Dentistry Ancient and Modern

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XL, Issue 22, 27 May 1908, Page 37

Dentistry Ancient and Modern

MR. KINNEAR’S NEW PREMISES. The history of dentistry is replete with interesting incident. This is true of both ancient and modern dental history. Eor modern dental history—that which is of most interest to we of to-day, is witnessed the evolution of a distinct science within the limits of a single generation. Away back in the dim mists of ages gone. ages, musty with the mildew of antiquity—we read of the Dentistry of the time. We trace its dissemination and progress through China. Egypt. Rome. Greece, Etruria, Palestine, and Chatra, and wonder at its ups and downs. We read of the skill of the Etrurians. whose operations in ornamental dental gold and bridge work are admired to-day. For centuries it suffered the same fate of other callings; and during the dark ages fared no better nor worse than any other science. After the dark clouds of ignorance and superstition had cleared away, and science and invention again became factors in the world’s progress. dentistry advanced in common

with other arts. Men became interested in the study of dental tissues, and apparatus.. and so dental knowledge and skill grew rapidly, and attained for itself a world-wide recognition culminating in its acceptance by the medical profession as a sister profession worthy of proper recognition. The tendency of these times is toward specialism. Specialism is essential to the proper development of any branch of science. The one man. one thing, idea, is as old as Egypt —that it is practical cannot be denied. Mr. Kinnear. who has opened new premises in Auckland, at the corner of Darby ami Queen-streets, has made dentistry his speciality, and he has given particular attention to crown and bridge work. His methods in this are, he claims, unique, and he is able to give clients teeth which as he likes to tell you, “look like your own teeth, feel like your own teeth, and to all intents and purposes,

are your own teeth.” The old days when to have artificial teeth was a constant worry less the plate should slip, ami place one in not merely a humiliating but perhaps a dangerous predicament are gone for ever. Teeth of porcelain, perfectly matching any which may remain in the mouth, mounted on gold, are now the rule, ami such are the construction and balance that, not merely is detection impossible, but accidents, such as frequently occurred in earlier days of dentistry. are

“written out” of the bounds of possi bility.

Taste, too. which was almost destroyed under the old-fashioned methods, is now restored, and mastication is as perfect as with natural teeth.

The old terror of pain, which made the dentists’ chair the subject of so many jokes in “Punch” and other comic papers, has, moreover, vanished. Operations are guaranteed painless, and the modern dentist is no longer a bogey to children in the holidays—ns it used to be in the writer’s young days, when the shadow of the coming visit lay heavy on our minds till the event and its misery were over. Mr. Kinnear’s rooms are very beautifully fitted up with all the very latest scientific appliances. Nurses are in attendance, and no charge is made for preliminary investigations or estimate. When it is remembered that ninety-nine eases of dyspepsia are due to faulty teeth, one cannot give better advice to the many sufferers from that common complaint than a visit to some modern dentist with up-to-date methods such as those of Mr. Kinnear.