Dental manpower and treated dental diseases in department of dentistry, Taipei Hospital (the predecessor of National Taiwan University in 1923

Background/purpose: In 1906, there was a dental treatment room established in the department of surgery of Taipei Hospital to introduce modern dental services to Taiwan. It is undoubtedly the earliest hospital dentistry in Taiwan. This study tried to assess the dental manpower and treated dental diseases in Taipei Hospital, and hence to explore the appearance of Taiwan's early hospital dentistry. Materials and methods: This study utilized the secondary data analysis to evaluate the dental manpower and treated dental diseases of dental outpatients in the 27th Annual Report of Taipei Hospital (Taisho 12th year or 1923). Results: Our results found that there were 3 dentists and one dental technician in the dental department of Taipei Hospital in 1923. These 3 dentists totally treated 3 inpatients and 1759 outpatients with 4511 outpatient visits (1959 for male patients and 2552 for female patients) in that year. Dental caries and retained root were the two most common dental diseases in Jap-anese and Taiwanese dental outpatients, and followed in a descending order by missing tooth, pulp necrosis, and pulpitis for Japanese outpatients as well as pulpitis, suppurative periodon-titis, and acute or chronic periodontitis for Taiwanese outpatients. Conclusion: We conclude that the dentistry of Taipei Hospital in 1923 does have a modern form of dentistry with 3 dentists and one dental technician. Its dental patients are mainly Japanese and minorly Taiwanese. Moreover, the treated dental diseases are mainly tooth diseases for Japanese outpatients and both tooth and periodontal diseases for Taiwanese outpatients. 2021 Association for Dental Sciences of the Republic of China. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

This study assessed the dental manpower and treated dental diseases in Taipei Hospital in 1923, finding 3 dentists and one dental technician treating mainly Japanese patients with tooth diseases. The dental department at Taipei Hospital showed a modern form of dentistry, mainly focusing on dental treatments for both Japanese and Taiwanese patients.