From Folk Medicine to Odontology: Profession of Dentistry in the Ottoman Empire in the 19th Century (Erbab-ı Esnan)

Abstract

The profession of dentistry was not seen as a part of medicine in the Ottoman Empire so, generally, done by the folk healer. In the beginning of 20th century, first professional dentists-odontologists- were trained with the foundation of the college of dentistry. Nevertheless, few numbers of educated dentists were not sufficient to meet the requirement of dentists in the country. Therefore ''vicarious diploma'' were given temporarily by the goverment to folk healers, thus the profession of dentistry both taken under legal supervision and strived to protect the health of society by preventing someone, who had done before, completely irrelevant to profession.