Dentists in Early Days

Why so Few Dentists Formerly

Only 100 in 1818

Bainbridge Republican [date unknown]

 

In the Republican of two weeks ago we dilated at some length upon the advent and career of Dr. Richard Griswold, the first dentist in Bainbridge [Chenango Co., NY], and the surprisingly exceptional advantages this town enjoyed through his rare ability.  When he came to Bainbridge in 1818, the profession of dentistry in the United States was really in its infancy for there were less than one hundred dentists throughout the whole country, and of journals, societies and colleges devoted to the science of dental surgery, there were none.  It had only been little more than thirty five years before, during the Revolutionary War, that the art was introduced here and through a French soldier in our army.

 

The first American to practice dentistry was John Greenwood who established himself in New York city in 1788 and had the reputation of carving in ivory in 1790 and 1795 sets of teeth for General Washington.  Other dentists appeared in a short time and settled in New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, and slowly the practice spread and the study developed, embracing each year an advance in scientific knowledge of the treatment of the teeth and making artificial ones.

 

Ten years after Dr. Griswold settled in Bainbridge, in 1828 and 1830, we learned from authoritative sources that there were not over 300 dental practitioners in the United States, and not more than fifty of those could be counted upon as having received proper instruction.  In 1840, however, the number had quadrupled and the qualifications had improved. About this time the first dental college was opened in Baltimore, a journal was started and a society formed in the interests of the profession in Maryland, and other states followed in the same lines, and the movement spread until there was a national organization in 1855. 

 

We have sketched thus briefly the history of dentistry in this Country for the first half of the century, to show why there were so few competing dentists within that period.

 

The early dentists of the century were generally silversmiths and jewelers, and Dr. Griswold came here uniting these callings with his profession, and for twenty-seven years reigned supreme in his manifold capacity, with not a competitor in dentistry until 1845 when Dr. O.S. Hill came.  His residence and office were on North Main street in the first house beyond the bridge, right side.  Dr. Griswold continued his practice, more or less, until he died, throughout a period of fifty-three years, and by a singular coincidence it has been fifty-three years since Dr. Hill first settled in Bainbridge, with an interim of only five years' absence.