BDA Museum celebrates Sir John Tomes
The British Dental Association’s museum is marking the impact of Victorian dentistry with an exhibit about the achievements of Sir John Tomes.
It features several of Tomes’s designs and inventions including the likes of the patient chair and a number of hand instruments.
Tomes’s forceps, which are on display, are the prototype design that all modern day forceps are based on.
The exhibition also includes a display of Tomes’s work room which contains drawings of teeth as seen through a Victorian microscope, a letter which confirms his fellowship to the Royal Society and a cuttings book, which contained a piece about the passing of the 1878 Dentist’s Act – the law which said that the title ‘dentist’ could only be applied to experienced or qualified people.
A pioneer in everyway Tomes was the British Dental Association’s (BDA) first president, Tomes was the first registered dentist in Britain.
BDA chief exec Peter Ward said that it was fitting that the BDA were celebrating Tomes’s works as 2010 is also the association’s 130th birthday.
He described Tomes’s achievements as having a ‘profound influence modern dentistry’ and said that every dentist owes him their thanks.
The free exhibition will be on display at the museum until Thursday 4 March 2010. The museum is open from Tuesday to Thursday from 1pm to 4pm but you can make an appointment to visit the exhibition outside these times.
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