THE MILITARY DENTIST.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11593, 11 January 1916, Page 4

THE MILITARY DENTIST.

WONDERS OF SURGERY. "t\ il.li the first Harvard unit that. went, in :-orve in a British base hospital in Fiance, three, dentists were uoluded. With Iho second Harvard unit, which wont another throe. Between the two events lies history, says the '■'Ji-.is'ton Globe." The- sugoons who composed the first unit, si!ifl"""i':-anUly that, they did not expect to Jim! much that would ho new or itmntctive about war .surgery. It was recognised also that dentists were Mire to be needed, partly because in trench lighting a largo proportion of the wound* are. likely to be head wounds, partly because tho average English soldier, and more especially tho Cockney English soldier, is likely to have bad teeth. -Just, how valuable the dentists wore to prow was not; guessed. And just hew great a. stop in advance they were u> la.u was not dreamed. They turned out to 1)3 the. best life-savers and pain lemovcrs, almost, among tho lot of KciouT.isus. WHAT THE SPECIALIST DOES. To begin -with, a large proportion of wounds are head wounds, l>ecause the rest of the bedy is sheltered in a trench. -'Vow unless a head wound kills right away, tho bullet is extremely apt to iitkc; through the face, shattering tho jaw, or cutting, off the crowns of a row of teeth. Tin's is not nil. The fragments of teeth or jawbone, under the "impact of tho modern high velocity riHo bullets, become themselves .smaller bullets, and plough through the flesh of face or neck. They have to be followed up into the muscles of the cheeks, or dug out of the complicated mechanism of the throat, or even traced with probes far down among the neck muscles.

The dentist and the oral surgeon, have found a great deal to do. "Tho ••general" surgeon, given a case in u-hieJi part or a man's jaw has been carried away, is likely to excise tho ragged part, fit the man up with an artificial appliance of some sort to carry teeth, and lot it go at that. The Specialist in oral surgery has"discovered and invented dozens of ways" to improve on the old methods. If a lower jaw is shattered beyond hops of repair, tho modern surgeon dentist will dissect it out .altogether; he will crown two upper hack teeth, and tho gold crowns wiJ! carry sockets. He will form an avtiiicial jaw of gold, mount artificial teeth upon it, a.nd furnish it with balls to At into the sockets, and springs to help a patient open and close his mouth.

PLENTY OF WORK IX FRANCE. The dentist in these major operations works in conjunction with the new

school of '-'plastic surgery." and does tilings unheard of till within a few years. Most people of mature years' have had the unpleasant, experience of having a tooth nerve exposed, and are aware that it is uncudurably painful. Men are brought into the base hospitals in France with a. whole range of teeth smashed by a bullet, and a whole row of nerves standing naked. Imagine the pain of s-neh a wound ! Tin.: dentists of to-day have learned the two points at which novocain can. ho injected in a jaw, numbing the whole fcVfc of tooth nerves. _ In live minutes they take away a soldier's anguish, and then hook out the devclish little white, filaments calmly, with never a twinge for the patient. It goes without saying that in the huge armies thousands of men need the ordinary dental attention which any crowd of like size would need. So there is plenty of work for dentists in France. When the Harvard unit was being assembled, it was determined to add three dentists to the roster. Dean Eugene H. Smith, of the Harvard Dental School, made the selections of the men. to go from among the volunteers, choosing Dr Y. li. Kazanjian. Di- Frank Holmes Cusimian, and Dr Fred Brigham. I)r Kazan.jwin is a remarkable man. He c s an Armenian who came to this country already well educated, who put himself through the dental school and earned his living while doing so, who then started to studv medicine also, and who was grabbed by Dean Smith, as an instructor in prosthetics', for the dental school, and so set to specialising instead of going on with a general eduqaihm. Their work in the war attracted immediate attention from the British authorities, and as the time for breaking up and sending the first Harvard unit home approached, the War Office sent for the three American dentists. Sir Lionel Perry, or somebody else in high authority, told the Americans that, 'their work had been so valuable that, the W.-ir Office wished if pos&ible to retain them when the rest of the surgeons returned to America. HOSPITAL AT THEIR DISPOSAL. '•'You can all get extended leave of absence, for the winter, anyway," the officials' sin id. "And if you will stay, we will build yon a hospital, equip it completely, and will make financial arrangements differing from those under which vou came. In other words, while under 'the arrangements of vclunteerm"- vou get only the pay of soldiers, we wifrpayyou s.aiariesto make it'possible for vou to stay on.' - ' Arrangements with Harvard for Dr KaKanjian'sl leave were readily made, and vh-> British proposition has been accepted. Meanwhile, another Harvard unit' lias organised and started. It had been obvious; from the very first that three dentists could not handle all the work that was brought to them, So three more am going in the second unit, and the American Dental Hospital will si art with the very latest of equipment and a staff of six surgeons.