Timeline of Dental History: Development of Profession

Vocabulary flashcards covering key figures, inventions, and milestones in the timeline of dental history and the development of the dental profession.

Dentistry

Emergence as a separate profession from medicine by the early 1700s.

Dentist

Term began to be used in Britain in the 17th–early 18th century.

Pierre Fauchard

Known as the father of modern dentistry; improvised instruments, introduced fillings, linked sugar acids to decay, and wrote Le chirurgien dentiste (1728).

Le chirurgien dentiste

1728 foundational text by Fauchard; pioneer of dental prosthesis.

Claude Mouton

1746 introduced the idea of restoring decayed teeth with gold crowns; pioneer in prosthodontics and cosmetic dentistry.

Phillip Pfaff

1756 published Abhandlung von den Zähnen des menschlichen Körpers; first German dentistry textbook; described teeth anatomy, physiology, pathology, and treatment; first to take dental impressions and perform pulp capping with gold foil.

John Baker

1760 the earliest medically-trained dentist to practice in America (immigrant from England).

Paul Revere (dentistry)

1768–1775 advertised dental services in Boston and performed the first known post-mortem dental forensic work identifying a bridge.

Nicolas Dubois de Chemant

1789 received the first patent for porcelain teeth.

John Greenwood

1790 Washington’s personal dentist; designed dentures carved from hippo tusk; invented the first known dental foot engine.

Josiah Flagg

Constructed the first chair made specifically for dental patients by modifying a Windsor writing chair.

James Snell

1832 made the first mechanical dental chair with an adjustable seat and back.

Perkins’ Chair

1855 featured a ball-and-socket joint for clamping in any position.

Asks’ Patent Dental Chair

1859 first chair to permit tipping forward and backward.

Whitcomb Dental Operating Chair

1860 first chair to permit raising and lowering.

James Beall Morrison Dental Chair

1868 allowed the patient to be tilted in any direction.

Wilkerson Dental Chair

1872 introduced lever-based hydraulic mechanism; enabled significant vertical range (noted as 27 inches in some sources).

J.B. Morrison (chair designer)

Involved in the development of chairs with extended vertical range (noted in relation to Wilkerson chair).

Archer’s Swan Chair

1885 featured in Dr. Greene V. Black’s operating room.

Foot-pedal dental chair (German Victorian era)

1890 German dental chair from the Victorian era used a foot pedal to raise or lower the chair.