Dr. Ralph and Mrs. Olga Crawford Canadian Dental Collection
Category
Dental
Classification
Dental
Accession Number
010020172 a-e
Description
Box of dental curettes; rectangular brown paper lid (a) with openings at sides slides onto brown paper box (b); lid has paper label on front stating products inside and rules for the special care of the instruments printed with black ink; box has brown wooden insert with six spaces to hold instrume…
Box of dental curettes; rectangular brown paper lid (a) with openings at sides slides onto brown paper box (b); lid has paper label on front stating products inside and rules for the special care of the instruments printed with black ink; box has brown wooden insert with six spaces to hold instruments; three silver metal curettes with octagonal handles and tapering ends inside; two (c, d) have tips that turn at a 45-degree angle; one (e) has a straight tip; all three have a very small square picking device at tips
Number Of Parts
5
Part Names
a - box lid - Size: Length 16.7 cm x Width 4.9 cm x Depth 1.1 cm
b - box - Size: Length 16.7 cm x Width 4.3 cm x Depth 0.7 cm
c - curette - Size: Length 14.8 cm x Width 1.2 cm x Depth 0.5 cm
d - curette - Size: Length 14.8 cm x Width 1.0 cm x Depth 0.5 cm
e - curette - Size: Length 14.6 cm x Diam. 0.5 cm
Provenance
Transfer from the Dental Canada Fund; previously housed in the Dentistry Canada Museum (Ottawa)
(a) Printed on lid label: "BOX CURETTES, #1-2-3, and 1 WILLIAMS PROBE. // Special Care is required for these instruments. // Observe the following rules: // (1) Use on gingival or soft tissue surfaces only; not on tooth surfaces. // (2) Sterilize by washing carefully and immersing in alcohol for twenty // minutes. Do not boil. // (3) Protect head of instruments against chipping by wrapping with cotton. // Do not place loosely in cabinet with other instruments."; (c) engraved on curette: "BOX PERIODONTAL CURETTE // MADE BY S.S. WHITE IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA // 3"; (d) engraved on curette: "BOX PERIODONTAL CURETTE // MADE BY S.S. WHITE IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA // 2"; (e) engraved on curette: "BOX PERIODONTAL CURETTE // MADE BY S.S. WHITE IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA // 1";
Permanent Location
Storage Room 0010
0010-C7-5
Condition Remarks
Box lid (a) very worn, faded and torn in places; edges of box (b) are torn; Williams probe missing
Copy Type
Original
Reference Types
Document
Book
Reference Comments
"Dynamo in Dentistry", Bruce Ward, The Ottawa Citizen, August 9, 1991, p. B8; “S.S. White Dental Catalog, Catalog-F”, S.S. White Dental Mfg. Co., 1916, p. 7 (similar to Dr. A. W. Harlan's Set of 12 Scalers)
Research Facts
Dr Ralph and Mrs Olga Crawford donated their extensive Canadian dental collection to the DCF to create the museum in 1997; further donations were received while Dr Crawford was Curator Emeritus at the Dental Canada Museum until its closure in 2008; this item was donated by Dr. James Joyce from Arthur, Ontario; these instruments are possibly based on a design by Dr. Harold Keith Box (1890-1956); Dr. Box was born in Carleton Place, Ontario; he became internationally well-known in the 1920s, creating a stir when he discovered the cause of pyorrhea, a common tooth disease where the gums were inflamed, causing teeth to be loosened; he discovered the disease began in the lining of the tooth socket, between the bone and the tooth, as opposed to beginning by tartar or in another part of the body; he also proved that a tooth in which the pulp and the dentine were diseased could be saved, instead of extracted, as long as the cementum, the bone covering the dentine within the root, was healthy; he spent his career doing research at the University of Toronto and never wished for financial gain or fame, though at the time his discoveries were seen as comparable to Banting and Best's discovery of insulin, which happened only a few years prior at the same university