Excerpt from Items of Interest

The great majority of men, similarly placed, would have abandoned a project received with so little appreciation and comprehension, but Dr. Fones is not of the character that is easily discouraged. Indeed, when facing the situation thus brought about, he finally concluded that it was possibly just as well that the experiment had been postponed; postponed is the only word he would use. Had the clinic been started with the September school term, it would have been difficult to find properly educated women to undertake the care of the children. Hence he decided to begin again, and to begin from a new starting point; to begin by properly educating a class of women who might then be relied on as really competent trained dental nurses.

Dr. F ones then concluded to invite the co-opera tion of the highest grade of competent teachers, who should donate their services for a single year, not only in training the women, but likewise, if pos sible, to establish a curriculum or system of education for this class of dental worker. Thus this school is not at present expected to continue after this year; and, indeed, even if a training school of this character should become a permanent fixture in Bridgeport, it is manifest that it cannot be conducted with the present staff of lecturers. That the course, therefore, might have a more per manent influence than the mere education of a single class, Dr. Fones decided to record all the lectures stenographically, and after proper te vision, to have these lectures published in book form as a foundation for a system of training of dental nurses.

We say dental nurses, because that term is best known at present in dental world, but in all his talks with medical teachers, to whom he outlined his plans, Dr. Fones met with strenuous objection to the term dental nurse. Medical men and trained medical nurses all oppose the term as a misnomer. Studying this aspect of the problem and finally concluding that these women, thus educated, must eventually be some thing more than merely workers in the mouth; that they, indeed, must themselves become educators, educating first the patients passing through their hands; and secondly, educating other similar workers by assum ing places as teachers in training schools, Dr. Fones finally decided to call the members of this first class, trained dental hygienists.

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