Dental care in a voluntary agency: the M. J. Loeb dental clinic.

Abstract

N 1934, the Dental Clinic Society, Inc., was organized by Dr. Morton J. Loeb, a prominent New Haven dentist to provide through the practical application of dentistry, the benefit of necessary dental care only to persons who are referred to the clinic from recognized welfare In that year, at the depth of the depression and even today, the magnitude of the problems in terms of need for treatment, availability of personnel, and financial requirements has both stimulated and discouraged those who would plan dental clinical treatment programs. The impetus for the creation of the clinic came from within the dental profession despite the opposition of the membership of dental societies both local and state, an opposition which created personal animosities and hostilities which have cast their persistent shadows down to the present day. Assisting Dr. Loeb were Dr. Bert G. Anderson, chief of Dental Surgery at Yale University, Dr. Ira V. Hiscock of the Yale School of Public Health, other community-minded dentists, and social welfare agencies. Yale University provided rent-free quarters in the old dispensary building of the medical school. The staff consisted of three dentists, recently having established practice in the area, one executive secretary, one chair assistant, and one laboratory technician for the completion of all prosthetic work. The clinic was open five week-day mornings until noon. An appraisal of the clinic with many details of its early operation was prepared by the author as a master's thesis at Yale in 1952 and is of passing interest except for certain conclusions and recommendations which have rested quietly until recent years when an awakened New Haven community beginning an attack on the urban ills of society provided fertile ground for the seeds of change.