Fogorvosi szemle, 2005 (98. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)

2005-09-01 / Supplementum

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FOGORVOSI SZEMLE ■ 98. évf. Supplementum, 2005.

Dean’s salute

The history of dentistry covers a long way from the medieval barbers extracting tooth on market places to the modern evidence based dentistry. Dentistry first became a real discipline when in 1840 two enthusiastic men- Horace H. Hayden and Chapin A. Harris-established the first dental college of the world in Baltimore, not long after the United States became independent. In this way the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery hasa 160 years history. Neither European dental school has such a long history. Many decades passed after the foundation of the first dental schools when independent dental faculties evolved from the medical faculties of the most prestigious European universities. Hungary was really a pioneer in this field as Dr. József Árkövy opened the first Dental Department of the Medical Faculty in Budapest as early as 1890. From this first establishment developed the new Clinic of Stomatology with its internationally recognised faculty members at the corner of the Pál street in the beginning of the 20th century. Árkövy could relatively easily organise his first faculty because there were many well trained dentists in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy with sound scientific background and teaching experience. He could invite such assistants like Lajos Hattyasy, József Szabó, Henrik Salamon and Gusztáv Morelli. The Hungarian Dental Association had already been founded (in 1878) by Árkövy many years before the opening of his clinic. Dr Zoltán Körmöczi launched the first official scientific publication of the Hungarian Dental Association-the Fogorvosi Szemle (Dental Review) in 1908. Árkövy’s dental polyclinic-located in the present building of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery was the first dental clinic in the Continent with inpatient ward.

Approximately 50 years passed till an independent dental faculty could evolve from Árkövy’s polyclinic. The founder and the first dean of the Dental Faculty was Professor Dr. Károly Balogh. He was fortunate enough to collect such a good team of doctors and educators after World War II who made up the core of the teachers of the future Dental Faculty covering all major dental subjects of that time. Hungary badly needed young well trained dentists. The Hungarian dental community lost more than half of its members during the War and in the holocaust and many of those survived emigrated to the west right after the Russian occupation. The few dentist remained in Hungary could not meet the patients’ treatment needs and the dental service was totally insufficient. The new communist government introduced the denturist training programme to overcome the shortage

but that was only a very transitory solution. Politicians being responsible for public health realised that the foundation of an independent dental faculty was inevitable and could not be postponed. The new socialised medicine and the whole socialist ideology needed new health care professionals who could fulfil the mission to promote oral health and treat dental diseases. This programme could not been accomplished by the limited number of stomatologists emitted by the medical faculties and specialised as dentist. In Hungary only Professor Balogh’s dental clinic was suitable to take up this very difficult job to organise a full scale comprehensive dental faculty. That time in the early 50’s many well known internationally recognised scholars and researchers worked around Professor Balogh. Dr Ferenc Skaloud, Dr László Sugár, Dr. Dénes Schranz, Dr. Sándor Boros, Dr. László Molnár, Dr. Béla Szokolóczy-Syllaba, Dr. György Huszár, and Dr Károly Balogh were the new candidates for the new chairs. The first class of the new Dental Faculty was recruited from the 3rd year students of the Medical Faculty in 1953 and this class graduated in 1955. The first graduates of the Dental Faculty are going to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their graduation this year and going to receive their “Golden Diploma” at the first time in the Faculty’s history. During this past 50 years the Dental Faculty experienced many changes, many big events and also very hard times. 1955 was followed by ’56 the Hungarian uprising and revolution and the university quarter was one of the centres of the revolution. After the fall of the revolution many young dentists immediately emigrated to the west. Professor Balogh was succeeded by Prof. Dr István Varga, and than by Prof. Dr Béla Berényi in the dean’s chair. They were followed by Professor Imre Vámos who tragically suddenly died at the age of 52. The next dean was Professor Dr Jolán Bánóczy, the first female professor and dean in dentistry in Hungary. During the time of the collapse of the old regime and the political changes Prof. Dr. József Dénes was the dean and followed by Prof. Dr. Pál Fejérdy and finally by Prof. Dr TivadarZelles. The fifty years old Faculty was not fortunate enough to get proper location and infrastructure. The individual clinics are located in different relatively remote buildings originally built as residential buildings. It is to be hoped that in the not so far future the Faculty will get its new state of the art building and facilities providing proper conditions for the conduct of teaching and patient care in the 21st century. When the new building was opened in 1909 at the corner of Mária and Pál streets many international celebrities attended the opening cer-