Walter Drum

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Walter Drum (born November 26, 1897 in Stettin ; † June 8, 1987 in Rabel , Schleswig-Holstein ) was a German dentist , former editor of the Zahnärztliche Rundschau , publisher and editor of the journal Quintessenz and author of numerous dental books. He was one of the most ardent German advocates of the use of fluoride for caries prophylaxis , especially the fluoridation of drinking water.

life and work

Drum studied at the Universities of Greifswald , Berlin and Heidelberg . In Heidelberg he passed the state examination and received his doctorate in 1923. med. dent. After three years in Norway, he practiced as a dentist in his hometown from 1926 to 1936, and since 1936 in Berlin. With the development of the shoulderless porcelain crown ("drum crown") he first made a name for itself in 1931 and sparked lively discussions due to concerns in static terms. In November 1946 he took over the editorial management of the Zahnärztliche Rundschau from Heinrich Blum , which had been published for the first time since the Second World War in July of that year . Drum was responsible for this magazine until the end of 1950. But at the beginning of 1950 he had already initiated the publication of Quintessenz , a paper for all areas of dentistry , which developed into one of the most widely read German dental journals. Drum coined the term parafunctions in 1949 and understood by it activities of the masticatory system outside the chewing function. They can damage or destroy the temporomandibular joint ( auto- destruction of the masticatory system ). In 1965 he presented the Drum-Miniplast splint at the 15th German Dental Conference in Stuttgart . According to Drum, a “Dental-Test-Institut Berlin” founded in 1946 with official approval, which later also served as the main office for the “Vereinigung für Dental-Materialkunde (VDM)”, was opened in 1948 with his wife Ruth (née Werner) Enter the partner in the form of a GmbH in the Berlin commercial register. Among other things, it served to coordinate science, practice and industry. The institute's work plan also included the testing of medicinal products, the necessity of which soon became apparent. Drum has been a corresponding member of the German Fluorine Commission since 1950 and was a founding member of the constituent meeting of the European Working Group for Fluorine Research and Caries Prevention in Constance in 1953. He made services to professional politics as first chairman of the Charlottenburg district in the Association of Dentists of Berlin , a position he held for 18 years. On April 9, 1975, Drum suffered a stroke , has been paralyzed since then and, due to the loss of the language center, could no longer make contact with his surroundings. He died on June 8, 1987 at the age of 90.

Energetic appeal for tooth protection hardening

After German dentistry was isolated from the rest of the scientific world as a result of the Second World War, Drum, together with Georg Axhausen and his senior physician Hans Joachim Schmidt, founded the Dental Society at the University of Berlin on June 17, 1948 as a forum for the dissemination and discussion of scientific knowledge. "Visiting from America" ​​created a spirit of optimism with prospects for a successful fight against dental caries with fluorine compounds. Drum was the first board member of the Dental Society to be ecstatic about what his American colleagues heard and read. As early as 1949 he called for a vigorous start to the “hardening of mouthguards in all schools in Germany”, even if those who doubted first wanted to see evidence of the effectiveness of fluoridation. “The hardening of the teeth protector cannot cause any damage.” He defined “hardening of the teeth protector” as a term suitable for laypeople for caries prophylaxis with fluoride , in which hydroxyapatite is partially replaced by fluorapatite in the enamel . He saw both local fluoride application and "fluorine medication" by administering tablets or fluoridating drinking water as practicable methods for this. It is imperative to avoid that “any form of poisoning occurs due to fluorine-containing preparations and endangers trust in the beneficial effects of dental protection hardening.” Therefore, all companies that intend to “bring out fluorine-containing preparations” should first contact their dental test institute Connect to "prevent official coercive measures from the outset." In the same year, Drum told in a book what he knew about the history of fluoridation in the USA. The work appeared in the second edition in 1953 under the title "Victory over dental caries through fluorine" and was criticized as one-sided, because it only deals with those voices who see the caries prophylaxis through "fluorine application" as completely resolved. At this point in time he formed the “Fluorine Committee in the Association of Dentists of Berlin” with the dentists Rudolf Schill and Hans-Jürgen See, which would provide information on all questions relating to “fluorine prophylaxis”.

Spirited debates on fluoride

Drum didn't want to work scientifically on the subject of fluoridation. It was enough for him to have initiated the practical implementation of what had already been scientifically developed elsewhere. "If exact scientific investigations have been carried out in one country of the world and the evidence is presented in convincing form, it is in no way shameful for another country to accept the results without its own verifications." Not all colleagues shared this attitude them Ewald Harndt , who took over the chairmanship of the Berlin Dental Society in July 1949 after Axhausen had resigned. Harndt's reference to his own animal experiments in cooperation with Rost, which, in addition to changes in tooth enamel, had also shown osteoporosis and exostoses with fluoride administration, which he could still demonstrate in preparations, was countered by Drum with the assertion “that the minimal amounts of fluorine are not actually toxic in caries prophylaxis occurs. ”On a similar occasion, he attacked the Swiss dentist Walter Hess . Hess, at that time secretary of the Swiss monthly for dentistry , had in a lecture on the occasion of the scientific conference of the German Society for Dental, Oral and Maxillofacial Medicine in Wiesbaden in 1949 put forward a few critical views on the use of fluoride and warned against the hasty introduction of drinking water fluoridation , "um to prevent science from being discredited by premature mass experiments ”. Drum reacted with a sharp criticism of Hess's lecture, because the "weight of his authority could inhibit promising efforts to prevent caries in Germany."

A little later, a major caries prophylactic campaign planned by Drum at Charlottenburg schools failed. According to Drum, the Berlin medical councilor Stanislaus Pazurek and Heinrich Gins had warned the responsible authorities of possible toxic effects and with this argument subsequently "smashed" two further projects: an experiment on 15,000 school children in Berlin-Charlottenburg, for which the company Zyma-Blaes AG had provided ten million fluoride tablets (0.25 mg F-) free of charge (1951), as well as the fluoridation in a Berlin waterworks, for which Drum and Schill had submitted applications. To make future advances effective, advised Drum: "Under the direction of efficient dentists or doctors citizenship could the authorities downright force to introduce caries preventive measures." For tablets action, the district office Charlottenburg has requested an opinion from the Free University, which by Wolfgang Heubner was created . With 1 mg of fluoride per day, Heubner expected "a reliable and positive result." However, one had to accept the risk of isolated enamel spots , without which effective caries prophylaxis with fluoride would probably not be possible at all. Pazurek explained about the actions allegedly "broken up" by him that in the case of the planned local application the State Health Department had not been informed and only learned from the press about an initiative connected with self-promotion. The number of local fluoride applications required per child was initially given too low in Drums' information sheet, but was later corrected upwards by Drum and was associated with costs for the parents at DM 2 per child and treatment. A treatment time of 10 minutes per application per child allows a full-time school dentist to treat 2400 children in 40 working weeks in one year - in addition to the actual school dental examinations and treatments. It is necessary to care for 6,000 children per school dentist. Furthermore - as in the later scheduled tablet campaign - no documentation or evaluation was planned. The fluoridation of drinking water in West Berlin requires an expenditure of 646,341 DM, an amount that exceeds the entire school dental care budget of all 12 West Berlin administrative districts by 192,931 DM. And of course , toxicity issues would also have to play a role in connection with fluoridation. Ultimately, however, the competent authority would have rejected or prohibited the measure in any case . A benefit with regard to investigations z. B. by Prader and by researchers from Switzerland, in whom a connection between the fluoride content of the numerous tooth samples and their caries status could not be seen. Pazurek added: “ As a member of the German Fluorine Commission, I know from the many letters and advertisements that it is no longer easy to maintain your own judgment and to decide where science and where mammon predominates when it comes to fluorine. A university teacher, a school dentist or a colleague of the private practice cannot deal with the caries problem with the best will in addition to his tasks - even if I ignore the financial side - that a solution can be expected. "

The editors of the Zahnärztliche Mitteilungen also occasionally had to take note of Drums temperament when articles were written that he did not like, e.g. B. When the editor Karl Michael Hartlmaier in a book review of Douw G. Steyn's "The problem of dental caries and the fluoridation of public water supplies" described the author as "admirably objective". Drums repeated allegations, among other things that the "anti-fluorists" were given way too much space, "left the editorial staff" cold to the heart. "

Publications

  • 1935: Drum ceramics (two further editions 1936, 1943)
  • 1939: Textbook of dental ceramics
  • 1949: The scientific basis of hardening of mouthguards
  • 1953: Victory over dental caries by fluorine (as the 2nd edition of the scientific basis ... , 1949)
  • 1960: Good morning, Miss Neumann - a textbook for dental assistants
  • 1972: Dentistry for doctors

Awards

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Personal. He promoted the reputation of the stand. Dr. Walter Drum 70 years . Dental Notes 57: No 23 (1967) 1173
  2. ↑ Dr. Walter Drum 60 years . Dental notices 45: No. 23 (1957) 808
  3. ^ W. Drum: Classification of Parafunctions. Lecture on the occasion of the scientific conference of the Working Group for Research on Periodontal Diseases (ARPA) on September 22, 1961 in Kassel. Forum Parodontologicum (DZZ supplement) 12: No.1 (March 1, 1962) p.1; or DZZ 17 (1962) pp. 411 and 424
  4. ^ Else Mann: Report on the 15th German Dental Conference from September 15 to 19, 1965 in Stuttgart. Dental World / Reform 66 (1965) 738
  5. ^ W. Drum: The Drum-Miniplast-Rail. German dentist Magazine 21 (1966) 109
  6. ↑ a b Communications and reports. The Vereinigung für Dental-Materialkunde eV and Das Dental-Test-Institut. Dental World 4 (1949) 446
  7. ^ The program of the Association for Dental Material Science (VDM). VDM.-Nachrichten No. 2 of February 5, 1950, supplement of the Zahnärztl. Rundschau 59: No. 3 (1950) 58
  8. ↑ Commercial register. B. 2840 / Nz. Dental Test Institute . Ordinance sheet for Greater Berlin, Volume 4, Part II, No. 5 of August 3, 1948, p. 68
  9. ↑ W. Drum: To the organization of the dental medicine examination. VDM News No. 3 of August 5, 1949, supplement of the Zahnärztl. Rundschau No. 15 (1949) p. 291
  10. ↑ Fluorine Commission . Dental Rundschau 60 (1951) 74
  11. ^ HJ Schmidt: 10 years of ORCA . Dental Communications 53 (1963) 593
  12. ↑ a b c K. Eichner: Nekrolog for Dr. med. dent. Walter Drum . German dentist Magazine 42 (1987) 933
  13. ^ University news . Foundation of the Dental Society at the University of Berlin . Dental Rundschau 57: No 13 (1948) 210
  14. ^ W. Drum: Visit from America . Dental Rundschau No. 16 (1948) 245
  15. ↑ W. Drum: Caries prophylaxis through fluorine compounds . Dental Rundschau No. 16 (1948) 246
  16. ↑ a b W. Drum: Call for tooth protection hardening . Dental Rundschau 58: No. 9 (1949) 135
  17. ↑ a b c W. Drum: Fluorine medication for caries prophylaxis . Dental Communications 39: No 21 (1951) 526
  18. ^ W. Drum: Tooth protection hardening and Dental-Test-Institut . Dental Rundschau 58: No 14 (1949) 254
  19. ↑ W. Drum: The scientific basis of tooth protection hardening . Berlin Publishing House, 1949
  20. ^ W. Drum: Victory over dental caries by fluorine . Quintessenz, Berlin 1953
  21. ↑ K. Maretzky: Further voices on the fluorine problem and a foreword by the editors . Dental Communications 41: 24 (1953) 724
  22. ↑ Address list in Drum W .: Victory over dental caries by fluorine ...
  23. ^ University news . Dental Society at the University of Berlin . Zahnärztliche Rundschau 58: No 15 (1949) 290
  24. ^ HJ Schmidt: Report on the dentists' conference in Berlin from October 6th to 8th, 1949 . Dental Rundschau 58: No 22 (1949) 437
  25. ↑ W. Hess: The ability to influence hard tooth substances in an exogenous way . IN: Genesis and prophylaxis of tooth decay. Scientific conference of the German Society for Dentistry, Oral and Maxillofacial Medicine on July 28th to 31st, 1949 in Wiesbaden. First part. Hanser Verlag, Munich 1950, p. 89
  26. ↑ W. Drum: On the presentation by Hess at the 10th German Dental Conference on fluoride prophylaxis. Dental Rundschau 58: No. 17 (1949) 324; See also the report on the scientific lectures at the 10th German Dental Conference in Wiesbaden. Dental Rundschau 58: No. 17 (1949) 319
  27. ↑ W. Drum: Increase in caries and fluoroprophylaxis . Dental Communications 43: No 4 (1955) 123
  28. ^ Wilhelm Kessler: Collective lecture on the German-language dental literature of the year 1951 - Fluor. DZZ 8 (1953) 388
  29. ^ Wolfgang Heubner: Fluor prophylaxis. Dental Rundschau 60 (1951) 147
  30. ↑ a b S. Pazurek: The renewed increase in dental caries and their control through regular school dental care. Hubert Karl Walter Publishing House. Berlin-Tempelhof. 1951
  31. ^ S. Pazurek: Increase in caries and fluoroprophylaxis . Dental Communications 43: No 11 (1955) 384
  32. ↑ KM Hartlmaier: Fluorine - but with caution. From fantasy numbers to reality . Dental Notices 47: No 3 (1959) 88
  33. ^ W. Drum: The arguments of the antifluorists . Dental Communications 45 (1957) 638
  34. ↑ W. Drum: Controversial water fluoridation . Dental Communications 47 (1959) 268
  35. ↑ Statement by the editors . Dental Communications 45 (1957) 639
  36. ↑ KM Hartlmaier: Naked Facts: Not 75, but only 28 percent! Dental Communications 47 (1959) 269
  37. ↑ K. Kimmel: Dr. Walter Drum has passed away . Dental Notes 77: No 14 (1987) 1568
  38. ↑ Cross of Merit and Badge of Honor for colleague Dr. Walter Drum . Dental Message. 62: No. 24 (1972) 1235
personal data
SURNAME Drum, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German dentist
DATE OF BIRTH November 26, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Szczecin
DATE OF DEATH June 8, 1987
Place of death Rabel , Schleswig-Holstein