History of Dental Hyiene in the USA

Running head: History of Dental in the US.
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History of Dental Hygiene in US.
Levi Spear Parmly and Dr. Alfred Civilon were among the outstanding dental practitioners in the early eighteenth century in the US. Before the 18th century, dental hygiene and dentistry in general were very poorly developed. It is only until after the 18th century that dentistry started becoming more scientific in America. In the earlier years of 18th century, dental disease prevention was unknown since extraction was the most frequent means of treating dental problems. Parmly`s major contribution to in dental science was the concept that dental caries was caused by external influence related to foreign material on the tooth surface (Hist, 2003).
Dr. Alfred Civilion is believed to be the founder of dental hygiene back in the 1900 (Meg, 2007). He was concerned about a number of patients losing their teeth due to periodontal disease and dental caries. He was convinced that through elimination of conditions like plague, calculus and sugared surface on the teeth and from the gingival margins could reduce or prevent loss of tooth.
In the 1906, the first dental hygienist in the world known as Irene was trained by Dr. Fones despite opposition from many medical and health professionals. The lady`s role was to provide preventive dental cleaning or prophylaxes to the doctor`s patients. The outcome was welcoming. According to Meg in the 1913 the Doctor opened the Fones School of Dental Hygiene where dental disease and prevention was taught. The institution marked an important development in dental hygiene profession (Meg, 2007).
The trained dental hygienist could work in private offices with patients who could afford the services. On the other hand, they could as well provide outreach services to those who could not make it to the private dental care places. The doctor and Irene firmly made the students that studied in the institution to understand the benefits of both private and public health dental hygiene. According to Wilkins what transpired out of the efforts of these two people was the philosophy of prevention and care in the dental hygiene (Wilkins, 2008).
In the 1913, there was the introduction of formal educational programs for dental hygienist focusing on public health. This was followed by explosion of many education programs up to the year 1945 as the field grew.
Presently, the dental hygienist is listed among the top fastest growing health care occupations in the US. The Advanced Dental Hygienist Practitioner (ADHP) model developed by the American dental hygienist association was a mid level oral health provider designed which serves as the oral health equivalent to the nurse practitioner (Meg, 2007). These ADHPs currently work together with dentist and other members of the oral health care team to deliver oral health services in various facilities. They deliver to various public health settings such as community health centers, school based health clinics, head ...