Newell Sill Jenkins

Newell Sill Jenkins

Newell Sill Jenkins (* December 29, 1840 Falmouth, Massachusetts — September 25, 1919 Le Havre, France) was an American dentist who practiced most of his life in Dresden, Germany.[1] He developed the Jenkins porcelain enamel and improved, thus making a composition of the porcelain paste porcelain inlays, dental crowns and bridges. He is thus the founder of aesthetic dentistry.

Biography

Jenkins comes from a shipping family. Immediately after completing his studies at the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery of the University of Maryland, he opened in 1863 his dental practice in Bangor, Maine. He corresponded with Frank Abbott, a practicing dentist in Berlin who was one of Europe's most renowned dentists. Abbott encouraged him to emigrate to Germany. November 20, 1866 he emigrated with his family to Dresden, where he practiced 1866-1909.[1] Since 1893 the Royal Saxon Privy Councillor appointed dentist was owner of the famous villa Thorwald in Dresden's Loschwitz , For years he practiced one month per year in Vienna and Warsaw. In 1907 he moved to Paris, where he continued his research and enjoyed wide recognition. Twice he was elected president of the American Dental Club of Paris. He received numerous awards from Germany, England, France, USA, Norway, the Netherlands and Spain.[2] 1916, during World War I, he returned back to the US. September 18, 1919, after the war, he entered a sailboat in NewYork to spend the winter months in southern France. However, this was not granted. He died of a heart attack upon arrival at the port of Le Havre on September 25, 1919. His remains were transferred to the United States, where he was buried in Bangor.[3]

Friendship with Richard Wagner

His clientele includes not only members of European royal houses, but also celebrities like Richard Wagner, a friend of Jenkins. Jenkins demanded no fee for his dental treatment, making him very likeable for Wagners, because Wagner was financially always right clammy . "It´s not impossible that I will decide to emigrate forever with my whole family and my last works to America," Wagner wrote, as he experienced a financial disaster of Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) performance at the first Festival 1876 at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus. Wagner talked his plans to emigrate to the US with Jenkins and put in a three-page letter the conditions ensuring its existence beyond the ocean and should bring his opera Parsifal to the Americans. Thanks Jenkins persuasion Wagner sat his plans to emigrate to America. Parsifal premiered at the second Bayreuth Festival on July 26, 1882 in Bayreuth.[4][5][6]

Career

Jenkins was ignored long time of dental historians despite its high achievements in dentistry, although he published 32 scientific articles to improve the aesthetic tooth restoration with porcelain fillings during his creative period,[7] partly patented.[8]

Introduction of the rubber dam in Germany

Mark Twain

Jenkins got his first success introducing the rubber dam in Germany, two years after it has been developed 1864 by the New York dentist Sanford Christie Barnum, an elastic band, which isolates the tooth to be treated by the oral cavity especially against liquids and saliva. Originally it was used to keep the working area dry because at that time there was no dental suction apparatus.[9]

Development of porcelain masses

Jenkins developed and improved porcelain enamel, thus making a composition of the porcelain paste porcelain inlays, dental crowns and bridges and the associated processing equipment.[10] It was helpful living close to Sächsische Porzellanmanufaktur Dresden (Saxon Porcelain Manufactory in Dresden). He developed also steel drills, which were coated with diamond dust, to create a smooth cavity. The porcelain inlays opened have for the first time the possibility to produce tooth-colored anterior restorations and thus initiated the era of esthetic dentistry. At that time usually fillings were made from gold in the anterior region. For the production and distribution of "Jenkins Porcelain Enamel" he founded the manufactory Klewe & Co. His personal friend, a certain Samuel Langhorne Clemens bought the manufacturing and distribution rights for the US market. This man become known by his pseudonym as the writer Mark Twain.[1][7]

Development of the toothpaste Kolynos

Promotional poster for the Kolynos toothpaste from the 1940s

Together with Willoughby D. Miller, who set up in 1890 the pioneering and still valid theory that bacteria of the oral flora degrade carbohydrates to acids, which in turn the enamel descale what bacteria penetrate into the tooth and can destroy the dentin by caries, Jenkins developed a toothpaste and named it Kolynos, the first toothpaste containing disinfectants.[11] The name´s origin is Greek Kolyo nosos (κωλύω νόσος), meaning "disease prevention". Numerous attempts to produce the toothpaste by pharmacists in Europe have been uneconomic. After returning to the US, he continued experimenting with Harry Ward Foote (1875-1942), professor of chemistry at Sheffield Chemical Laboratory of Yale University.[12] After 17 years of development of Kolynos and clinical trials Jenkins retired and transferred the production and distribution to his son Leonard A. Jenkins, who brought the first toothpaste tubes on the market on April 13, 1908. Within a few years the company expanded in North America, Latin America, Europe and the Far East. A branch operation opened in 1909 in London. In 1937 Kolynos was produced in 22 countries and sold in 88 countries. Until modern times Kolynos is widespread mainly in South America and in Hungary. Colgate-Palmolive took over the product of American Home Products in 1995 at a cost of one billion US dollars.[13]

Selected publications

References

  1. 1 2 3 Dr. Newell Sill Jenkins, Revue d'histoire de l'art dentaire, p. 20.
  2. ↑ Dr. Newell Sill Jenkins, Revue d'histoire de l'art denture, p. 25.
  3. ↑ Distinguished Graduates, 1954, University of Maryland, Baltimore Dental School.
  4. ↑ Richard Wagner und sein Zahnarzt, Zahnärztliche Mitteilungen, March 30, 2016 (german).
  5. ↑ Richard Wagner und seine Zahnärzte. Akademie für Zahnärztliche Fortbildung, Karlsruhe (german)
  6. ↑ Sein guter Freund, Richard Wagner und Zahnarzt Jenkins, zm, volume 10/2013 (german).
  7. 1 2 J. M. Hyson, S. D. Swank: Dr. Newell Sill Jenkins: progenitor of cosmetic dentistry. In: Journal of the California Dental Association. volume 31, No 8, August 2003, p. 626–629, PMID 13677405.
  8. ↑ Patent Nr. 585,442. Newell Sill Jenkins, Portable Melting Apparatus, patented June 29, 1897. Google Patents.
  9. ↑ Reinhardt Winkler: Sanford Christie Barnum – Der Erfinder des Kofferdam. In: Die Quintessenz, volume 42, 1991, p. 483–486 (german).
  10. ↑ The filling of teeth with porcelain (Jenkins' system) a text book for dentists and students, Internet Archiv, or eBook in Forgotten Books.
  11. ↑ Kerry Segrave (January 27, 2010). America Brushes Up: The Use and Marketing of Toothpaste and Toothbrushes in the Twentieth Century. McFarland. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-7864-5684-0.
  12. ↑ Obituary on Harry Ward Foote, Science, March 6, 1942, p. 241–242
  13. ↑ Kolynos Toothpaste and Nalgiri Cosmetics – A curious blend of Greek and Hindu.
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