Looking back at NIDCR:
What year & who are they?
On June 24, 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed the bill creating the National Institute of Dental Research. Witnessing the signature are, from left, Dr. C. Willard Camalier, Sr., American Dental Association (ADA); Representative Walter E. Brehm (Ohio), the bill’s author; Dr. H. B. Washburn, ADA; Dr. Bruce D. Forsyth, chief dental officer, U.S.P.H.S.; Dr. Carl O. Flagstad, ADA; Dr. Daniel F. Lynch, District of Columbia Dental Society, and Dr. H. Trendley Dean, dental director of the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Philip Jay (left) and Dr. Francis Arnold counting colonies of bacteria in cultures made from saliva of schoolchildren during the Grand Rapids study. Dr. Arnold was the Institute’s second director serving from 1953 to 1966.
Transgenic technology is just one of the tools that have found multiple applications in oral health research. (circa 1991)
NIDR’s Dr. Michael Roberts examines a youngster’s teeth. (Late 1980s).
Dr. Michael Collins, Chief of NIDCR’s Skeletal Clinical Studies Unit, reviews x-rays with FNIDCR member Charles Harles, President of the Fibrous Dysplasia Foundation Board. Dr. Collins and his colleagues study adults and children with uncommon skeletal disorders, including fibrous dysplasia and McCune-Albright syndrome, in the search for better management approaches and effective treatments for these conditions. The clinical team also works closely with its NIDCR counterparts in basic research to better understand the genetic, hormonal, and metabolic processes at work in abnormal bone development. (2006)
NIDCR’s sixth director Dr. Harold Slavkin in front of the Institute’s research building; the sign reflects the Institute’s new name. (circa 1998)
Dr. Seymour J. Kreshover (right), NIDR director from 1966-1975, consults with Dr. George Martin. (1966)
Dr. Harald Löe and colleagues. Dr. Löe served as the Institute’s director from 1983 until 1994.
Drs. Marie Nylen and David Scott studying tooth structure and development with the aid of an electron microscope in 1958. Dr. Scott later became the Institute’s fourth director serving from 1976 to 1981. Dr. Nylen was the first woman dental scientist at NIDR.
A cone beam CT scan designed for oral and facial imaging enables Dr. Demetrio Domingo, clinical research fellow, and his colleagues in NIDCR’s Clinical Research Core to visualize the patient’s facial bone and soft tissues in three dimensions. The use of new imaging technologies to evaluate craniofacial structures will expand our knowledge of both normal and abnormal facial growth and development and how genes affect craniofacial growth processes. (2006)
Current NIDCR Director Dr. Lawrence Tabak talks with a colleague in his laboratory.
Drs. Robert Fitzgerald (left) and Dr. Paul Keyes demonstrating their finding that dental caries in laboratory animals is infectious and transmissible. (circa 1959)
The pain research clinic at the NIH was established under NIDR leadership in 1983 for patients with a variety of acute and chronic pain conditions, including diabetic neuropathy, facial neuralgias, and cancer pain. Here, a young cancer patient squeezes “Oliver the Octopus” to indicate how much pain he feels. A concealed sensor registers the pressure on the dial held by the nurse. (circa 1983)
Dr. Ana Cotrim, a research fellow in NIDCR’s Gene Therapy and Therapeutics Branch, collects saliva from a patient in the Sjogren’s Syndrome Clinic. Information gleaned from saliva is helpful in diagnosing this autoimmune disorder, which is marked by dryness in the mouth and eyes. (2006)
Stem cells and even engineered tissues and organs are being cultivated in large vats called bioreactors. (circa 1997)
A virologist working on an experimental herpes vaccine examines cultures of herpes simplex virus. (circa 1984)
Dental scientists developed a technique for growing bone cells in culture -- an advance widely adopted by research laboratories that could lead to new understanding of bone diseases as well as to the production of artificial bone. (circa 1984)
