The Royal Dental Hospital

Origins: 1840-1860

The origins of the Dental Hospital of London can be traced to the conflicting demands for reform of the dental profession during the 1840s and 1850s.

The leading figures in the reform movement at this time were Samuel Cartwright (the second) and John Tomes, both dental surgeons at King's College Hospital, who spearheaded the creation, in November 1856, of the Odontological Society to represent the professional interests of dentists.

The Society was in favour of regulation by the College of Surgeons, in effect recognising dentistry as a special branch of surgery. Collectively, those who held such an opinion were known as the 'Memorialists' on account of the 'memorial' or petition they addressed to the College requesting that dentists become eligible for its Fellowship.

A short while later, another group of dentists, who believed the profession was a unique branch of medical science and that dentists should set their own standards and qualifications, formed a rival 'College of Dentists'. They were known as the 'Independents'.

Rivalry between the two branches of the dental profession was to be short lived, however, as under the terms of the Medical Act of 1858, practising dentists were required to obtain a Licence in Dental Surgery (LDS) qualification, administered by the Royal College of Surgeons. The College of Dentists was wound up, and its members accepted into the Odontological Society in 1863.