Matthew H. Cryer. The Status of the Dental Profession. The Dental Cosmos; A Monthly Record of Dental Science. Volume 45, Issue 2. February 1903

In Dr. Matthew H. Cryer’s 1903 article titled “The Status of the Dental Profession”, he brings attention to a topic that continues to be up for debate more than a century later: the status of the dental profession. Should dentistry be a medical specialty or a profession of its own? Cryer informs the reader of his stance on the issue early on in the article, sharing that he has “no sympathy” for the movement he was witnessing. He argues that the day dentistry becomes a branch of medicine, is the day dentistry will no longer exist. Through Cryer’s article, one gets a glimpse of the many debates and arguments that filled much of the dental profession at the time, as some dentists sought to find legitimacy and professionalism by finding a place in the medical profession, while others, such as Cryer, had no intention or desire to do as such. Within this turmoil was the rising field of oral surgery, which one might say, was adding even more fuel to the fire.