A Century of Caring: The Health Sciences at the University of Iowa, 1850-1950

College of Dentistry: Early Equipment

The first spittoon for dental use was designed by J. C. F. Maury of Paris in 1828. The first commercially available models, manufactured by the S. S. White Dental Manufacturing Company in the 1860s, were quite ornate, made from rosewood, with marble tops and glass bowls. A flushing mechanism was introduced in 1898; before that time, spittoons had to be emptied and cleaned by hand. The first complete dental units, in which chair, spittoon, instrument tray and drill were all part of a single assembly, were manufactured in 1915. Each advance in design was motivated by ease of use for the dentist and comfort for the patient.

Gift of Douglas Paul, PhD, Iowa City, IA; MM# 351a, b

Anesthesia Inhalers
circa 1900

Devices like the two displayed here were used to induce unconsciousness prior to dental surgery. To use the mask on the left, a dentist dipped cheesecloth in chloroform and clamped it into the metal frame. The patient then placed the mask over his or her mouth and nose and inhaled the vapors. To prepare the inhaler on the right for use, the dentist put a piece of ether-soaked cheesecloth in the bulb. The patient would then place the two prongs in his or her nostrils and inhale.

Chloroform mask gift of J. Zerwas; 122

Weber Victory Chair
circa 1909
Weber Dental Manufacturing Company
Canton, OH

In 1790, American Josiah Flagg attached a headrest and instrument platform to a household armchair, creating the first dental chair. Over the next century, numerous additions were made to this basic design, including a disk-shaped base, cushions, and a footrest. The chair was also made to be adjustable, first by simple mechanical means, and later with the help of hydraulics. In 1958, John Naughton of Des Moines invented and manufactured the first modern, reclining, contour dental chair.

Gift of Thomas D. Taylor, DDS, West Hartford, CT; 1995.16

Dental Instruments:

Dentists used hand-turned burs to prepare teeth for filling before the advent of foot-powered drills-and even afterward during housecalls.

Pluggers are used to mold filling material to the exact shape of a cavity.

Scalers have been used for many centuries to scrape deposits from the teeth.

Dental screws were invented in 1803. To remove the stump of a tooth, a dentist would screw one of these devices into the stump and then pull.

This unidentified instrument (brass tag number 231:30) may be an adjustable scaler or excavator. Have you ever seen a similar dental tool?

Dentists began to use ornate hand mirrors in the late 1700s. A century later, dental mirrors looked much as they do today, with long, angled handles and circular glass.

The bulb on the end of this cautery (brass tag number 267:19) was heated and applied to tissue to treat a variety of dental ills, including tooth decay and gumboils.

Elevators lift whole or fragmented teeth out of their sockets.

Spoon excavators are used to remove decayed tooth matter.

In the mid-nineteenth century, newly designed extraction forceps began to replace dental keys as the instrument of choice for removing teeth. The textured handles were easy to grasp, and the working ends were custom-made for different teeth, such as incisors and molars.

Objects in this case courtesy of
The estate of Dr. Frank Haven McClurg, Fairfield, IA
The University of Iowa College of Dentistry
The University of Iowa College of Medicine

Tools of the Trade

The objects in this case illustrate the variety of tools and substances dentists once used, and, in some cases, still do. Can you find them?

• Quarter-Pound of Mercury. Mercury was used in dental fillings as late as the 1960s. Early dentists stored mercury in containers like the four wooden vials to the right of the plastic bottle.
• Glass Toothbrush Sterilizer. Patented in 1922, this glass tube was supported vertically, and the bulb at the bottom filled with a sterilizing fluid such as creosantis, kresol, or lysoform. Fumes from the fluid drifted into the upper chamber of the tube, where they sterilized the toothbrush. A stopper at the top of the tube prevented the fumes from escaping.
• Trubyte Color Wheel. Dentists used this device to match the color of a patient's teeth when designing dentures and other dental appliances.
• Operative Dentistry by Greene Vardiman Black. Dr. Black is widely regarded as the founder of modern, scientific dentistry. He taught at the University of Iowa during the 1890-91 school year.
• Impression Trays. Filled with mold-making material, impression trays are placed in a patient's mouth as the first step in making a cast of his or her teeth.
• Albi-Denta Toothpaste. Toothpaste was not sold in tubes until the late 1800s. Before then, it came in tins such as this one.
• Anaesthesine, Benzodent, and Eugenol. Through the years, many substances have been used to minimize oral pain. Anaesthesine is a local anesthetic which can be applied to the skin and mucous membranes. Benzodent is an ointment used to treat pain associated with dentures. Eugenol is a painkiller used directly on tooth decay.
• Heating Dishes. These dishes were used in dental laboratories for heating, measuring and mixing substances.
• Jawbone. The first book devoted solely to dental anatomy, Libellus de dentibus (Pamphlet on the Teeth), was published in 1563 by Bartolommeo Eustachio.
• Mortar and Pestle. Early dentists made their own dental medications, and the mortar and pestle were necessary tools for creating powders.
• Diana Dental Floss. Dental floss was invented in 1910.
• Portable Scale. Before mixing materials for fillings, tooth powders and other substances, it was important to measure all ingredients. Portable scales like this one enabled traveling dentists to work outside their offices and laboratories.

Dental Keys
circa 1825

Throughout history, dentists have used many instruments to extract teeth. The dental key was invented in the early 1700s and was widely used until the mid-1800s. In many cases, the key would break the tooth rather than extract it, and cause jaw fractures and soft tissue damage as well.

from left to right:
On loan from The UI College of Medicine; contributed by Bush Houston, MD; 758b
Gift of the estate of Dr. Frank Haven McClurg, Fairfield, IA; 1997.23.9
On loan from The UI College of Medicine; contributed by Bush Houston, MD; 758a
On loan from The UI College of Medicine; 598

"There never was a claw on bird or beast that was the cause of such anguish or apprehension, such howls or agony, as that diabolical instrument looking like a vulture's talon, but known by the name of the key. It was a key indeed: it may have opened the door of Heaven to the sufferer in due time: but while the bolt was turning, the victim thought he was in that other place (Hell) where the man must be who invented the instrument of torture."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1872

This illustration shows how the dental key was designed to work. It was drawn by Christophe Francois Delabarre for the 1815 French text Odontologie, ou, observation sur les dents humaines.

Dental Foot Engine
circa 1910
S. S. White Dental Manufacturing Company
Philadelphia, PA

The foot engine was a major advance in dental technology. Patented in 1871 by J. B. Morrison, its design was inspired by the original Singer sewing machine. The advantage of the foot engine was that it could turn a drill much faster than was possible with hand-cranked models, resulting in a faster, cleaner cut through the layers of a tooth in preparation for filling. Because of this, tooth repair became a widespread alternative to extraction.

The foot engine was the power source of choice well into the twentieth century. The electric dental drill was introduced in 1872, but early models were rather cumbersome, and the vast majority of dental offices were not wired for electricity for several decades. The best foot engine operators could turn a drill at 1,000 revolutions per minute (rpm). As late as 1946, electric drills were only four times faster, but design breakthroughs increased speeds to tens of thousands of rpm by 1950. Today's dental drills operate in the hundreds of thousands of rpm range.

The foot engine on display was owned by Dr. Guy C. Black, who graduated from the University of Iowa College of Dentistry in 1907 and practiced dentistry in Iowa and Colorado.

Gift of the family of Dr. Guy C. Black; 1997.25.1a, b, c