Wilhelm Meyer (dentist)

Wilhelm Meyer (born April 2, 1896 in Hameln , † June 12, 1982 in Göttingen ) was a German dentist and university professor .

Life

Wilhelm Meyer was born on April 2, 1896 in Hameln as the son of the businessman Gustav Meyer (1868–1935) and Elise, nee crowd (1875–1908). After Wilhelm Meyer had passed his Abitur in 1914, he volunteered for military service. In 1915 he was promoted to lieutenant before he was retired in 1918. The following year he began studying dentistry in Marburg , which he completed in 1921 in Göttingen with the state examination. In the same year, Meyer was awarded a PhD with a thesis on the pathohistology of the tooth pulp , which already included part of the later main area of ​​work. med. dent. PhD.

In 1924 Meyer followed his teacher Hermann Euler to Breslau , where he was senior physician in charge of the surgical department at the Dental Institute. In 1925 , Meyer completed his habilitation with the thesis "Controversial questions in the histology of tooth enamel" before he was appointed associate professor in 1930. As part of an exchange program initially limited to two years, Wilhelm Meyer switched to the Imperial University of Tokyo as a visiting professor on behalf of Euler .

However, Wilhelm Meyer did not return until 1934, after his main work, the "Textbook of normal histology and development history of human teeth" , had appeared in 1932 . In 1935 Meyer was given a professorship and head of the Dental Institute at the University of Königsberg . In addition, he devoted himself to studying medicine , which he began in Göttingen and which he completed in 1941 with a doctorate in medicine . med. finished. In 1946, Meyer's appointment to Freiburg failed because of his earlier membership in the NSDAP . In 1948, at the special request of the faculty, he was appointed director of the Dental Institute at the University of Göttingen, despite initial resistance from the Lower Saxony cabinet. On the occasion of his retirement in 1968 he was honored with the award of the Albrecht von Haller Medal. He was also accepted into the Leopoldina in 1958 .

Meyer married Elisabeth Lohmann (1900–1984), born in Hameln in 1922. The marriage had three children, including Justus Meyer-Lohmann, professor of physiology at the University of Göttingen. Wilhelm Meyer died on June 12, 1982 at the age of 86 in Göttingen.

Act

Wilhelm Meyer's academic career came at the end of a period of preponderance in dental surgery in dentistry. While Meyer had to represent this area in his function as institute director, his main scientific interest was normal and pathohistology as well as the development history of the teeth and jaws. Meyer benefited from the fact that he was able to develop microphotographic technology to particular perfection during his time in Göttingen and Breslau.

Other work areas, primarily assigned to tooth preservation, were often revealed to him through their histology. In addition, Meyer caused a sensation with the three-dimensional enlarged representation of intradental canal systems, which led to the absurdity of the desire for complete sealing in the context of endodontic treatments.

Meyer's special interest was also in periodontal diseases. After the Second World War , it was important to him to help the field of periodontology to become more important by working in national and international committees .

Fonts

• Stereoscopic X-rays, In: Deutsche Zahnärztliche Wochenschrift 32, 1929, pages 599-603
• Textbook of normal histology and the history of human teeth development, 1932, 2nd edition, 1951
• Food and teeth, In: Deutsche Zahnärztliche Zeitschrift 3, 1948, pages 381-384
• The pathohistology of the tooth pulp, In: German dentistry in lectures, 1951
• Eliminatio dentis, In: Deutsche Zahn-, Mund- und Kieferheilkunde 19, 1953, pages 180–193
• The representation of the root canals, In: Zahnärztliche Rundschau 64, 1955, pages 532-534
• Tooth extraction and its prevention of pain, 1956
• Dental operation theory, 1961, 2nd edition, 1963

literature

• Hermann Euler: Prof. Wilhelm Meyer on his 60th birthday, In: Deutsche Zahnärztliche Zeitschrift 11, 1956, pages 361–367, with catalog raisonné
• Eberhard Sonnabend: Professor Dr. Dr. Wilhelm Meyer 70 years, In: Deutsche Zahnärztliche Zeitschrift 21, 1966, page 613
• Christoph Benz: The history of dental teaching at the University of Göttingen, doctoral thesis Göttingen, 1986
• Volker Zimmermann: Bringing a Medicinal Faculty into Flor. On the history of the Medical Faculty of the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, 2010, page 79
• Christoph Benz:  Meyer, Wilhelm. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , p. 377 f. ( Digitized version ).