Dental Trivia

Sometime in the 1st Century AD, Roman physician Cornelius Celsus recommended removing badly rotted teeth, the first person to do so.

Dr. Bernerd J. Cigrand (1866-1932) who rose to be Dean of the Illinois School of Dentistry was the Father of National Flag Day, June 14. Cigrand organized the first Flag Day celebration on June 14, 1885 while living and teaching in Wisconsin to commemorate the fact that the U.S. Congress had adapted the Stars and Stripes as the flag of the United States on June 14, 1777.

The first woman dentist in America was Emeline Roberts Jones who learned her skills alongside her dentist-husband. When he died in 1885, Emeline, using a portable dental chair, traveled from town to town caring for patients. Eventually she was accepted as a member of the Connecticut State Dental Society and the National Dental Association.