NEW DENTAL SCHOOL

Evening Star, Issue 19272, 10 June 1926, Page 2

NEW DENTAL SCHOOL

NO BETTER BUILDING ANYWHERE BENCHES FOR SEVENTY-TWO STUDENTS “ I have been in America, and, though institutions there, are larger, 1 do not think the school in Dunedin could bo improved upon so far ns convenience, lighting, and general arrangements are concerned.”

Such is the recent declaration of a New Zealander who looked through the Dental School in King street shortly before the builders had finished. The commendation places the standard very high, To be comparable with America in dentistry moans being comparable with the best.

The building, which is to be opened to-morrow,, is also approved of by experts who have a knowledge of British and French dental hospitals. The latest knowledge on the subject was gathered by the Otago University Council before it entrusted the work of preparing plans to Edmund Anscombo ami Associates, and Mr Anscombe, in carrying out his responsible duty, has been strengthened and enlightened by bis observations during a personal tour of the United States. Criticising visitors who wish to appear wise will need to ransack their brains to find a fault. The situation is in. King street, on the W'est side, between Frederick and Albany streets, in proximity to the General Hospital and the Medical School. The surrounding ground on three sides is vested in the University Council.

Mr \V. H. Naylor is the contractor

The building is of three stories and basement, the construction being of brick and reinforced concrete, with Oamaru stone facings. The outer dimensions aro 177 ft x 50ft. The foundation stone was laid by Lord Jellicoa on October 11. 1924. The classic style adopted for the facade is skilfully worked up in such a way as to give an imposing appearance and minimise tho narrowness. Oamaru stone matches well with tho black-veined brickwork, and tho ornamentation is impressive in its chaste simplicity, tho bronze figure of Saint Apollonia giving to the front a touch of vivacity and color that finishes off with nice effect.

Seven stone stops on each side of the entrance are fronted by a strip of turl, the steps surmounted by slender pillars carrying the electric lights. Visitors to such establishments usually take the basement on faith. Those who on this occasion care to explore below the level of tho street will find tho space well occupied, places Slaving been found for the boiler room, the repairs workshop, tho air compressor, and a chamber for stores. 'The air compressor supplies the benches in the laboratories.

The long corridor, of which a view is obtained at the entry by tl\o main door on the ground floor, Is nil a dazzling white, but made exceedingly pleasing to the eyo by the judicious use of fibrous plaster ornaments on and about the front section. All the interior finishing, not only in this corridor, hut throughout the building, is in white plaster, with rounded corners, and the skirtings one of torrano or fama.

To the right, as one passes from the door down the corridor, are the dean’s room, the library, the women’s common room, the laboratory for dental histology and pathology, and preparation rooms in that order. A feature of the laboratory is the green hyloplato board, which is quite an adornment by comparison with the old-fashioned blackboard. On the other side of the corridor are the office, the patients’ waiting room, the examination and charting room, the X-ray room, the store room, the dark room, and the. men students’ common room, which is fitted with lockers and is ingeniously heated, the framework of the contrivance for carrying the coat pegs being circulating pipes. The waiting room is most comfortably furnished and decorated. Adults, as Veil as children, will be interested in the artistic historic friezo that Mr H. 11. Cole has painted, its subject being the development of the warship. An electric communication system gives connection between the chairs in the clinic on the top floor and the waiting room on the ground floor. Each chair in the clinic is numbered, and when it is ready for a patient the operator turns his indicator, and the corresponding number illuminated in red appeal's in the waiting room as a. signal to the patient holding the same number on his card to go up the lift and occupy the vacant chair. Children patients are thus freed from the bad psychological effect produced if they havo to wait-in the room whore others are being operated on. At the end of the corridor is the lecture theatre, fitted with seven tiers of seats for the accommodation of 120 students. A feature of this room is the lighting of the desks by horizontallyplaced electric bulbs to enable students to take notes whilst the lantern is in use. The lecture theatre measures 3-5 x 33.

On the first floor is tlio operating theatre, with a large projecting window facing south. It is considered indispensable to have the south light in all the best operating dental chambers in the Southern Hemisphere. In connection with the theatre are the mole patients’ and the female patients’ preparation rooms, the pair of recovering rooms, the sterilising room, and the store room. The prosthetic laboratory and the prosthetic surgery aro also on the same floor. This laboratory is a very largo place, 90 x 46, lit from both sides, and accommodating seventy-two students. The laboratory is so designed that all the benches used in common (such as those for packing, casting, polishing, and plaster work) aro situated in the centre, whilst individual benches are ranged under the windows around three sides. Each seat is supplied with a Bunsen burner, and power plugs aro so placed as to give one to two of the students. The. centre bench, at which the plaster work will bo done, is surrounded with floor 'gratings to catch the droppings and wastage, and thus prevent the refuse being trodden on and trampled about to make a mess. The principal chamber on _the top floor is the clinic, 177 ft x 27, lit by twenty largo windows and twenty roof lights! It contains, in two rows, sixty operating chairs, many of them of the Ritter type. For each chair there is an all-metal fountain cuspidor, fitted with hot and cold water, n combined cabinet and table, an electric power plug, and an electric light with tilting action shades. Thirty of the chairs have electric engines. Each group of ten chairs is provided with an electric steriliser- In the centre of one of the walls is the dispensary, from which two nurse attendants issue materials ,and drugs, and here the necessary records are kept. The other portion of the upper floor is used thus: (1) Clfflical demonstration . room, containing a tiered stand for students, an operating chair, and a Ritter unit ; (2) room for operative dentistry juniors; (8) the museum: (4) crown and bridge laboratory; (5) store room; ffi) staff room. An electric lift runs from the basement to the top floor.