200 Years of Dental Innovation

Lucy Hobbs Taylor is the first American woman to graduate from dental school.

The first electric drill is patented by George F. Green.

Carl Koller uses cocaine as a topical anesthetic.

Willoughby Dayton Miller, an American dentist in Germany, notes the microbial basis of dental decay, starting a worldwide movement to promote regular toothbrushing. Colgate introduces toothpaste in a tube.

New Orleans dentist Charles Edmund Kells takes the first dental x-ray of a living person in the U.S.

Edward Hartley Angle classifies the various forms of malocclusion. Credited with making orthodontics into a dental specialty and establishing the first school of orthodontics.

Alfred Einhorn, a German chemist, formulates the local anesthetic procaine, which is later marketed under the trademark Novocain.

Greene Vardiman Black, the leading reformer and educator of American dentistry, publishes his monumental two-volume treatise Operative Dentistry, which remains the essential clinical dental text for 50 years.

Connecticut resident Irene Newman received the first dental hygienist license.

Alvin Strock inserts a dental screw implant made of Vitallium—an alloy of cobalt, chromium and other substances—which becomes the first successful biocompatible implant metal.

The first nylon toothbrush appears on the market

Grand Rapids, Michigan, becomes the first city in the world to fluoridate drinking water.

John Borden invents a high-speed, air-driven hand drill, increasing drill power from the traditional 5,000 rpm (rotations per minute) to 300,000 rpm.

The first fully reclining dental chair is introduced, allowing patients greater comfort and enabling the dentist to use an assistant to help with procedures.

Sit-down, "four-handed" dentistry becomes common as most dentists engage dental assistants to help with procedures.

Per-Ingvar Brånemark inserts a titanium dental implant into a volunteer patient who has no bottom teeth. By 1980, he proved that titanium could be successfully integrated into living tissue.

The first commercial at-home tooth bleaching product goes on the market.

The first effective "invisible" braces made of clear plastic are invented, offering an alternative to traditional braces.

Hard tissue lasers are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use on enamel and dentin to treat tooth decay.