The Long Climb

Unlike other books on the history of dentistry, The Long Climb: From Barber-Surgeons to Doctors of Dental Surgery outlines the personal struggles endured and victories achieved by the leading personalities of dentistry during its development from antiquity to the present. It showcases the courage and determination of dentistry's pioneers while exposing the episodes of weakness and dishonesty that tarnished the image of the dentist. By highlighting the controversies surrounding major advances in dentistry—gold versus amalgam fillings materials, operative versus mechanical dentistry, the relationship between medicine and dentistry, and the restriction of practice imposed by patents—this book gives life to the same old story, making this history book the most robust and entertaining of its kind.

Contents
Chapter 01. Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages
Chapter 02. The Middle Ages
Chapter 03. The Renaissance
Chapter 04. Birth of a Profession
Chapter 05. Dentistry in Colonial America
Chapter 06. The Birth of Dental Science
Chapter 07. Professionalization of Dentistry in America
Chapter 08. Exemplars of the New Profession
Chapter 09. Mechanical Dentistry
Chapter 10. Operative Dentistry
Chapter 11. Discovery of Inhalation Anesthesia
Chapter 12. Diseases of the Periodontium
Chapter 13. Orthodontics
Chapter 14. Oral Surgery and Oral Radiology
Chapter 15. Defining the Ethics of Practice
Chapter 16. Early Dental Research
Chapter 17. The Gies Report and Beyond