William John Gies

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William John Gies (born February 21, 1872 in Reisterstown , Maryland , † May 20, 1956 in Lancaster , Pennsylvania ) was an American biochemist who is considered the founder of modern dental training in the United States, although he was never a dentist.

Life

Gies received a Bachelor of Science from Gettysburg College in 1893, an MS in 1896 and a Ph.D. 1897 at Yale University . He was among the founders of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine (1903) and the American Society of Biological Chemists (1906). As a professor of biochemistry at Columbia University (1907-1937) Gies became interested in dental research and education when he was asked in 1909 by members of a committee of the local dentists' association to combine his biochemical research with dentistry . At that time he found that Columbia University Medical School, as well as medical schools in general, had little scientific interest in teeth and was also not interested in dental research. He began to investigate the causes of tooth decay and periodontal disease . Since then, Gies has written over 600 publications.

It was thanks to Gies' efforts that the Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery was founded, which was soon followed by the American Association of Dental Schools . In 1925, Gies advocated that the New York College of Dentistry, founded in 1865, be linked with New York University to form the New York University College of Dentistry . These new organizations had become necessary due to legal regulations that were intended to restrict the commercial orientation of dental schools.

In 1919 he founded the Journal of Dental Research at his own expense and was its editor until 1935. He was also a founding member (1920), from 1928 to 1938 Secretary General and from 1939 to 1940 the 16th President of the International Association for Dental Research (IADR ). At times at the same time he was Secretary General of Subsection Nd (Dentistry) in Section N (Medicine) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) from 1936 to 1939 . It was not until 1954, under Secretary General Russell W. Bunting , that Section Nd received an autonomous status, which put it on an equal footing with the other 18 sections of the AAAS. The journal and the two associations continue to be the foundation of dental research and education in the United States.

The Status of American Dentists

At the beginning of the twentieth century, American dentistry found itself in a great dilemma. On the part of the medical professionals there were various takeover attempts, in the course of which the abolition of dentistry as an academic profession and a shift of dental treatment ("it is only a manual activity") into the hands of technicians were spoken of Should exercise supervision by a doctor. The academic education that the American Dental Association had long fought for and the implementation of which it had promoted through bills made treatment expensive and created barriers that led to staff shortages. This had become particularly noticeable since various information campaigns had created a need for dental services that could not be met with the available staff.

The Gies Report

As Gies himself discovered early on, dentists' interest in research was generally low. Her training and practical activities were essentially still industrial, manual, commercial and reparative-oriented and thus dentistry was isolated from other academic professions. For example, the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) introduced a dental department after the First World War, in which dentists only carried out the necessary repair work and - at least until Clinton Messner's assignment (1928) - not actively involved in research projects were. The USPHS’s first caries statistics were compiled by the agency’s doctors and statisticians using data collected by dental assistants. For five years sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation , William Gies attended all dental training schools in the USA and Canada from 1921 and discovered considerable deficits in training. The report, published in 1926 and named after him, also looks back at the history of dentistry and the training of dentists, and highlights aspects of general medicine that are relevant to dental practice. It is a passionate plea for an academic education for dentists and is still considered the basis of dental education in medical university institutions.

Gies made the importance of academic training particularly clear in 1932 using the example of Frederick Sumner McKay's project to discover the cause of dental fluorosis . This work testifies to interdisciplinary collaboration between scientists. After all, doctors would not have cleared up the cause of dental fluorosis. At the same time, Gies expressed the vision of drinking water hygiene under the direction of the dental profession .

As a member of David Ast's Technical Advisory Committee on the fluorination of water supplies , which first met on April 24, 1944, he was involved in the planning and implementation of the fluoridation test in Newburgh (New York) .

A world almanac of dental errors

In 1939 and 1941, the American Dental Association published two more extensive collections of abstracts on the causes and control of dental caries. As secretary of the advisory committee set up specifically for this purpose in the ADA's research commission, Gies worked with Daniel F. Lynch (chairman) and Charles F. Kettering (as adviser, whose name would attract some attention to the project) an open letter that was sent worldwide to dental research institutes. In it, the addressees were asked for short abstracts that should represent their current research focus on dental caries. As an example, Gies had attached a corresponding sample to the letter from Russell W. Bunting, with whom he had been in almost friendly contact for many years and who had been Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Michigan since 1937. In a letter to Gies, Bunting later described the resulting product somewhat disrespectfully as the World Almanac of dental errors , of which hopefully there would be no further edition.

Foundation, endowment

The William J. Gies Foundation was established at Columbia University in 1950 as a private foundation and the first American foundation to support education in dentistry and science. In 2002, she joined the American Dental Education Association (ADEA), a foundation under public law.

Honors

  • Since 1915 he was an elected member of the American Philosophical Society .
  • On October 18, 1951, he received the fourth Pennsylvania Ambassadorship Award from the Pennsylvania State Chamber of Commerce.
  • The American College of Dentists has presented the William J. Gies Award since 1940.

literature

Fonts

  • RB Donoff: The Gies Report and Research. In: The Journal of the American College of Dentists. Volume 69, Number 2, 2002, pp. 22-25, PMID 12132254 .
  • On other dental organizations and the needed changes in the organization of IADR, J Dent Res 18: 230-236, 1939
  • The Work & Functions of the IADR, J Dent Res 19: 258-266, 1940

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A Biochemist Who Led Dental Education ( August 19, 2017 memento on the Internet Archive ), Medical history, InVivo, Vol. 2, No. 6, March 26, 2003, Columbia University Medical Center. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
  2. ^ Arthur H. Merritt: William J. Gies, 1872-1956. J Am Dental Assoc 53 (July 1956) 83
  3. ^ Herbert J. Bartelstone: In tribute to the memory of William J. Gies: an assessment of the need for changes in dentistry; in: The first 50-year history of the IADR, pp. 382–387 (print edition)
  4. ↑ Frances Krasnow: International Association for Dental Research founded in New York, December 10, 1920. J dent Res 25 (1946) 293-296
  5. ^ Andrew I. Spielman: A brief overview of the 150-year history of the New York University College of Dentistry. Nexus Vol. 17, No.1, July 2015, pp. 12-18.
  6. ^ IADR First Fifty Year History ( Memento September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), International Association for Dental Research, p. 54. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
  7. ↑ Thomas J. Hill: American Association for the Advancement of Science. Proceedings of the Subsection on Dentistry. J Am Coll Dentists 5: No.1-3 (1938) pp.73-77
  8. ^ New Status for Dentistry in Science Association. J Am Dent Assoc 49 (1954) p.378
  9. ↑ Hans Ludigs: Fluoride and the history of US dentistry, approx. 1900–1950 ; Master's thesis, University of Konstanz, 2013
  10. ↑ Hans Ludigs, master's thesis, loc. cit.
  11. ^ William Gies, outstanding leader in dentistry dies. J Am Dent Assoc 53 (July 1956) p.110
  12. ^ William J. Gies and the Gies Report , ADEAGies Foundation. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
  13. ↑ Theodor Rosebury: The challenge to dentistry. A tribute to William J. Gies. Science 126 (November 22, 1957) pp. 1056-1058
  14. ^ William J. Gies: The status of dentistry. Notes on the question of whether dental practice should be included in medical practice, with comment on a substitute for state medicine. J dent Res 12 (1932) 945-990
  15. ↑ Hans Ludigs: Fluoride and the history of US dentistry, approx. 1900–1950 ; Master's thesis, University of Konstanz, 2013
  16. ^ Proceedings. Meeting of the Technical Advisory Committee on the Fluorination of Water Supplies. April 24, 1944, 80 Center Street, New York; David Ast papers
  17. ↑ David B. Ast, Sidney B. Finn, Isabel McCaffrey: The Newburgh-Kingston Caries Fluorine Study. I. Dental findings after three years of water fluoridation. Am J Public Health 40 (June 1950) 716-724
  18. ^ Daniel F. Lynch, Charles F. Kettering, William J. Gies (eds.): Dental caries. Findings and conclusions on its causes and control. (195 summaries), New York, 1939; 2nd edition with 237 summaries, New York, 1941
  19. ↑ Open Letter from the Advisory Committee on Research in Dental Caries. J Am Dent Assoc 25 (1938) pp 979-980
  20. ^ Letter from RW Bunting to WJ Gies, June 22, 1940; Russell W. Bunting Papers, Correspondence with William J. Gies, 1935-1942, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan
  21. ^ Member History: William J. Gies. American Philosophical Society, accessed August 18, 2018 .
  22. ↑ J Am Dent Assoc 43 (1951) pp 754-755
  23. ^ The William J. Gies Award , Science. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Gies, William John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American biochemist
DATE OF BIRTH February 21, 1872
PLACE OF BIRTH Reisterstown , Maryland
DATE OF DEATH May 20, 1956
Place of death Lancaster , Pennsylvania