Liverpool Hospitals - Liverpool Dental Hospital

 

The provision of dental care in the Merseyside area in the 1800s was not widely available. A toothache in this era would usually be remedied by a self-professed 'dentist' of dubious skills, often in the back room of a dingy house. Appalled by the lack of free facilities for the poor to alleviate dental pain, one local dentist, Captain William John Newman, decided to make a difference and established a charitable institution. Originally named The Liverpool Dispensary for Diseases of the Teeth, the Liverpool School of Dentistry was established in 1860 by Captain Newman at 82 Russell Street with an annual income of £60 (equivalent to approximately £6,000 taking inflation into account). It first opened on the 20th of September 1860, and provided treatment including extractions, scaling and polishing, restorative and orthodontic treatment. More than 600 patients were seen in that first year. Within two years it had a patient base of more than 1,000, each one of them under the treatment of one single dentist Captain Newman. Gradually, he was joined by other volunteers who were attracted by the prospect of teaching their dental skills to new apprentices. By 1863 his dental practice at 82 Russel Street was renamed The Liverpool Dental Hospital and moved to 29 Russell Street. Captain Newman operated in his own private clinic and devoted three mornings a week to treating patients for free.

Old Dental Hospital (R), new one (L) - 1965 pic from @angiesliverpool

The school was recognised by the Royal College of Surgeons in 1876 and in 1879, the hospital moved to 50 Mount Pleasant. By 1881, the increase in the number of dentists and students led to more than 10,000 patients being treated annually. This was the start of full-time students being taught at the hospital, which became associated with the University in 1899. The Liverpool Dental School and Hospital on Pembroke Place was opened on the 19th of March 1910 and fully merged with Liverpool University Dental School to form the Liverpool University Dental Hospital in 1920 when the Louis Cohen Chair in Dental Surgery was established. Louis Cohen, the University's chair of dental surgery, was the first chair of dentistry in England and W H Gilmour, the third dean, obtained the first professorship in dentistry in the UK. Other innovations include the first Parodontal (the forerunner of periodontology) Department in 1936 and the first Professor of Dental Sciences (Prof R Hartles) in 1963. This school was later demolished to make way for the current dental school in 1969 when the facility was completely rebuilt. In the very early days of operation for the school, every student on entering the school was required to sign an obligation of conformity to the rules and regulations of the College. An example of the rules and regulations that had to be followed by the dental students is rule number fourteen, which states, 'A certificate of having performed to the satisfaction of the Dental Officer 100 fillings during each winter session, and 50 fillings during each summer session of his attendance, will be required from every Student before his Schedule or Certificate can be signed.'

An archive of dental tools they used back in the day

 

It wasn't until the late 19th century that dentistry really started to progress from a craft, with students serving an apprenticeship, into a profession with rapidly expanding frontiers of knowledge based upon sound scientific backing. Public demand for the relief of pain influenced clinical training in the early years, but as the years have gone by there has been a paradigm shift to understand the core underlying biological concepts for the prevention and treatment of dental diseases. Liverpool has made valuable contributions to this advancement, both from academic and clinical perspectives. Since those early days, Liverpool Dental Hospital has transformed into one of largest providers of dental care in the north west of England.

In 2003 Cynthia Pine became the first woman to lead a British dentistry school. Other interesting facts are; until 1903, elephant tusks were used to practise cavity treatment; for many years, early on, Liverpool Dental School only admitted male students; Liverpool was the first dental school in the UK to establish the department of preventative dentistry and the department of dental biochemistry.

The current hospital accommodates approximately 160 dental chairs, within six teaching clinics for Restorative, Paediatric and Prosthetic Dentistry.

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2025/03/liverpool-hospitals-liverpool-hospital.html