100 Years: IADR Timeline

The Journal of Dental Research was founded by William Gies in 1919, a year before he founded the IADR. Surprisingly, for several years the Journal and the Association functioned as very distinct entities. The Journal did not print any information about Association activities until 1926, although in 1921 there was an incidental footnote in the JDR that alluded to the existence of the Association.

The IADR was founded in 1920 by William Gies, who believed that "such an association could be best formed as a federation of local societies, each to be in effect an autonomous section of a national division of the international organization." He contacted 100 of the leading dentists in New York City to begin forming the first chapter in what was then the largest city in the United States. The first dinner meeting took place on December 10, 1920, at the Columbia University Club, with the intent to "consider the advisability of promoting research by an international organization." At that meeting, a Chairman and Secretary were selected and the initial Articles of Agreement were adopted.

The first annual meeting of the IADR was held on December 21, 1922, at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. Although there were only four local sections in existence at this point the meeting It was well attended, but a bit meager in its scientific content — only two papers were presented, in contrast to the thousands that are presented at more recent General Sessions.
 

Frederick McKay publishes an overview of investigations to date, as the role of the water source has been inferred.

In a publication titled "Problems in Dental Research," Wilmer Souder seeks more research to establish the effectiveness of dental materials, calling for “data on the physical properties of materials and an attempt to show the application of these data to dental operations.”

During World War I, the Public Health Service (PHS) and the staff of its Hygienic Laboratory attended primarily to sanitation of areas around military bases in the United States. In 1930, the Ransdell Act changed the name of the Hygienic Laboratory to National Institute of Health (NIH) and authorized the establishment of fellowships for research into basic biological and medical problems.

The 8th Annual Meeting was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was noteworthy for being the first meeting outside the United States, which underscored the intention for the Association to be internationally focused. There were several attendees from overseas, some beginning to organize small sections such as the one from Vienna, Austria.

E.V. McCollum and his associates made contributions in many areas of experimental nutrition. In 1922 they were the first to describe the gross appearance of dental caries in rats fed faulty diets. In 1931 Klein and McCollum showed that diets relatively high in phosphate are probably protective against dental caries. McCollum, however, always cautioned that the calcium-phosphorus ratio must be kept within a fairly limited range for health maintenance.
 

H. V. Churchill, a chemist with the Aluminum Research Laboratories, published a paper in the JDR on the association between fluoride in the water and enamel mottling, observing that, "It is of interest to note that apparently the relative severity of the defect in these various areas seems to follow the fluoride concentration."

The Journal of Dental Research, founded in 1919 by William Gies, functioned independently from the IADR for its first 15 years. So independently, in fact, that in 1922, one page of the JDR displayed the IADR next to last in a list of its affiliated organizations (those that used the Journal pages as an outlet for their scientific proceedings). The IADR finally voted to take ownership of the Journal in 1934, with its Editor functioning as a major office-bearer in the Association.
 

A groundbreaking study shows that by incubation in media containing sugar or cereals mixed with saliva, healthy teeth were induced to decalcify after two to eight weeks.

Alvin and Moses Strock experiment with a chromium-cobalt alloy known as Vitallium to restore individual teeth. However, due to lack of osseointegration their efforts were largely unsuccessful.

Boar bristles were typically used for toothbrushes until 1938, when nylon bristles were first introduced by DuPont de Nemours.

The action of Ca(OH)2 on the pulp tissue was reported and its potential in stimulating dentin bridge formation to protect the pulp was demonstrated.

Fluoride research began with the report of “mottled enamel” by Frederick McKay, found in his patients in Colorado Springs, USA. Henry Trendley Dean, a U.S. Public Health Service public-health dentist, collaborated with McKay in identifying “mottled enamel” or fluorosis as being associated with fluoride in the drinking water. Dean also discovered that there was an association between caries in children, mottled enamel and fluoride levels in the drinking water. He advocated that 1 ppm of fluoride be tested for its effects on caries.

Although William Gies founded the IADR in 1920, it was not until 19 years later that he was elected IADR president.

On January 25, 1945, Grand Rapids, Michigan, became the first community in the United States to fluoridate its drinking water to prevent tooth decay, beginning a clinical trial that established the efficacy and safety of fluoride to prevent dental caries. This was one of the most significant public health advances of the 20^th century.

Harry S. Truman, the 33rd USA President, signed the National Dental Research Act into law on June 24, 1948. The dental research section of the National Institutes of Health was named the National Institute of Dental Research (NIDR) and has since been renamed the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. Henry Trendley Dean, a past president of the IADR, was installed as the first NIDR director.

In 1949 Swiss chemist Oskar Hagger developed a system of bonding acrylic resin to dentin. Michael Buonocore used this technology to develop the first white (composite) fillings and the acid-etch technique for bonding resin to tooth enamel. These crucial developments eventually led to dental sealants, a major preventive measure effective against caries in children and adolescents and the basis of minimally invasive treatment of coronal caries today.

 

The genesis of osseointegration as a concept was introduced by Per-Ingvar Brånemark, professor at the Institute of Applied Biotechnology, University of Gothenburg. He called it “a direct structural and functional connection between ordered living bone and the surface of the load-covering implant.”

Known for his inquisitive nature, Michael Buonocore had a knack for exploring and evolving the dental research. While doing research at the Eastman Dental Center in Rochester, New York, USA, Buonocore experimented with adding a weak acid to the bonding process to increase the bond strength between the surface enamel and resin. The traditional acrylic resins were quickly replaced as Buonocore's discovery was better adept to handle the oral environment.
 

John Borden introduces a high-speed air-drive contra-angle handpiece. The Airotor obtains speeds up to 300,000 rotations per minute.

The standard dental chair we've come to know today didn't begin mass production until 1958, when John Naughton redesigned the chair with the key break in the seat. This new design element allowed for a durable, yet flexible chair that was more comfortable for the patient yet didn’t the dentist’s access.