwell and many others. Ratherironically, one of the attending anaesthetists becamethe Director of Intensive Care where Pat had hisfinal illness.

Pat contributed to many Clinical Days withexhibits and demonstrations that were much enjoyedby the Alumni. He took part in the 1989 Centenarycelebrations of the Dental School, and waspresented to the Princess Royal (Fig 12). To the leftof Pat is Steve Challacombe, the third author of thisarticle.

At the merger with the Royal Dental Hospital in1986, Steve Challacombe was responsible forrestructuring the curriculum including oral surgery.Pat had been responsible for over 20 years by thistime in teaching Oral Surgery at Guys as a hospitalConsultant with great enthusiasm, dedication andsuccess. The Royal Dental Hospital had a similarDepartment and resolving the structure of the newcombined Department necessitated delicaterefereeing including late nights with a bottle or threeof wine in Guys Tower before after several falsestarts it was resolved, almost amicably!

His surgical prowess became legendary in mainOperating Theatres 10 and 11, where he operatedon a Monday afternoon and Thursday morning withhis able long-term anaesthetic colleagues JohnWedley and Nick Newton, and many others. Thenursing and orderly staff were all characters andincluded names such as ‘Aunty Kay’ Tidmarsh andMr Wellington. He trained many surgeons andrecorded his work using the media of the day forteaching, even providing surgical clips for aninteractive CDROM in Head and Neck Anatomy in1996 (Fig 13)16.

Figure 14. Award of the Coat of Arms to theDentists' Provident Society.

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Pat O’Driscoll’s final lecture was given onClinical Day 1999, where he used the latest digitalprojection facilities to present 11 ‘Cases You HaveSent’, four of which are highlighted in the sectionbelow. He did not want a fuss when he retired aged65 on March 20th 1999. So he was taken abackwhen a surprise party was held in his honour, onhis 65th birthday, at Hamilton House in CentralLondon. One hundred of his trainees and closecolleagues attended to wish him farewell. It was nosurprise that even more attended his MemorialService held on St Patrick’s Day 2017, in Guy’sHospital Chapel and the subsequent reception andexhibition of his life and times in the GordonMuseum at Guy’s.

Dentist’s Provident SocietyPat had sat on the Board of The Dentists

Provident Society as Vice Chairman from 1973 to1980. To him this was a relaxation and a way togive voluntary service to his dental colleagues bycontributing to the management of this terrificinsurance scheme combining sickness benefit todental surgeons with an element of tax freeinvestment. He became Chairman of the Board in1980.

He was a popular Chairman bringing youngerpractitioners on to the Board. The Society wasfinancially sound and well looked after by a smallnumber of staff. Pat oversaw the officialIncorporation of the Society with the award of ourown resplendent Coat of Arms (Fig 14). Apart fromthat with the accompanying pomp involving TheQueens Herald one incident comes to mind after Ihad succeeded Geoffrey Forman as Vice Chairman.It was a single one never repeated that came to lightthrough our Actuaries. The then Secretary, a postlater changed to Chief Executive, had attempted afinancial irregularity that would have benefittedhim. Pat dealt with this smoothly and surely, andthe culprit lost his position.

This event came just before the FinancialServices Act that changed all businesses overnight.A huge amount of legislation documents arrivedand despite his very busy work as Consultant hemade sure he kept up with these changes. It wasobvious to him that the current staff running theSociety were not able to sort through this with anydegree of success and he arranged the appointment

of a Chief Executive. A daunting prospect for many,particularly those with a busy Consultant post! Hemade sure at every stage that the Board was madeaware of the impending changes. All this meanthard work on Pat’s behalf and after 25 years ofservice he took the decision to retire from the DPSbut typically not until he was satisfied with progresswith the new regulations in 1998

Martin Mace was appointed his successor withPat lending his great support. Try as he did, Martincould not persuade him to stay on the Board as hewas perfectly entitled. He left Martin with excellentstaff and a Society that was 100% in compliancewith the new regulations. This was typical of theman.

He and his Board members did not receive anyremuneration for their onerous tasks to benefit theirDental colleagues given the amount of workinvolved. Fortunately, this has now changed.

Contribution to Oral and MaxillofacialSurgery

Pat was a surgical pioneer, his oral surgicalprowess extended and encompassed the wide rangeof maxillofacial procedures. Examples includedorthognathic surgery (described below), andodontogenic and non-odontogenic surgery (Figs 15and 16). At this time (1970’s) major oral cancersurgical procedures were done in collaboration withENT colleagues such as Omar Shaheen. Pat alsorecognised the importance of working closely withPlastic Surgeons such as Sash Sood.

Pat planned surgical correction of facialdeformity in children closely with the Orthodonticdepartment and this involved starting combinedclinics which were invaluable for teaching at underand post graduate level. This was completely new.He asked the Psychological Department to assistwith clinical assessment leading to these combinedclinics having a permanent Psychologist, (Ray Bull)in attendance, clearly a great help for patients andclinician providing a platform for publishedresearch17, 18.

There was a number of children who had hadtheir cleft lip and palates closed whose subsequentfacial growth had been poor due to non-sparingsurgery. These children and young adults graduallyworked their way to orthodontic clinics wherecompromising treatment left them little improvedwith maxillary hypoplasia and virtually no

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Figure 15. Marsupialisation of a Primordial Cyst: From ‘Cases You Have Sent’ from Pat’s finalClinical Day Lecture 20th March 1999. A large radiolucency is evident in the right body of themandible in the bottom left orthopantomogram (OPG) and represents a primordial cyst. This wasmarsupialised into the oral cavity (top left) by creating a pouch whose entrance was protected by anacrylic bung (top right). This long but successful treatment ensured resolution of the cyst with returnto a more normal appearance in the OPG (bottom right).

Figure 16. Osteochondroma of the left condyle: From ‘Cases You have Sent’, Pat’s final Clinical DayLecture 20th March 1999. This 40 year old patient had noticed asymmetry of her jaws (top left) andradiographs and a Magnetic Resonance Image (MRI) Scan (middle and top right) revealed a radio-dense mass on the left condyle. Using extra oral incisions (bottom left) the mass was removed andhistopathology revealed an osteochondroma. The patient made a good recovery.

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Figure 17. Pioneering the Dautrey procedure for recurrent dislocation of the temporomandibularjoint (TMJ): From Cases You have Sent’, Pat’s final Clinical Day Lecture 20th March 1999. Theseries of clinical photographs and diagram, show how the zygomatic arch us cut and fractureddownwards to create a bony eminence in front of the glenoid fossa, that prevented dislocation of thecondyle.

functioning occlusion. Pat had a continuing path ofreferrals and worked closely with OrthodonticConsultants in particular Allan Thom planningsurgery to correct the maxillary hypoplasia that somany suffered. Pat pioneered the modified Le FortI maxillary advancement whereby the posterior partof the hard palate was left undisturbed while thetooth bearing part of the maxilla was advancedestablishing a functioning occlusion and increasingthe maxillary facial profile with positive cosmeticadvantages. The advantage of this approach was tostabilise what was left of soft palate muscularfunction controlling swallowing and aspects ofspeech whereas occlusion and facial appearanceimproved. Always wanting to provide and developthe latest surgical techniques, he also pioneered theLe Fort II osteotomy, osteotomising the midface,in the early 1980’s. This osteotomy correctednasomaxillary hypoplasia, as in Crouzon’ssyndrome19 as originally described by Tessier in1971 and subsequently Steinhauser in 1996 20, ,21, 22.

The first author, Martin Mace, had the good fortuneof assisting in his very first procedure which again,as so often, displayed his surgical genius. It was themark of this man to be unhappy about leaving barepalatal bone, a necessary disadvantage of thisprocedure and he devised methods of covering thearea to provide better comfort for the patient.

Another surgical procedure that Pat pioneeredwas known as the Dautrey operation (Fig 17)23.

Patients with uncontrolled persistenttemporomandibular joint dislocation had beenoffered different surgical cures most of whichinvolved open joint surgery or intra articularfibrosis inducing drugs. These often compromisedjoint function with the fibrosis causing dysfunction.The Dautrey procedure did not involve open jointsurgery and consisted of a posterior down fracture

of the zygomatic arch to enhance the ofteninadequate anterior tempormandibular eminence.This was very successful in preventing dislocationand led again to continuing referrals.

Maxillofacial surgery continued to develop andimprove and Pat was never behind in this. MartinMace was Pat’s Senior Registrar (1975-1978), andwas appointed to a Consultant post in a hospitalwith a reputable Cleft Lip and Palate Unit. Theinitial surgery was excellent and the maxillarygrowth problem barely existed. This allowed acloser assessment of the finer aspects of cleftpatients’ growth and developing dentitions24. TheScandinavians were great proponents of alveolarbone grafting to allow the canine teeth to eruptfunctionally into the alveolar cleft (Fig 18). Martinhad the great pleasure of Pat asking him to showhim this surgical procedure. Typically, Pat spent aday learning the new procedure from Martin whofelt that he had finally managed to give somethingback to his best surgical trainer.

Pat’s contribution was significant because hewalked with the giants in the specialty andintroduced and improved new orthognathic andsecondary cleft procedures in the UK. By trainingthe next generation of consultants he promulgatedthese surgical methods with his value-addedmeticulous attention to detail and excellent care ofthe patient.

LegacySo, teacher, consummate clinician, colleague

and friend, Pat O’Driscoll can rest as one of thosewho not only fulfilled his own potential but allowedso many others to fulfil theirs. Many of his sixtyplus house surgeons went onto surgical careers,

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Figure 18. Secondary cleft repair with alveolar bone graft and canine distraction: From ‘Cases Youhave Sent’, Pat’s final Clinical Day Lecture 20th March 1999. Typically following primary lip andpalate repair, disruption of one or both pre-maxillary alveolar ridges remains as the child develops(top left). Alveolar bone grafting is harvested from the hip to provide a bony scaffold through whichdisplaced canines can be distracted using orthodontic traction (top right – not the same case). Therealignment of the arch and eruption of the canines are clear to see in the two bottom images.

themselves, and all benefitted from improvedoperative skills and the high standards demandedby the master (Table 1).

Pat O’Driscoll was a pioneer in advancingsurgical doctrine in the late 20th century. Heintroduced a collaborative approach betweenspecialties to ensure the best care of his patients.He was kind, firm and fair, inspired and guided hisseniors, juniors and students alike. Pat was verypractical, meticulous, project driven, maintainedhigh standards of himself and expected the same inothers, always busy, never idle, and didn’t sufferfools gladly. His outstanding legacy extends allover the world as so many tributes have shown(Table 2).

He was further commemorated by planting anoak tree at Honor Oak Park Sports Ground on whatwould have been his 84th birthday, 20th March2018, where he once played rugby and tennis forGuy’s. The President and Principal of King’s

College London, Professor Edward Byrne AC,unveiled the plaque, witnessed by many closecolleagues and friends who even after almost 20years of retirement, still wished to pay their respectsto the Master (Fig 19).

His ashes rest in Quarr Abbey in the Isle ofWight, where he sailed as school boy Sea Cadet(Fig 20). Even Father Gregory, who committed theashes to the earth, had had his teeth treated at Guy’sin the 1950s. Life has come full circle.

In final tribute, at his Memorial service on StPatrick’s Day, 2017, in Guy’s Chapel, he wasdescribed as the authors would like to rememberhim – ‘A Decent Man’ – but we would like to add‘With a Life Well Spent’.

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Table 1 List of House Surgeons to Pat O'Driscollwho were able to attend Pat's retirement dinneron March 20th 1999

Table 2. Selected Quotes from Pat O’Driscoll’sCondolence Book

Figure 19. L to R. The oak tree, quercus rubra,and unveiled plaque; Michael O’Driscoll, (Pat’seldest son); The Reverend Dr John PhilpottHoward who led the ceremony with LaurenceJasper (Catholic Lay Chaplain of King's CollegeLondon, Guy's campus); Pat Reynolds and SteveChallacombe (two of the authors).

Figure 20. Pat O'Driscoll in 1993 (left). MemorialStone at Quarr Abbey Cemetery, a BenedictineMonastery on the Isle of Wight where he sailed asa Sea Cadet whilst a schoolboy at AmpleforthAbbey in Yorkshire.

References1 Anon. A Ring Side Seat: A Beautiful English Filmand Musical Comedy Artist: Connie Harris. TheIllustrated Sporting and Dramatic News. No 2940Vol CXXV1. Sat Jan 18, 1930 pg 131https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001857/19300118/030/0025 Accessed 22 Feb20182 O’Driscoll, P. Three men, two scouts and a boat.In Pepper, C (Editor), The Family Annual 1950, StDavid’s College, Carrog N Wales, November 1950,pg 79-813 Killey HC and Kay LW. An outline of oralsurgery. Dental practitioner handbook; no. 10. Bristol Wight. 19714 Rowe NL. Fractures of the Facial Skeleton.Edinburgh: E. & S. Livingstone Ltd. 1956. DOI:10.1002/bjs.18004318027

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5 Obwegeser, H. The indications for surgicalcorrection of mandibular deformity by the sagittalsplitting technique. British Journal of Oral andMaxillofacial Surgery, Volume 1, 1963, 157 - 1716 Obwegeser, H. Mandibular surgery. BritishJournal of Oral Surgery, Volume 10, 1972–1973,Pages 251-2537 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea_Pig_ClubAccessed 22 Feb 20188

https://www.eastgrinsteadmuseum.org.uk/guinea-pig-club/the-arrival-of-mcindoe/ Accessed 22 Feb20189 Royal College of Surgeons of England. Ward,Sir Terence George (1906 - 1991) BiographicalEntry. Oct 8, 2015http://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/biogs/e008364b.htm Accessed 22 Feb 201810 https://www.eao.org/history-of-osseointegration Accessed 22 Feb 201811 O’Driscoll, P.M. Papillary hyperplasia of thepalate. Br Dent J. 1965 Jan 19;118:77-80.12 O'Driscoll, P.M. The oral manifestations ofmultiple neurofibromatosis. Volume 3, 1965,Pages 22-31 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0007-117X(65)80003-813 O'Driscoll, P.M The incidence and managementof diabetes in oral surgery. British Journal of OralSurgery. Volume 4, 1966, Pages 38-45https://doi.org/10.1016/S0007-117X(66)80009-414 O’Driscoll, P.M. Ostectomy at the midline ofthe mandible. British Journal of Plastic Surgery.Volume 24, 1971, Pages 71-77.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0007-1226(71)80012-715 O’Driscoll, P.M. The face, mouth, tongue andjaws: the maxillofacial region. In: Burnand KGand Young AE (Eds). The New Aird’s Companionin Surgical Studies, Chapter 13. 2nd RevisedEdition. Churchill Livingstone. 1992/816 Reynolds, P.A., and Abrahams, P., (CD ROM).McMinn’s Interactive Clinical Head and NeckAnatomy. Mosby Times Publishers, Version 1,London 1997 & Version 2, 2001. ISBN:0-7234-3218-X17 Bull, R. (1979). The psychological significanceof facial deformity. In M. Cook and G. Wilson(Eds.) Love and attraction. Oxford: PergamonPress.

18 Bull R. and Stevens, J. (1981). The relationshipbetween ratings of persons' facial appearance andratings of their conversations. Language andSpeech, 24, 285-291 Bull, R. and Rumsey, N.(1988). The social psychology of facialappearance. New York: Springer-Verlag.19 Dodge HW, Wood MW and Kennedy RLJ.Craniofacial dysostosis: Crouzon's diseasePediatrics, Volume 23, Issue 1. January 1959,20 Ghali MCZ, Srinvasan VM, Jea A and Lam S.Craniosynostosis surgery: the legacy of PaulTessier. Historical vignette. Neurosurgical Focus36(4):E17 April 2014DOI10.3171/2014.2.FOCUS1356221 Steinhauser, E.W. Historical development oforthognathic surgery. Journal of Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery 24, 1996, 195-20422 Vu DD and Tiwana PS. Le Fort III and Le FortII Osteotomies. Atlas Oral Maxillofacial Surg ClinN Am 24 (2016) 15–251061-3315/16http://www.oralmaxsurgeryatlas.theclinics.com/article/S1061-3315(15)00063-3/fulltext Accessed 22Feb 201823 Lawlor MG. Recurrent dislocation of themandible: Treatment of ten cases by the Dautreyprocedure. British Journal of Oral Surgery (1982)20, 14-21 http://www.bjoms.com/article/0007-117X(82)90002-6/pdf Accessed 22 Feb 201824 Mace MC. Alveolar Bone grafting andOrthognathic Surgery. In Desai SN (Ed), NeonatalSurgery of the Cleft Lip and Palate. Chapter 5, pgs127-146. World Scientific Publishing Co Pte Ltd.Singapore 1997. ISBN 981-02-3116-4Author biographies

Mr Martin Charles Mace BDS MBBS FDS MRCS

Martin was Consultant in Oral andMaxillofacial Surgery, 1978-2001, and ConsultantMaxillofacial Surgeon to the Cleft Lip and PalateUnit at Stoke Mandeville Hospital,Buckinghamshire, 1978 – 2003, having been PatO’Driscoll’s Senior Registrar from 1975 – 1978.He was also Honorary Clinical Tutor GuysHospital Dental School, 1983 – 1999, and aFellowship Examiner Royal College of Surgeons,1993 – 2002. He became President CraniofacialSociety of Great Britain and Ireland, 1999 – 2000,and succeeded Pat O’Driscoll as ChairmanDentist’s Provident Society, 1998 – 2010.

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Professor Patricia Ann Reynolds BDS MBBSMAODE(Open) PhD FDSRCS(Eng)(Ed)

Qualifying in Dentistry in 1977 at Guy’s, shewas Pat O’Driscoll’s House Surgeon in 1978 andundertook junior training posts in Oral Surgerybefore completing the medical course at Guy’s in1984. She then pursued an academic career with aPhD in lasers, becoming a Senior Lecturer in Oraland Maxillofacial Surgery at KCSMD (King’sCollege School of Medicine and Dentistry) in 1996.Following a Master’s with Distinction in Open andDistance Education from the Open University in1999, she moved into an academic educational roleat King’s, gaining a Chair in Dental Education in2007. She became Professor Emeritus in 2014 andholds visiting appointments at three overseasUniversities in Italy and Australia. She wasPresident of the Dental Alumni Association atKing’s, 2014-15.

Professor Stephen Challacombe BDS, PhD,FRC(Path), FDSRCS(Eng), FDSRCS(Ed), DSc(h.c.), FMedSci, FKC

Stephen Challacombe is Martin RushtonProfessor of Oral Medicine at King’s CollegeLondon and is now part time. He qualified indentistry at Guys in 1968 and his year was the firsttaught by Pat O’Driscoll. He was assistant houseofficer to O’D. He became Consultant in DiagnosticMicrobiology & Immunology to Guys & St ThomasHospitals (1984-2011) He served as Vice Dean ofthe Dental Institute at Guys Hospital (2007-2011)and Dean for International Affairs KCL HealthSchools (2007-2011) and was Senior ResearchFellow, Department of Immunology, Mayo Clinic,Minnesota, USA. (1978-79).

He has been Author or co-author of over 240peer reviewed research papers and 160 otherpublications on mucosal immunity and oralmedicine and also editor or co-editor of 9 books onFood Allergy and Immunology of Oral Diseases.He has received a number of awards for hisresearch and has served as President of the IADRand the European Association for Oral Medicine.

AcknowledgementsWe are grateful to Michael O’Driscoll, Pat’s

eldest son, and previous Editor of IndustrialMinerals, who kindly proofed and edited this paper.Our thanks are also to Rachel Bairsto at the BritishDental Association for background historical data

and Geoffrey Foreman, retired Oral andMaxillofacial Surgeon, for help with identificationin old photographs. We dedicate this article to alltrainees past and present, who carry on Pat’s legacyof excellence in clinical practice and teaching.

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History of the National Examining Board for Dental Nurses: 1943-2018

Nairn H F WilsonAbstract: This paper details the origins, founding and 75 years of activities and development of theNational Examining Board for Dental Nurses.

Keywords: Dental Nurses, Examinations, Exam Board, History

Introduction

The National Examining Board for DentalNurses (NEBDN) is today a company limited byguarantee and a registered charity, established undera Memorandum and Articles of Association.

The main objective of the NEBDN is “theeducation and training of men and women as dentalnurses and other dental staff to assist in dentistry soas to enable a level of skill and safety andoperational excellence to be achieved which willmeet the standards from time to time approved, setor adopted by the Charity for the benefit of thepublic and the dental profession.”

As detailed in this history, the NEBDN hasfunctioned continuously over the 75 years since itsformation in 1943, and is committed to continuingto push the boundaries of dental nurse training inthe UK, underpinned by a commitment to qualityand excellence.

Origins

The NEBDN, originally the British DentalNurses and Assistants Examining Board(BDNAEB), was formed in 1943, following theformation of the British Dental Nurses andAssistants Society (BDNAS) of Great Britain andIreland, founded in 1940, which exists today as theBritish Association of Dental Nurses (BADN). It isunderstood that the BDNAEB was formed toprovide opportunity for members of the BDNAS,which originally included dental nurses and dentalreceptionists and secretaries, to take an examinationwhich would enhance the standing and expand therole of dental nurses and assistants, specificallymembers of the BDNAS, employed in dentalpractices in the UK.

The driving force behind the formation of boththe BDNAS and then the BDNAEB was a generaldental practitioner, Philip E Grundy LDS (Fig.1),who lived and practiced in Leyland, Lancashire.

Fig. 1 Philip Eswyth Grundy LDS

Mr Grundy, whose grandfather, grandmother,father and mother, five uncles and six cousins hadall practised dentistry, first envisaged a qualifyingexamination for dental surgery assistants in 1936.Over the next four years, he consulted widely,including the British Dental Association (BDA),the Incorporated Dental Society (IDS), which heserved as Branch Secretary from 1938 to theamalgamation of the IDS with the BDA in 1950,the Public Dental Service Association (PDSA) andthe Government’s Interdepartmental Committee onDentistry (ICD). In addition, he shared hisproposals with the Deans of the Dental Hospitalsand Schools in Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh,Leeds, London, Manchester and Newcastle. He alsoapproached the Ministries of Health and Educationin his consultations.

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With the help of Colonel CH Howkins CBEDSC, Dean of Birmingham Dental School, PhilipGrundy realised his goal of establishing a Boardof Examiners for dental nurses and assistants. ThisBoard, which was established as a separate entityto BDNAS, but shared staff and premises, wasconstituted in 1943 as the BDNAEB.

The BDNAEB continued to share offices withthe BDNAS, latter (1967) the Association ofBritish Dental Surgery Assistants, until 1994,changing its name in 1988 to the NationalExamining Board for Dental Surgery Assistantsand then again in 1994 to the National ExaminingBoard for Dental Nurses (NEBDN), following thedecision to re-adopt the title ‘dental nurse’. Thechange of terminology from ‘dental nurse’ to’dental surgery assistant’ in 1967 and then back to‘dental nurse’ in 1994 was linked to objectionsfirst raised by the nursing profession in 1945, andnot fully resolved until the early 1990s, concerningthe use of the term ‘nurse’ by dental auxiliarieswho provided dental chairside assistance. Thevarious changes in name, mirrored by changes tothe name of the Association, together with thesharing of office accommodation is consideredresponsible for many being misled into believingthat the Board, for many years, was part of theAssociation. Such misunderstanding was fuelledthe substantial involvement of the Society, laterthe Association in the development of standardsand training for dental surgery assistants anddental nurses; for example, in the General DentalCouncil supported Dental Surgery AssistantsStandards and Training Board (DSA STAB),which published training objectives for dentalsurgery assistants in 19841.

Founding members

The founding membership of BDNAEB, whichincluded individuals from different aspects andorganisations of dentistry, comprised:

Colonel CH Howkins CBE DSC LDS MRCSLRCP -Chairman, Dean of Birmingham DentalSchool, Examiner for the Royal College ofSurgeons of England and member of the BDA

Mr P E Grundy LDS -Secretary, general dentalpractitioner, member of the BDA and Founder ofBDNAS

Mr LC Atkins LDS – Senior Dental Surgeon,Royal Northern Hospital, London, Secretary PDSAand member of the ICD

Mr T Dykes LDS -Orthodontic Surgeon,Manchester Dental Hospital, Past-President andCentral Committee member PDSA and member ofthe BDA

Mr FJ Ballard LDS – Past-President BDA,Central Committee member PDSA, Member ICDand member of the Dental Board of the UnitedKingdom

Mr JF Henderson LDS JP – Past-President ICDand member of the ICD

The founding aims and objectives of theBDNAEB were:

▪ To awaken and encourage those employed indental surgery assisting to a realisation of theirresponsibilities to their own occupation and thedental profession▪ To raise the standards of education and train-ing for dental surgery assistants▪ To encourage all dental surgery assistants toattain a standard knowledge and efficiency,uniform throughout all the country▪ To hold examinations usually once each yearand to encourage all dental surgery assistants totake the examination▪ To issue certificates to all who are successfulin passing the examination for dental surgeryassistants▪ To encourage the establishment of courses oftraining for dental surgery assistantsIt is understood that the founding members of

the Board, other than receiving a modest fee foreach examination paper marked, generouslydonating their time, and sought no reimbursementof expenses incurred in supporting and helping todevelop the BDNAEB. While Philip Grundyprovided premises, basic office equipment,administrative support and underwrote, indeedlargely financing the Society and Board in the earlyyears, there is some information on him being paidback ‘loans’ made to the Society and Board whenincome exceeded expenditure. In the case of theSociety this did not happen until sometime after1944 when the Society first introduced an annual

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Fig. 2 Written examination question paper forthe first Board examination

examiners prior to the examination being launched.In accordance with contemporary and remaininggood practice, two examiners, drawn from themembership of the Board, were present at all times.

Fig. 3 Madeline Joyce Winter’s BDNAEB 1943examination pass certificate “A”

subscription of £1, with opportunity to pay in twoinstalments of ten shillings (10/-).

Philip Grundy’s motivation for dedicating somuch of his time – “every weekend and holiday, letalone countless evenings”, and committing whatmust have amounted to a substantial sum of money,to provide a foundation for the future developmentof dental nursing, would appear to have beensimply, but very commendably, the wish for dentalnurses in the UK to have a “definite position andoccupation” and to stop “suffering from disunity”.

Examination

In planning an examination, the BDNAEBconsulted with Dr R Weaver, Examiner for theMinistry of Education. The BDNAEB wasdetermined to apply state-of-the-art approaches toexamining. The examination was designed to be oftwo parts -a written paper and a 10-minute vivavoce.

The first examination was held in London andthree other centres -Birmingham, Manchester andLeeds, on Thursday 25th November 1943.Candidates were met at the relevant railwayterminus and escorted to pre-bookedaccommodation – the YWCA in the case ofLondon. The entrance fee to the examination wasone guinea.

To be eligible to enter the examination, a dentalsurgery assistant had to have completed at least oneyear’s full-time experience of working with dentalpractitioners in general dental practice. It wasessential also for candidates to provide evidence ofprivate study “sufficient for the purpose of suitablepreparation for the examination”. Given regulationsand restrictions during World War II, “it wasconsidered impossible for certification of eligibilityto be false in any detail”2.

The written examination (Fig.2) comprised twocompulsory questions -arresting haemorrhage andaspects of sterilisation, and a further six questions,four of which had to be answered. The examinationwas of three hours duration (10.00am -1.00pm),with no break, and a strict ban on food or drink ofany kind in the examination hall.

Colonel Howkins, with his extensive experienceof examining, expected high standards to be appliedin viva voce examining. Colonel Howkins providingpersonal instruction in viva voce techniques to all

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One hundred and seventy-nine candidatesentered the first diet of the BDNAEB examination.One hundred and thirty-five candidates passed theexamination, giving a pass percentage of 75.4%.One of the successful candidates was MadelineJoyce Winter (Fig.3)

It is not now known who won the £10 prizeoffered to the candidate who achieved the highestmarks in the inaugural examination. It isunderstood, however, that Colonel Howkinsadvised the candidates for the inauguralexamination, immediately prior to starting theirwritten examination, that the standard requiredwould be high, as a pass certificate for anexamination of low standard would not be worththe paper it was written on.

In 1944 it was reported that several of thesuccessful candidates in the inaugural 1943examination had received a pay increase of £5 perannum subsequent to representations by localNALGO (National and Local Government Officers’Association) officials.

The award of examination passes withDistinction is understood to have been introducedin the early years, with the award of passes withMerit being introduced in the mid-1980s.

Except for 1947 and 1948, when a Committeeof Enquiry into the training, wages, conditions ofservice and title of women assisting dentists inpublic or private dental service, chaired by LCAtkins LDS, a member of the BDNAEB, collectedevidence and reported, examinations have been heldeach year -once a year until 1967 and twice yearly(May and November) from 1968 onwards, with theaddition of a practical examination in 1952 and thereplacement of the viva voce examination with a‘spotter’ in 1973 . While the Committee of Enquirycommented on a wide range of matters, includingthe qualities of an ideal chairside assistant – “clean,alert and neat in her dress; of pleasant countenance;healthy looking teeth; pleasant voice; ready smile;confidence of manner and ready wit”, it makesreference only to a “certificate of proficiency”following successful completion of recommendedtraining. The BDNAEB examination is notmentioned in the report of the Committee ofEnquiry3.

Syllabus

The syllabus for the inaugural diets of the Boardexamination was prepared by the members of theBoard in consultation with the Society.Subsequently the Board, reviewed and updated thesyllabus on a regular basis, in consultation with themembers of the Panel of Examiners, to takeaccount of advances in the clinical practice ofdentistry. In the 1973 version of the syllabus 12dental hospital centres are listed as providingfull-time courses in preparation for the examination(Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Dundee, Edinburgh,Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London (Eastman,Guys, King’s, The London, The Royal and UCH),Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield) togetherwith 63 Colleges of Further Education providingfull- and/or part-time courses. In the 1987 versionof the syllabus, which took account of therecommendations of the GDC supported DSASTAB, Belfast, Cork and Dublin had been addedto the dental hospital centres and the number ofColleges of Further Education providing courseshad increased to 124.

Board membership

It was not until 1951 that the membership of theBDNAEB, which met twice yearly on the lastFridays in January and October, changed with theaddition of Mr RR Stephens, the Director of thethen newly instituted, full-time course of trainingfor dental surgery assistants at the Eastman DentalHospital, London, followed later that year by MrCV Armitage as an invited, elected representativeof the BDA. Further additions to this all-maleBoard in the 1950s included: RA Broderick, HMPickard, RJ Smith, JW Snowdon, JG Hart, LTHeppell, GL Roberts, C Cooke, TH Liptrot, GLSlack and SN Tinkler.

Examiners

Initially, members of the Board had a duality asexaminers. Over time, with increasing popularityof the Board examination, the Board established aCouncil, with an Executive Committee and a Panelof Examiners, the latter being formed in 1962.

From time to time, the Board invitedapplications for membership of the Panel ofExaminers. Essential criteria were a minimum ofseven years engaged in the practice of dentistry andsome involvement in dental nurse/ dental surgeryassistant training. Appointment was for a period of

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three years, but with opportunity for reappointmentdepending on participation in, and future availabilityfor examinations and attendance at Annual GeneralMeetings.

By the time of the 50th anniversary of the Boardin 1993, 534 individuals had been electedexaminers, of whom 314 were actively engaged insupporting the activities of the Board. The Boardhad been in existence for 36 years before the firstdental surgery assistants were elected examiners.The Board presently has 285 examiners. Throughoutthe history of the Board, examiners, all trained to aconsistently high standard, have generously givenup two weekends a year to meet the demand foropportunities to enter the examination.Examinations have always been held on Saturdays,but with special arrangements to examine Jewishcandidates on Fridays.

Helpers

In addition to examiners, the Board examinationsystem has relied heavily on local organisers andsmall armies of qualified dental nurse helpers toorganise, set up and help run examination centres.The helpers have had, and continue to have manydifferent roles, ranging from meeting and greetingcandidates to preparing and running spotter andpractical test stations. The contributions made bythe helpers over the years, much of which has beenvoluntary, should never be underestimated.

Council

The Council of the Board, replaced in recenttimes by a Board of appointed Trustees, comprised12 members, together with two co-optedrepresentatives of the Association. Councillors

CH Howkins CBE 1943-1953FJ Ballard 1953-1960PE Grundy 1960-1963HM Pickard 1963-1966SN Tinkler 1966-1970GS Nixon 1971-1974RC Robinson 1974-1977AF Carmichael 1977-1980RB Charter 1980-1983WJN Collins 1983-1986RJ Cherry 1986-1989RM Walters* 1989-1992 CF Audrey 1992-1995 D Wincott MBE** 1995-1998 S Lambert-Humble MBE 1998-2000AM Greenwood 2000-2002 1970-1971J Goodwin 2002-2004KN MacDonald 2004-2006DC Craig MBE 2006-2008B Coker 2008-2010C Hollins 2010-2012J Darby 2012-2014M Parker 2014-2017J Frew*** 2017 -to date

*First female Chair (Fig. 4a), ** First DentalNurse Chair (Fig. 4b), *** First lay Chair (Fig. 4c)

Table 1 Past Chairs of the Board

Fig. 4a Roslyn M Walters, firstfemale Chair of the Board, withRod Cherry, Rosslyn’s predecessor

Fig. 4b Diana Wincott MBE,first dental nurse Chair of theBoard

Fig. 4c Julia Frew, first layChair of the Board

-typically experienced examiners, were elected fora four-year term by the members of the Panel ofExaminers at Annual General Meetings of theBoard. The number of candidates standing forelection always exceeded the number of vacancies

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CF Audrey 1992-1995

on the Council. The Council elected its Chair(man),Deputy Chair(man) and three other members toserve with the Chair and Deputy Chair on anExecutive Committee. The Council met twice a yearin June and January the day after the ExecutiveCommittee had met to finalise and approve theresults of the most recent examinations. TheExecutive Committee met at other times to, amongstvarious matters, determine the content of futureexamination written, spotter and practical tests.

Fig. 6 Presentation of the newly introducedPast-Chairman’s Medal to six Past-Chairmen atan event held at the Royal Society of Medicine,London in 1988. Left to right: Mr RussellRobinson, Professor George Nixon, Mr Robert(Bob) Charter, Roslyn Walters, Chair-Elect,Roderick (Rod) Cherry, Chairman 1986-1989, MrWilliam (Bill) Collins, Professor Huia (Pick)Pickard, and Mr Andrew (Andy) Carmichael.

Fig. 7 NEBDN Chairman badge of office

Chairs

The Chair of the Board, typically with a three-year term of office, from 1960 through to 1998,when it changed to two years through until 2014,has been elected by the members of the Board. Asindicated in Table 1, RM Walters was the firstfemale Chair of the Board and Diana Wincott MBEwas the first Dental Nurse to hold this position.

The Board’s Past-President Medal (Fig. 5) wasintroduced in 1988 when the then Chairman (RodCherry) and the Chair-Elect, Roslyn Walterspresented six Past-Chairmen with their medals(Fig. 6)

Fig. 5 Past Chairman’s Medal, courtesy ofDavid Craig MBE, Chairman 2006-2008

Fig. 8 The NEBDN Gavel

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Chairman’s Medal and Board Gavel

The medal worn by the Chair of the ExaminingBoard at formal occasions was presented to theBoard on behalf of her family by Mrs J Tinkler, wifeof S N Tinkler, the fifth Chair of the Board. Thismedal was funded by the monies remaining in theStanley Tinkler Prize Fund when it became apparentthat the Stanley Tinkler National Prize (see below)could not be awarded in perpetuity. Regrettably, theoriginal medal was stolen in 2013 and replaced bythe then Chair, Dr John Darby. The replacementmedal is illustrated in Fig. 7.

The gavel used by the Chair of the NEBDN, nowjust at annual general meetings (Fig. 8) was madeand presented to the Board in 1986 by Douglas RCarrington, a former member of the Panel ofExaminers.

Ms Jean Smith MBE

Jean Smith (Fig.9), considered to have had anunequalled impact on dental nursing in the UK4,became General Secretary of the BDNAS in 1948.Jean, who passed the Board examination in 1945,in addition to her tireless work on behalf of theSociety, later (1967) the Association of BritishDental Surgery Assistants, before adopting itspresent title of ‘The British Association of DentalNurses’ in 1994, ‘helped out’, as she described it,with the administration of the Examining Boarduntil 1993 -eight years following her retirement asGeneral Secretary of the Association. TheExamining Board benefitted hugely from Jean’snotorious, meticulous attention to detail and manyinnovations and changes of Jean’s making. Jean’scommitment, unswerving determination and ‘aboveand beyond’ service was recognised in 1975 with aMBE in 1975. Jean’s unique position, straddlingAssociation and Board, helped both organisationsgrow in parallel and acquire standing and status tomutual advantage. In the words of one Past-Chair,“Jean was the Board and the Board was Jean”.

It is of note that Jean Smith was amongst the firstto encourage the adoption of the concept of the‘dental team’ in UK dentistry. In a paper presentedby Jean in 1972 she stated:

“I feel therefore there is an urgent need toredefine priorities and to marshal all availableopinion, influence and resources, personal andnational, if we are to provide a truly preventive andcomprehensive dental service in the future.

Fig. 9 Ms Jean Smith at Buckingham Palacefollowing the presentation of her MBE forservices to dentistry.

In order to achieve any success in any measureat all, we must obviously have unity of purpose inthe dental team – all practitioners and ancillariesunderstanding their respective and potential rolesand each one being respected, appreciated andsupported by one another for the part they play in

Fig. 10 Jennifer Lavery (centre), flanked by thenewly installed Chair, Beverly Cocker (left),wearing the Chair Medal for the first time, andImmediate-Past Chair, David Craig MBE (right),wearing his newly presented Past-Chairman’sbadge, following the 2008 Annual GeneralMeeting (AGM) of the Board -Jennifer’s lastAGM as Chief Executive of the Board.

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the team concept. …The public image and prestigeof dentistry in the medical context cannot bemaintained, much less improved, if it continues tosuffer from the current negative thinking”. Forty-sixyears later, such sentiments are worth repeating inthe best interests of patients and the future of thedental profession.

Jennifer Lavery

Jennifer Lavery, a long-serving member of thestaff of the Examining Board, became ExecutiveSecretary to the Board following Jean Smith’s -hermother’s retirement in 1993. Jennifer (Fig.10) gaveexceptional service to the Board, first as ExecutiveSecretary and then Chief Executive from 2004 untilshe retired in 2008. Jennifer, who, in common withher mother had superb administrative skills andmeticulous attention to detail, made an enormouscontribution to the NEBDN, includingrepresentation of the Board on numerous nationalcommittees, working groups and workshops. TheNEBDN greatly benefitted from Jennifer’s,dedicated, selfless service; she steered the Board,together with the Chairs of the Board (1993 -2008– Table 1), with a steady, unwavering, firm hand onthe helm.

At or around 2000, Jennifer had to weather adifficult period in charge of the NEBDN, when itwas thought that changes to government fundingfor the training of dental nurses may have drivenfurther education colleges and possibly othereducational providers down the NVQ rather thanthe national certificate route, given that the NVQroute provided for transferable skills in healthcare.Despite the threat of substantial loss of revenue, theBoard was persuaded to continue with the nationalcertificate and let market forces decide. Inretrospect, Jennifer’s guidance to the Board wouldappear to have been sound and to have served goodpurpose.

Phil Hughes

Phil Hughes (Fig.11) served as Chief Executiveof the Board between 2009 and 2017, when hedecided to move on to pursue new opportunities.Phil, in addition to successfully leading theorganisation through the process of gainingrecognition of the Board’s national diploma foreligibility for registration as a dental nurse with theGDC, dealt with many of the complexities of themove of the offices of the Board from Fleetwood

Fig. 11 Phil Hughes, Chief Executive of NEBDN,2009-2017

to Preston. Phil also oversaw the review andrevision of the NEBDN’s governing document in2014, which resulted in the Board welcoming itsfirst lay trustees, bringing a fresh perspective anda breadth of experience to complement the clinicalexpertise of their dental counterparts.

Lesley Dunlop

Lesley Dunlop joined the NEBDN as InterimChief Executive in January 2018, with part of herrole to assist the Board in the recruitment of its nextChief Executive.

Offices

The first office accommodation of the BDNASand the BDNAED, when formed in 1943, was therented front room of a small house at 2 SumnerStreet, Leyland (Fig.12), around the corner fromPhilip Grundy’s practice in Hough Lane, Leyland,where cloakroom and toilet facilities wereprovided. In 1963 the Society and ExaminingBoard moved their combined office to a suite ofthree, self -contained rented rooms over William’sand Glyn’s Bank in Poulton-le-Fylde (Fig 12), withthe office equipment including a typewriter,duplicator and addressograph machine. By 1978the premises at Poulton-le-Fylde were reported tobe “bursting at the seams” and ‘DSA House’ wasestablished by a move to two floors, i.e., one floorand a converted loft, rented above the Fleetwoodbranch of William’s and Glyn’s Bank at 29 LondonStreet, Fleetwood. In 1994 the Examining Boardpurchased 110 London Street, Fleetwood (Fig.12)and let part of this property to the Association, prior

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to the Association moving to its own premises. TheBoard subsequently purchased 108 London Street-the property next door, thereby doubling its officespace to accommodate an increase in staff to,amongst other functions, administer the growingnumber of post-certification qualifications. Thesepremises -108/110 London Street, remained the‘home’ of the Examining Board until January 2016,when the Board moved its offices to modern, fit forfuture purpose premises in Preston – QuaysideCourt, Chain Caul Way Preston (Fig.12).

Course providers

Over the seventy-five-year history of theNEBDN various individuals, organisations,including Further Education Colleges and DentalHospitals, and numerous other education providershave run courses and supported dental nurses inpreparing for NEBDN national certificateexaminations. Over the years a network ofaccredited course providers has evolved. Toachieve accreditation, providers need todemonstrate to the NEBDN that they satisfydefined standards. Accreditation aims to make high

Fig. 12 Watercolours by Rod Cherry (Chair, 1986-1989) of the offices of the Board. Top left, 2 SummerStreet, Leyland; top middle, Bank Chambers, Poulton-le-Fylde; top right, Bank Chambers, 29 LondonStreet, Fleetwood; bottom left, 110 London Street, Fleetwood, and bottom right, Quayside Court, ChainCaul Way, Preston.

quality learning opportunities and experiencesavailable to all trainees. NEBDN offers bespokeconsultancy to established and potential courseproviders to enhance standards and the adoption ofbest practice.

Fig.13 First UKdental nurse badge.

Fig. 14 The 1967NEBDSA badge

Fig. 15 The post-1994 NEBDN badge, togetherwith the corresponding Merit and free of chargeDistinction badges.

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Examination numbers

The number of candidates entering ExaminingBoard examinations between 1943 and 1968 -thefirst 25 years of the Board totalled 4988, with a highof 530 in May 1968 and a low of 54 in 1946,following initial high interest in the examination.Over the next 25 years the number of candidatesentering the examination steadily increased to anannual total of around 1,500. Today, theexamination attracts between 1,500 and 2,000candidates each year. The pass rate, which has fallenas low as 59% in 1978, has tended, and continuesto be in the order of 65% to 75%. It is estimated thatthe number of NEBDN qualified dental nursesengaged in oral healthcare provision at any one timein the last five years has been in the order of 23,000.

Badges and belts

The first badge, introduced in 1943/1944, despitethe war-time of metal, is illustrated in Fig. 13 –themotto ‘Spectamur agendo’, which has remainedwith the Board, being Latin for ‘Let us be judgedby our acts’. The badge, which purchasers wereadvised would not allow free entry to Societymeetings, cost seven shillings and sixpence (7/6),with the ownership of a purchased badge beinggifted to the purchaser by the Society. The badgewas redesigned in 1967 to a silver oxidised badge(Fig. 14). With the return to the use of the term’dental nurse’ in 1994, the Board badge wasredesigned again (Fig.15).

Today, the coveted NEBDN badge (Fig.16)continues to be greatly treasured and worn withpride by those who have passed the NEBDNexamination.

When it was fashionable for dental nurseuniforms to include a belt, the NEBDN madeavailable a distinctive, bright yellow, petersham beltwith a NEBDN buckle (Fig. 17) to compliment thetraditional badge.

Presentation Evenings and awards

For many years, dating back to the 1960s, theExamining Board held annual, black tiePresentation Evenings for the presentation ofcertificates and awards. Prior to these eventscertificates were presented at meetings of Branchesof the Society, later the Association. ThePresentation Evenings high profile celebratory

Fig. 16 The existing NEBDN dental nurse badge,together with an example of a NEBDN post-registration qualification badge – the Oral HealthEducation badge

Fig. 17 The NEBDN belt and buckle

events, which attracted wide coverage in the dentalmedia of the time, were held in association withAnnual General Meetings (AGM) of theAssociation, typically on the Saturday night of theweekend-long AGM of the Association. Dentalnurses who had passed the Board examination inthe last twelve months travelled from across the UKto attend the event, often accompanied by partners,spouses, friends or members of their family.Records indicate that the Board’s presentation andawards events were generously sponsored byseveral dental industry organisations. Awardsincluded the Gold Award for the most outstandingcandidate in the last twelve months, the ClaudiusAsh Prize for the second the second mostoutstanding candidate in the last twelve months, theStanley Tinkler National Prize for the higheststandard achieved in the written paper in the lasttwelve months, and the Baxter White Rose Trophyawarded to the candidate who gained the higheststandard in the examination in Scotland. Over time,

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the sponsored and named awards were phased outand replaced with Gold, Silver and Bronze Awardsfor the top three best performing candidates in theexaminations held during the previous twelvemonths. The awardees are presented with Gold,Silver and Bronze qualification medals. Initially, thewinner of the Gold Medal received a £5 prize, inaddition to their medal.

Today, the numbers of dental nurses qualifyingwith the NEBDN is too great to host nationalpresentation events. Local celebratory events arehosted by some educational providers.

The Board intends to present its first SpecialRecognition Awards at its 75th anniversarycelebrations in November 2018. These awards willbe presented to individuals who have demonstrateddedication, outstanding service and commitment tothe NEBDN, and/or the education and training ofdental nurses through involvement and achievementnationally.

Post-registration qualifications

Post-registration qualifications were firstintroduced by the NEBDN in 1989 with the launchof the Certificate in Dental Sedation Nursing, whichproved very popular amongst those involved indental sedation nursing. The Certificate in OralHealth Education was introduced in 1991, followedby the Certificates in Special Care Dental Nursing,Dental Radiography and Orthodontic DentalNursing. The Board presently continues to offer allthese diplomas, together with the Certificate inDental Implant Nursing, and to monitor the need toupdate its portfolio of post-registrationqualifications.

NEBDN today

The NEBDN today is governed by a Board of 10trustees, comprising five dental care professionalsand five lay trustees from a range of professionalbackgrounds. The trustees oversee standards and theperformance of the NEBDN through the followingcommittees:

▪ Finance and General Purposes Committee▪ Governance Committee▪ Education and Standards Advisory Comit-tee – being established in 2018

In addition, each NEBDN qualification has itsown committee to ensure standards are maintained,

and the relevant Panel of Examiners are fullybriefed on the requirements and expectations of theBoard.

The NEBDN, has, in recent years, establisheda website (www.nebdn.org), which is constantlyupdated, and the NEBDN Alumni, which at thetime of writing enjoyed a membership of 7,400.

In the 21st century, the Board is looking forwardto building on the secure foundations engineeredby those who founded and developed theorganisation, and to ensuring that the NEBDN isfit to face the challenges of the next 25 years, priorto celebrating its centenary in 2043.

Acknowledgement

The author is most grateful to the staff of theNEBDN, Jennifer Lavery, Janet Goodwin, DavidCraig and Julia Frew for their invaluable help inpreparing this paper.

References

1. General Dental Council, Report of the DentalSurgery Assistants Standards and Training Board, Lon-don, General Dental Council, 1984.

2. The Dental Nurses’ and Assistants’ Society of GreatBritain and Ireland (The Dental Nurses’ Society, DNS)),Memorandum to the Interdepartmental Committee onDentistry, Leyland, DNS, 1943.

3. British Dental Association, Incorporated Dental Soci-ety, Public Dental Service Association. Report of theCommittee of Enquiry into the training, wages, condi-tions of service and title of women assisting dentists inpublic or private dental service.

London, British Dental Association, 1948.4. Wincott D, Ms Jean Smith MBE, Obituary, Brit Dent J,2102: 213: 91.

Address for correspondence: Nairn H F Wilson,Emeritus Professor of Dentistry, King’s CollegeLondon, [email protected]

Trustee and Director of the National ExaminingBoard for Dental Nurses, 2014-2017

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Need for education

The London County Council recognised the needfor education in the early 20th century. Children atan Islington school had regular dental sessions in1912 and a Toothbrush Club (Fig 1) to save moneyeach week to buy a brush as a present for mum’sbirthday.

When the Germans invaded Norway in WW2Guttorm Toverud of Oslo Dental School askedschool dentists throughout the country to collectdata on 7 to 13-year-olds.1 The main study was from1940 until 1949; some were examined until 1953.Twenty-two clinics promised to participate andmost did so. There were problems: some wereoccupied by Germans or dentists moved away. Itwasn’t possible to examine the planned 10,000 peryear but 4,757 to 6,480 were examined annually.

Many children's teeth were healthier immediatelypost-war than in the same age group later. Tootheruption was delayed during the war, especially forthose replacing deciduous teeth. This was partlydue to poor nutrition, but also from reduced loss ofdecayed baby teeth. Dental health was vastly betterbut other aspects of health were poorer, for examplereduced heights. The much poorer wartime dietincluded an extreme reduction in sugar intake. Itshowed a link between sugar deprivation andimproved oral health.

The size of the problem

Within the next decade increasing efforts weremade to improve dental health through education.It was badly needed. The 1950s and 1960s sawmany dental problems. Sweets coming off rationingin 1953 didn’t help. In 1965 90% of children hadcaries. 1963 saw 11.2 million teeth extracted. Andin 1965 half a million general anaesthetics weregiven for 5-15 year olds. At school inspections in1960s Hackney one dentist (SG) could say ‘smile’,and without a mirror or probe could state

Gibbs, Colin Davis, the Oral Hygiene Service and its predecessors

Stanley Gelbier, Sue Lloyd and BA (Polly) Munday

Abstract: In 2018 extractions are the leading cause of hospital admissions for 5 to 9-year-oldsbut poor oral health and hygiene in children has been recorded for a long time. This paper examineshow one commercial company, D&W Gibbs, part of Unilever since 1929, made major contributionsto improving oral and dental health education over many years through its Oral Hygiene Service,the Ivory Castle League and the Ivory Castle Club.

Key words: Gibbs Oral Hygiene Service Ivory Castle League Ivory Castle Club

'extractions needed' on seeing pus arising frommany teeth. However it was seldom true atinspections in nearby Leyton, with children of ahigher social class. So what was to be done aboutit?

Apart from urgent treatment there was a neednationally for DHE for children and their mothers,to encourage brushing from a young age. Slowlyprevention was increased by school services,including chair side education, polishing ofchildren’s teeth and application of fluorides. Waterfluoridation in a few areas and the purchase offluoride pastes became important. Again there wasa social class difference. Higher social classfamilies bought most paste and toothbrushes, buttheir children were the ones with the least need.Education was also needed outside surgeries,especially where parents were less dentally aware.This is where school services came into their own,especially after the invaluable dental auxiliarieswere introduced in 1960. Increasingly, in the1960s, they provided dental health education inschools, some training centres for handicapped(later termed disabled) adults and in mothers’ clubs.There were some very keen chief school dentists.Sometimes their ideas went ahead of the availablemoney and staffing. But if their local authoritycould not finance what was required then who

Fig 1. Toothbrush Club in Islington

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could? In the 1960s there was little support fromthe dental trade but a major exception was Gibbs.

D&W Gibbs

Its origins can be traced to 1762 when JohnHammond, a tallow chandler and soapmanufacturer, was at 3 John Street, Clerkenwell.It passed through several members of the Wrightfamily until purchased in 1804-5 by John and DavidGibbs.2 It was then owned by David’s sons, DavidAspland Gibbs (1813-1898) and William AlfredGibbs (1819-1900) and became D&W Gibbs. Theythen acquired their fellow soap manufacturers Patonand Charles of Wapping, from where theycontinued operations. Their business prospered,with candles, tooth-cleaning powder, toilet soap andshaving soap as the major products. In 1887 theircold cream soap increased public awareness of theGibbs’ name.

In 1896 they were incorporated as D&W GibbsLtd. By 1905 the company produced a range oftoilet soaps (Superfatted Cold Cream Soap; Kuramedicated soap, Jockey Club soaps and Old BrownWindsor), a cold cream shaving range (shaving soapsticks and shaving soap cakes), laundry andhousehold soaps. Also tooth soaps in variousflavours sold in metal or celluloid cases. To exporttheir products to France they established a Parisselling agency, Thibaud et Cie. In 1906, followinga request from them, Gibbs developed one of itsstrongest brands: a solid dentifrice - innovative asthe chief dentifrices of the time were in powderedform. Initially marketed in the UK as 'Gibbs FrenchDentifrice' it was popular in World War I withBritish troops in France. They liked the freshflavour and convenience; and discovered it wasexcellent for cleaning brass tunic buttons andregimental cap badges.

In 1913 some family members sold their sharesto Prices Patent Candle Company. Six years laterLever Brothers acquired the Candle Company andbought Gibbs’ remaining shares. In 1922 the firstLord Leverhulme became chairman of the company- the first not of the Gibbs family. Within sevenyears it was part of the Unilever group, an alliancebetween Lever Brothers and the Dutch MargarineUnion.

Gibbs and teeth

In the 1920s the company established the 'IvoryCastle League' to promote dental awareness in

children. At a 1934 service at St Paul's Cathedrala dentist told a Gibbs executive of researchindicating a solution of Ricinoleate was highlyeffective in treating gum diseases. Gibbs thenextended its share of the dental market byintroducing paste described as “an entirely new andrevolutionary product specially prepared for thetreatment and prevention of tender, bleeding gums,gingivitis and pyorrhoea”. SR or SodiumRicinoleate was launched that year.

In 1946 the company began to promote theproduct: Gibbs Dentifrice. It was soon popular forits convenience and economic benefits, identifyingas a family product with particular appeal tochildren. Advertising used Ivory Castle imagerybased on: ‘Your teeth are ivory castles - protectthem with Gibbs 'Dentifrice’.

Signal, a red and white striped toothpastelaunched in 1960, was promoted as ‘the toothpastewith a mouthwash in its stripes’. It was followedby Fluoride in 1962 and the Sure range in 1966.

SR Toothpaste made advertising history on 22September 1955 with the first UK televisioncommercial, aired on ITV.

In 1963 D&W Gibbs Ltd was integrated withtwo further Unilever toiletry manufacturers, JosephWatson and Sons Ltd and Pepsodent Ltd to becomeGibbs-Pepsodent Ltd, the core of the companyElida Faberge Ltd. The sales divisions of Gibbsand Pepsodent were separate initially but integratedin 1965 as Gibbs Proprietaries Ltd.

Over the years the company was well placed toprovide oral health support through the vehicles ofthe Ivory Castle League, the Ivory Castle Club andthe Oral Hygiene Service.

Gibbs Ivory Castle League and Crusade

In 1923 D&W Gibbs promoted dental healthawareness for children by introducing an IvoryCastle League, based on Gibbs solid dentifrice.The first issue of Ivory Castle stated:3

“Some years ago a welfare worker joined handswith a commercial house in an effort to hit uponsome measure which would serve to knit moreclosely together those whose interests are directlyconcerned with the doctrine of oral hygiene.”Discussions led to formation of the Ivory Castle

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League and Crusade. Its first education organiserM Bentley Thornhill. The objective was to givematerial support to teachers, nurses,superintendents of welfare clinics, etc. All couldbe members of the League and Crusade. Themembership grew rapidly.

It offered assistance to them in encouraging goodoral hygiene for young children. Children joinedvia schools to become Crusaders, receiving badgesand Ivory Castles newsletters from January 1925,with much to interest children. The newslettersshowed Ivory Castles (teeth) protected from thewicked Giant Decay and his caries imps by thevaliant defenders, the Gibbs Archers (Fig 2).

They provided leaflets, posters, charts on careof teeth, slides (or the firm's lecturer if they couldget together large enough audiences) and illustratedstorybooks. There were also two films: 'A fight infairyland’ and ‘The Ivory Castle'. The League alsosold ‘strong’ brushes, dentifrice refills for the tinsand fancy dress: a tunic, hose, belt, helmet, bow,arrow and a quiver, “particularly suitable forentertainment and dances”.

The Christmas 1929 issue had a photo of thePrince of Wales who said, when laying thefoundation stone for the Eastman Dental Clinic atthe Royal Free Hospital:

“Good teeth are essential to good health andfitness … Good teeth are essential to a goodappearance, which has been a matter of moment toall women and most men since the creation ofhuman beings.”

The Ivory Castle Club

In 1963 Gibbs-Pepsodent Ltd started theIvory Castle Club with similar principles to theLeague:4 to inculcate sound habits of oral hygieneinto children; to make the process of learningenjoyable; and to provide incentives for keepingthe rules. Enrolment forms were handed out viadentists for their younger patients, rather thanschools. Each member was a Companion whoreceived a badge and guidebook to the Ivory Castle,toothbrushing chart, a secret code and its first copyof The Arrow, the club's magazine. A Companioncould become a Knight of the Ivory by collecting100 seals, which were awarded for regular toothbrushing, riddles or poems sent to The Arrow,winning competitions and visiting the dentist.Knights got the key to the Treasure room, with

special privileges and competitions for which onlyKnights were eligible. The Knights were honour-bound to look after their teeth and practise oralhygiene without supervision.

Gibbs Oral Hygiene Service

The company’s support took off in a big waywith the introduction of its Oral Hygiene Service(OHS). In 1952 an educational film entitled ‘Let’sKeep Our Teeth’ was premiered at an internationalDental Federation’s (FDI) congress in London.5 Ithad been developed by Gibbs’ dental advisor, HColin Davis, who was soon appointed Director ofthe new Gibbs Oral Hygiene Service. Colin was ahuge influence on health education. He spent muchof the next decade establishing an ambitiousprogramme of press campaigns, educational filmsand booklets.

Doreen Land (Fig 3) joined as a full timeadministrator/dental health education officer withten year’s experience of Unilever’s dentaldepartment.6 She spent much of the 1960s visiting

Fig 2. Ivory C Front Cover Oct 1925

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schools and training colleges, to spread anawareness of the work of the Oral Hygiene Serviceand the teaching aids available to educators andprofessionals. Importantly, she trained localauthority staff to become educators.

Over the years the OHS established a strongrelationship with the Ministry of Health andcooperated in many local and regional schemes toencourage dental hygiene in schoolchildren. By1960 it was a leading force in dental healtheducation. In January it re-launched with a greateremphasis on programmes for schools and keyinfluencers. Its ‘Educating the Educators’initiative targeted health professionals andopinion-formers including MPs, dentists, dentalstudents, dental hygienists, teachers, journalists,health visitors and nurses.

In 1960 it published A Symposium on DentalDecay among Schoolchildren made up of extractsfrom articles in the dental, medical and educationalpress and reports from school dental and medicalofficers. It aimed to present facts and raiseawareness of the ‘epidemic’ of dental decay inchildren and the need to do something about it.This publication cemented the Oral HygieneService’s reputation as a bastion of dentalhealthcare. Also in the 1960s it cooperated withthe British Dental Association to arrange somejoint dental health education exhibitions at itsannual conferences.

Much success rested on its high quality,innovative education materials, including leaflets,booklets, posters, wall charts and films distributedto schools as a result of advertising placed in

educational journals and magazines, through localeducation authorities or via school dental officersand health visitors. Materials were also freelyavailable to interested individuals andorganisations. Between 1960 and 1963 more thantwo million leaflets were distributed across the UK.Its materials were available in the Netherlands,Australia, New Zealand, France, Hong Kong,India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Denmark, and SouthAfrica. Much was translated into local languages.Colin later supported overseas groups and WHO(Fig 4).

In 1962 a van was converted to create a mobilecinema and exhibition unit for use in schools,special events and parks (see Figures 5, 6).7 It wasdriven to Cologne, Germany for an FDI Congress,where it launched the new dental hygieneeducational film ‘Where There’s a Will’, withartwork produced by pupils from Eltham GreenComprehensive School in London.

Gibbs Travelling Scholarship

Meanwhile, to discover what was being doneelsewhere Gibbs instituted a £300 bi-annualtravelling scholarship in 1951 to enable a dentist

Fig 3. Doreen Land Oral Health DemonstrationCroydon 1968

Fig 4. Colin Davis in New Zealand

Fig 5. Gibbs Van

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to study dentistry and dental health education inScandinavia.8 To gain the 3-months scholarshipcandidates had to submit a thesis on 'Dental healtheducation for the public as a factor in preventivedentistry'. The BDJ stated it had arousedconsiderable interest in Scandinavia. A committeeto administer the scholarship had been establishedby the British Society of Periodontology. It hadreceived an offer of assistance for the successfulcandidate from Professor Pedersen of Copenhagen.Following interview the first scholar was Mr PMCJames LDS.9 He travelled in April 1952.

Dental health education campaign

October 1961 saw cooperation with SurreyEducation Authority on a pilot campaign aimed atschoolchildren. The success of the Guildfordcampaign paved the way for others at local andregional levels. In the first two weeks of the nextcampaign, in Sheffield, Doreen talked on dentalhealth to 3,360 children.10

The Service helped the Scottish Home & HealthDepartment to launch the largest dental healthcampaign ever attempted, with the aim of reachingsome 200,000 children.11 One project supportedEdinburgh to mount a campaign. Colin suppliedposters and leaflets and Doreen lectured in schools.To evaluate the success of the campaign he askedshops to monitor the increased sales oftoothbrushes. He said afterwards (to SG) thatvirtually all said there were no increased sales ofbrushes, but Woolworth reported a vast increase inthefts.

1960-61 saw the first of a series of cartooncharacters. Brewster the Beaver was used tocommunicate with children. Jerry Gibbs and histoothbrush, Magic, were introduced in the late1970s. Jerry’s Teaching Kit also offered acomprehensive aid for the education of 4 to 7-year-olds. Gibbs encouraged older children to entercompetitions and surveys for special prizes. A 1983video, ‘The Gibbs Kids investigate Dentists’, aimedto demystify the dentist and help children toovercome their fears.12

The Oral Hygiene Service continued to expandits operations through the 1960s and 1970s. Inaddition to the traditional range of educationalbooklets, posters, and films, it launched one-dayseminars and lectures for dentists, hygienists, andsocial studies students. Between July 1981 and June1982 the OHS distributed nearly half a million itemsof educational literature across the world.

By 1985 it had launched a catalogue of dentalcare products promoting good oral hygiene forchildren including the characters Brushygator,Gammy Gums, Toddli Pops and Sugar Searcher.

Colour films

In addition to posters, pamphlets and leafletsGibbs produced some very popular films (Table 1).Gibbs claimed the 1952 film Let’s Keep Our Teethwas the first to present the facts of dental health anddisease in a provocative, informative andstimulating way. Tons of Teeth was based onmaterial gathered by RR (Dick) Stephens for apresidential lecture to the British Paedodontic(children’s dentistry) Society. Its title reflected theweight of children’s teeth extracted in a year.

In 1969 “Out of the Mouths”: A New Approachto Dental Health was produced to raise the standardof dental health teaching in schools. Ahead of itstime it applied the concept of ‘project teaching’ tooral hygiene - discovery by teachers and childrentogether instead of passive reception of facts. It wasshot unscripted and unrehearsed in rural elementaryschools. Children studied each other's mouths todetermine the most effective methods of removingfood debris and how facts about teeth and health canbe related to art, drama, geography, science, andarithmetic.

Teaching Dental Health: A DH programme forschools was a 1973 booklet describing three lessons.

Fig 6. Film on screen

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In the same year, The Lecturer's Guide To TheMouth provided notes for lecturers.

The Service’s 1963-65 Progress Report claimedit was the “largest organisation in Britain concernedwith DHE alone”. It reminded readers that all theireducation material was vetted by the British Societyof Periodontology and was free of advertisements.By then Doreen was spending more time educatingtrainees, teachers, midwives health visitors andnurses: people who can then teach others. Colin alsosupported TV and radio programmes. Everythingwas facilitated as part of the Unilever organisation,with its vast resources and expertise.

By then there was clearly a need for moreorganisations to be involved and to coordinateactivities so at the request of the General DentalCouncil Colin organised a working party. Itincluded the Ministry of Health, Scottish Home &Health Department, British Dental Association,General Dental Council, Central Council for Healthand Education and the Oral Hygiene Service.Slowly other firms provided support for schools andother programmes, with toothbrushes, pastes,leaflets and so on. For example, Colgate provided

huge amounts of small tubes of toothpaste fordistribution in schools; and a small red beaker.

H (Henry) Colin Davis

So who was H (he never used Henry, only H)Colin Davis? During the War Colin (Fig 7) wasDirector of the RAF Training School for DentalHygienists in Halton. Sometime after leaving theair force he received a letter from an ex-colleagueto say the man running the Ivory Castle League wasleaving and Gibbs wanted a successor.13 Afterinterview Colin was appointed for two days a week.He said the League was a very imaginativeorganisation which led to him forming the OralHygiene Service where he could use his dentalknowledge for health education.

In spite of his achievements, many in theprofession looked down on him. They couldn’tunderstand why a dentist would want to be involvedwith the trade. But he was superb in that role,blazing a path for others to follow. Colin said “hewas not terribly taken with general practice; hatedit in fact”. His obituary stated:14

Table 1 16mm colour films produced by Gibbs

Title Mins Group Notes

Let’s Keep Our Teeth 20 11+

No Toothache for Eskimos 5 8-11 Shortened version of above

No Toothache for Noddy 5 4-8

A Tooth in Time 18 Girls 13+, parent-teacherassociations, maternity andwelfare clinics

Where There’s a Will 25 Secondary schools

Why Bother 6 8+

Tons of Teeth 15 PTAs, senior secondary

That's Dentistry - That Was 11 Described preventionincluding plaque control,topical fluorides, and fissuresealants.

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Fig 7. H Colin Davis

“He found, I think, great difficulty in meetingthe often impossible expectations of patients.His natural talents and ability anyway, hadalways been inclined towards public relations,a much wider subject, and a skill in fact almostunknown at the time and as such frequentlyopen to ridicule. He was to suffer the sameindignity when his own P.R. Company, formedyears ahead of its time, eventually came togrief.”

Colin’s early activities took place when mostdentists were not very interested in DHE excepttowards their patients. As an aside, in 1970 theHendon and District section of the BDA (chairedby SG) was a very successful group attracting largeaudiences. It was thought to be a good idea to turnits thoughts to health education so Colin andDoreen were invited to speak. After its meetingthe committee went out to prepare for the lecture.It was embarrassing that, apart from them and somespouses, there was no one else in the audience.Things are very different now. Most dentists areinterested in education and other aspects ofprevention.

Colin was highly intellectual and spent muchtime contributing to BBC programmes. He said:"This is what I should have been doing all mylife.”15 A special favourite was his popular Sunday11pm programme ‘The Epilogue, which provideda gentle soothing mix of words and music. InAugust 1972 BBC Radio 4 broadcast ‘Where forMe the World began’, recollections by Colin of the

childhood he and his brother David spent inWorcestershire at the beginning of the century. Itwas narrated by Colin with readings by David whoalso played the piano. David Davis was one-timehead of radio’s children’s programmes.

The 1980s

By then the Oral Hygiene Service sold goodquality education aids including posters. Plaquethe Unseen Enemy was one of the most effectiveteaching aids ever available. They were mostly soldat cost to schools and other educationestablishments. Many were branded with both theOral Hygiene Service and Signal toothpaste logos.There was also a very good Signal oral healthprogramme for schools. Included was a largeplastic replica of a Signal toothpaste tube containinga brush and a tube of Signal paste. Communityservices were given free supplies for 8 to 9-year-olds.

Later, Mentadent toothpaste came on the sceneand took over a lot of the professional programmesin conjunction with the Oral Hygiene Service.Gradually the material side of the OHS to schoolswas phased out in favour of materials for dentalprofessionals and lecture programmes.

The end of an era

When Colin Davis retired, Colin Hall Dexterbecame the ‘Consultant’. In the early 1980s LynnStroud, a dental hygienist, took over from Doreen.When Lynn retired due to ill health in about 1984/5Sue Lloyd, a dental therapist/dental hygieniststepped in. The Oral Hygiene Service closed in theearly 1990s. Colin Hall Dexter continued as aconsultant to Mentadent and the professionalprogrammes. Sue was made redundant and becamean independent oral health education advisor.

Acknowledgements

Victoria Howard, Records Manager & Archivist,Unilever Archives, provided a great deal ofbackground material. Figures 3, 4, 5 are reproducedwith the kind permission of Unilever from anoriginal in Unilever Archives.

Bill Crothers was invaluable in sourcing IvoryCastle League newsletters.

The Editor of the BDJ kindly allowedreproduction of Colin Davis’ photo from hisobituary.

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Helen Nield, Library Manager, British DentalAssociation, helpfully sourced some relevantmaterial.

References:1 Guttorm Toverud, The influence of war andpost-war conditions on the teeth of Norwegianschool children, Millbank Memorial FundQuarterly 1955; 1957.2 Information from Unilever Archives, 2018.3 Ivory Castles, 1925, p 5.4 The Ivory Castle Club, British Dental Journal1963; 114: 263. 5 Unilever File EFL/9/7/6/1 The Gibbs Report1982, p 20.6 EFL/8/7/2/5 (2) Report on the Oral HygieneService 1961.7 EFL/8/9/1/2 Adventures in Dental Health Educa-tion 1962 pp 8-10. 8 Notes and comments: Gibbs Travelling Scholar-ship, British Dental Journal 1951; 91: 272.9 Dental news: Gibbs Travelling Scholarship, Brit-ish Dental Journal 1952; 92:134.10 EFL/8/9/1/2 Adventures in Dental Health Edu-cation 1962, p 13.11 Ibid p 3.12 EFL/9/7/6/2 The Gibbs Report 1983, p 22.13 Signposts: Colin Davis, OBE FDS, with DeclanHill, British Dental Journal 1993; 7-9, 9.14 AAHG, Obituary Colin Davis, British DentalJournal 2000; 189: 282.15 IbidAuthor Biographies:

Sue Lloyd, [email protected]

The final Dental Health Educator, Gibbs OralHygiene ServicePolly Munday. [email protected] Senior Dental Health Education Officer,Camberwell Health AuthorityAddress for correspondence :Stanley Gelbier, [email protected]

Professor and Head of Unit for the History ofDentistry c/o Central Office, King’s CollegeLondon Dental Institute Guy’s Tower, London SE19RT

Documents

01 basker obituary - British Dental Association€¦ · £30.00 overseas dental student ... guided tours of the museum and outreach and education events. The award is presented for