TO THE HISTORY OF DOMESTIC DENTISTRY: THE SECOND MOSCOW DENTAL CLINIC

Abstract

Based on archival materials, this article describes the short history of the 2nd Moscow Dentistry Clinic — a former Moscow dental school of privat- docent G.-Z.I. Vilga, transformed in 1918 by a decision of the People’s Commissariat of Health into an educational and auxiliary institution at the odontology department of the medical faculty of Moscow University. Such reorganization of the system of dentistry on the basis of dental schools and in the country as a whole was caused by the reforms proposed by P.G. Dauge, a graduate of the 1st Moscow Dentistry School of Dr. I.M. Kovarsky. The article provides a detailed schedule of the newly formed 2nd Moscow Dental Clinic, which functioned both as an educational institution and as a clinic for treatment dental diseases. It is shown that the schedule additionally includes a new subject — public dentistry, whose teacher, according to the decision of the United Pedagogical Council meeting, was later proposed by K.S. Ginzburg. However, the authors of this article provide ample arguments in favor of the worsening of the quality of education provided by dental schools- clinics after such perturbations in the habitual system: the graduates of the Moscow dental clinics of 1919 could obviously have had great problems with the practical skills in dentistry. Revision of the curriculum and lack of teachers was the reason that by the beginning of September 1919, when it was already time to take the final examinations, most students could not get the planned number of practical classes and thus could not be admitted to pass the final exams. However, by order of the Dentistry subsection of the People’s Commissariat for Health, most of the graduates were still allowed to take them. And even for those students who were not able to pass state examinations, the way to dentistry was not closed: by the decision of the board of the Dentistry sub-section in October, 8–10, 1919 they could be permitted to work in dental outpatient clinics as unskilled workers. The authors of the article describe the changes in the educational process in such details that the only conclusion is unequivocal: the quality of the education received was greatly worsening. In addition to the changes in the educational process, the article examines changes in the financing of such newly- formed institutions: if before the revolution training of future dentists in a private dental school was quite expensive, and the dental care provided by teachers with the participation of students brought the schools a small but stable additional income, after the victory of the revolution both training of students and treatment of patients in need of dental care became free of charge. All this affected the basic mechanisms of supplying schools- clinics with the necessary materials for work and training, and added to the paperwork and bureaucracy. This detailed example of the 2nd Moscow Dentist Clinic shows that the attempt to transform the flourishing private dental schools into state dental clinics under conditions of teacher shortage and lack of sufficient funding could not be successful and led only to a reduction in the quality of students’ education. The article is written on the basis of archival sources, which are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time.