Imagine a time when it was considered revolutionary to hear a concert down a telephone line! This occurred in 1892 at the 13th British Dental Association (BDA) conference in Manchester, courtesy of the National Telephone Company.
I have this information on good authority from the BDA Museum which had a stand at the 2014 BDA conference, also in Manchester. Some 200 delegates went to the 1892 meeting. Apparently one of the highlights was a discussion about the extraction of first permanent molars. The majority of delegates concluded that “extraction should be avoided if possible unless the teeth were unsaveable.”
How interesting that 122 years later there is a Saving Teeth Awareness Campaign which highlights how important it is for teeth to be saved: www.savingteeth.co.uk
When it comes to technology, however, times have certainly changed. At the 2014 meeting the range of equipment and technology was staggering. Meanwhile, one of the highlights of the 1892 BDA meeting was the application of electricity to dentistry!