The first native dentist in the United States in supposed to have been John Greenwood, who began to practise in 1788. So important has the science of the teeth grown that from 1800 to 1892 there were published two hundred volumes devoted to that subject alone. The first dental school in the United States was chartered by the Maryland Legislature in 1839. Since then colleges and schools of dentistry have sprung up all over the land. If there are as good dentists in other countries as there are in this, it is largely due to the fact that they have been trained in American schools.
Men come from all over the civilized world to the United States for higher education in dentistry.
American ingenuity has invented numerous mechanical aids to the practice of the art. From 1880 to 1890 over 500 dental instruments were patented. Dr. Younger, of San Francisco, made the first artificial socket for a tooth.