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From the Editor’s Desk
ORTHO TRIBUNE
U.S. Edition
Women have come a long, long way…
and finally reached orthodontics
by Dennis J. Tartakow, D.M.D., M.Ed., Ph.D.
Editor-in-Chief, Ortho Tribune, Dental Tribune America, LLC
Courtesy of Dr. Earl Broker.
women’s rights and education stated, “The history of all times and of
today especially teaches that women
will be forgotten if they forget to
think about themselves.”
“Thank heaven, for little girls,” as
Maurice Chevalier so eloquently stated
in the musical Gigi (Author: Patrick
Sullivan, Los Angeles, CA, [Motion Picture]. United States: Metro-GoldwynMayer Studios, classic musical, 1958).
Even though females have been
present in every field of knowledge,
history bears little trace of this fact.
Cultural patterns have historically
favored the accomplishments of
men over women.
The Talmud cited a woman who
treated dental pain with expertise.
In ancient Greek and Roman history
there were numerous cases of
women practicing medicine and related activities, i.e. the goddess Meditrina, is immortalized in a beautiful
sculpture housed by the Musee des
Antiquités Nationales de d’Saint
Germain, France.
During the Middle Ages, women
in medicine were prosecuted – or
rather sentenced to die – obviously
limiting the development of their activities. Women who knew how to
heal practiced fearfully in secret,
and as a consequence, did not leave
traces of their activities. It was unthinkable that the female would
have a place in medicinal lectures of
Medieval and Renaissance universities such as Salerno, Bologna, Montpellier, Paris, Oxford or Salamanca.
Saint Hildegard of Bingen (10991179) summarized her knowledge
of medical sciences in her book,
“Liber Simplicis Medicinae.” She
made reference to dental treatments based on herbs, and mentioned the need to drain dental abscesses to facilitate the expulsion of
pus. This manuscript was one of the
most important treatises on the subject fast forwarding through the
centuries that followed.
Japan’s
Buddhist
priestess
Nakaoka Tei, known as Hotokehime, or Lady of Buddha, constructed an entire set of teeth for herself
in the 14th century. This beautifully
carved cherry wood sculpture is on
display in the Tokyo Museum as a
discrete witness of the abilities and
knowledge of this notable woman.
In 1849 Louise Otto-Peters (18191895), German author, advocate for
History is vague regarding exactly when women were accepted as
dentists. However, the first women
to be mentioned in dentistry dates
back to 1820 when Levi S. Parmley
stated in his book “Natural History
of the Teeth” that he offered to teach
gentlemen AND ladies about the
practice of dentistry. According to
Parmly, the ladies did not avail
themselves of the opportunity and
dentistry was unheard of for women
until many years later.
Dr. Emeline Roberts Jones (18361916) perhaps was the first woman
to practice dentistry in the United
States. She was married to a dentist
and used extracted teeth to gain experience. Assisting her husband in
1855, and after his death in 1864 she
developed an impressive practice in
New Haven, Conn. In 1893, Dr.
Jones was appointed as a member of
the World’s Columbian Dental Congress Women’s Advisory Council. In
1912, she was awarded honorary
membership in the Connecticut
Dental Society.
Another pioneer, Lucy B. Hobbs
Taylor (1833-1910), was the first
woman graduate from a dental college in the United States. In 1859,
when she expressed a desire to
study dentistry and practice in Ellenberg, N.Y., the community was
shocked. She was introduced to Dr.
Wardel from Cincinnati, Ohio, who
offered her a place in his office with
his other students. She moved to
Iowa in 1861, opened a practice and
became a member of the Iowa State
Dental Society and later admitted to
the Ohio Dental College. In 1866
she became the first female dental
graduate in the United States.
Although the number of women
accepted to dental schools increased
as time went on, the number was
small compared to men. By 1893,
approximately 200 women graduated with dental degrees, including
several that came from outside the
United States.
Gradually, dentistry became more
popular among women students, especially Europeans, who, being
barred from the schools in their own
countries, came to America for an
education. On the other hand, American dental schools were not anxious to admit women students prior
to the 1880s. However by 1880,
women began being accepted to
dental schools in the U.S. and to
these pioneer women in dentistry,
all women dental students of today
owe their privilege of education in
their chosen profession of dentistry.
In Mexico, female dentists grew
30 percent by the end of the 1930s.
In the 1940s and 1950s, the number
of successful female practitioners
multiplied, and during the 1970s,
women enrolled in dental schools
rose to 55 percent. Dr. Alicia Lao de
la Vega, graduating in 1946, became
the first woman to pursue postgraduate orthodontic education under
Dr. George Moore at the University
of Michigan Dental School. She recalled, “There were very few
women in the postgraduate area and
they were all of other nationalities.”
She returned to Mexico to begin a
long, fruitful academic career and
was the first woman on record to be
invited to attend orthodontic seminars at the University of Southern
California, School of Dentistry.
According to the records of the
American Association of Orthodontics, Dr. Carrie Locke of Nashua, NH
became the first American orthodontist and the first woman to attend
the first meeting of the American Society of Orthodontics held in St.
Louis, Mo., in 1901. The ASO originated in 1900 and later became
known as the AAO. (Source, T.M.
Graber, DMD, MSD, PhD.)
As recently as the 1970s, the role
of American women has been consistently overlooked. Activities to
address this situation emerged in
1979 at Sarah Lawrence College
Women’s History Institute, where
40 national female leaders pressed
for a “National Women’s History
Week.”
In 1987, Congress designated
March to celebrate National
Women’s History Month to ensure
that the history and achievements of
American women will be recognized
and celebrated throughout the
country.
As William Shakespeare (15641616) stated, “what is past is prologue.” “Before archivists as a profession can write their prologue for
the next century, they need to understand better their own past.” Or,
do you think that there is any truth
to a quotation by the English novelist Joseph Conrad (1857-1942),
“Being a woman is a terribly difficult
task, since it consists principally in
dealing with men.” OT
OT
Editorial Advisory Board
Robert Boyd, DDS, MEd
(Periodontics & Education)
Earl Broker, DDS
(T.M.D. & Orofacial Pain)
Tarek El-Baily, BDS, MS, MS, PhD
(Research, Bioengineering &
Education)
Donald Giddon, DMD, PhD
(Psychology & Education)
Donald Machen, DMD, MSD, MD, JD,
MBA (Medicine, Law & Business)
James Mah, DDS, MSc, MRCD, DMSc
(Craniofacial Imaging & Education)
Richard Masella, DMD (Education)
Malcolm Meister, DDS, MSM, JD
(Law & Education)
Harold Middleberg, DDS
(Practice Management)
Elliott Moskowitz, DDS, MSd
(Journalism & Education)
Ravindra Nanda, BDS, MDS, PhD
(Biomechanics & Education)
Edward O’Neil, MD (Internal Medicine)
Donald Picard, DDS, MS (Accounting)
Howard Sacks, DMD (Orthodontics)
Glenn Sameshima, DDS, PhD
(Research & Education)
Daniel Sarya, DDS, MPH (Public Health)
Keith Sherwood, DDS (Oral Surgery)
James Souers, DDS (Orthodontics)
Gregg Tartakow, DMD (Orthodontics)
& Associate Editor
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