We are now more than a week into March, which is also National Women’s History Month, making it a great time to discuss some of the influential women who have made dental history. While there are too many impactful women to mention them all, in today’s blog, your Conroe, TX, dentist will share the stories of three female dentists who changed the course of dentistry, paving the way for all women to have opportunities in the dental profession.
1. Emeline Roberts Jones
Emeline Roberts Jones was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1836. When she was 18, she married a dentist named Dr. Daniel Jones, to whom she expressed an interest in dentistry. Unfortunately, Dr. Jones believed the then-popular idea that women’s hands were too frail and clumsy for dental surgery, so she was forced to study dentistry in secret. By 1855, when Emeline was 19 years old, she became the first practicing female dentist by secretly extracting and filling hundreds of teeth. Dr. Jones eventually found out, and allowed her to practice dentistry with him, even making her a partner when she was 23, and she was widely known as a great, skilled dentist. After her husband’s death, Emeline continued practicing dentistry to support her family while she raised their two children on her own.
2. Lucy Hobbs Taylor
Though Emeline Roberts Jones was the first woman to practice dentistry in 1855, it wasn’t until 1866, eleven years after, that the first woman, Lucy Hobbs Taylor, would receive a DDS. After she and her nine siblings were orphaned when Lucy was only 12 years old, she worked to support her family through her childhood as a seamstress, while making time to study, and eventually spent 10 years teaching as a young adult. She became interested in dentistry, but was denied entry into both the Eclectic Medical College and the Ohio College of Dentistry because of her gender. After the second rejection, she began studying with a faculty member from the Ohio College of Dentistry, Dr. Jonathan Taft, after which she opened her own dental practice in 1861 in Cincinnati. She was finally awarded a DDS from the Ohio College of Dental Surgery in 1866, and she practiced (along with her husband, who she inspired to become a dentist) for another 20 years.
3. Ida Gray
Much like Lucy Hobbs Taylor, Ida Gray grew up as an orphan. Unfortunately, as a black girl born in 1867, she also had the added challenge of growing up attending segregated schools. However, she, too, met Dr. Jonathan Taft while she was in high school in Chicago, and she studied dentistry with him before entering the University of Michigan School of Dentistry in 1887. She graduated in 1890, and became the first African-American female dentist. She opened a practice in Cincinnati, and later in Chicago when she moved back, becoming famous not only for being a black female dentist, but for treating both black and white patients. One of her patients, Olive M. Henderson, was so inspired by Ida that she became Chicago’s second African-American female dentist.
Make Your Dental Problems History
These three women made a huge impact on the history of dentistry, and, at the Dental Centre of Conroe, we want to make your dental issues history! If there is anything you do not love about your smile, or if you are due for a cleaning and checkup, contact the Dental Centre of Conroe to schedule a visit by calling (936) 441-4600. We serve patients from Conroe, TX, and the neighboring communities.
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