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MOMENTS IN
20TH CENTURY
DENTISTRY
1903
Charles Land
devises the porcelain
jacket crown.
1905
German chemist Alfred
Einhorn formulates
the anesthetic later
known as Novocain.
1911
The U.S. Army Dental
Corps is established.
1913
The world’s first oral
hygiene school, the
Fones Clinic for Dental
Hygienists, opens
in Connecticut.
1920
The American Board
of Orthodontics,
the world’s first dental
specialty board,
is founded.
1938
The first synthetic-
bristle toothbrush
hits the market.
1958
Tests to certify dental lab
technologists are given
for the first time.
1959
A full reclining dental
chair is introduced.
1960
Lasers are developed
and approved to treat
periodontal disease.
BY
RACHAEL LISKA
but both were so ill-fitting that the
uppers often slipped in the middle
of a bite or a sentence, frustrating
Chiang to no end.
Hearing this, the ambassador
volunteered the central lab’s
services in a gesture of diplomacy—
and the duty to make the teeth
fell to my father.
“I was just lucky to be at the
right place at the right time,” he
would later tell a local newspaper.
To reach Chiang’s palatial
summer estate in mountainous
Chungking, my father and all
his laboratory equipment flew
700 miles in the private plane of
Gen. Albert Wedemeyer, then
commander of all U.S. forces in
China. When he arrived, Dad
was taken to where he would stay
while on the estate—a luxurious
guesthouse with 11 servants to
cater to his every need.
My father and Lt. Col. E.K.
Haefner, a dentist from Kentucky,
spent four days working out of
a temporary laboratory set up
in the Chiangs’ kitchen to fit
the Chinese leader with a new
set of upper and lower dentures.
Madame Chiang acted as her
husband’s translator, speaking
in beautifully accented English.
Dad always remembered her as
a charming person.
After the work was complete,
the general and his wife treated
my father and Haefner to a two-
hour, 12 -course private dinner
where he tried out the new
chompers. They dined on fish,
eel, roast duck and sweet-sour
pork. The new dentures worked
perfectly!
It was only then that Madame
Chiang would allow the media to
photograph her husband with his
new teeth.
My dad was awarded the Bronze
Star for his efforts, and for many
years after, he enjoyed recognizing
his beautifully made dentures in
news photos.
Dad changed professions in
1953 , going into real estate, but he
always proudly displayed Chiang’s
photograph—the general’s gift to
him—on his office wall. •
They dined on fish, eel,
roast duck and sweet-sour pork.
The new dentures worked perfectly!
lily
(lily)
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