Henry Trendley Dean

Henry Trendley Dean ( born August 25, 1893 in East St. Louis ( Winstanley Park ), Illinois, † May 13, 1962 ) was an American dentist. He is considered the father of water fluoridation for the prevention of dental caries.

Dean graduated in 1916 his studies in dentistry at the Saint Louis University from and opened in Wood River First a dental practice then but his military service in World War abzuleisten. In 1919 he opened his practice again, came finally in 1921 into the Public Health Service of the United States of America ( USPHS ) and was successively in several hospitals of the Marine Corps as a dentist works. In 1931, he became the first dentist with an official research assignment in the Public Health Service at the National Instute of Health (then at first only one institution) ordered to capture in epidemiological studies, the occurrence of " mottled teeth " ( mottled teeth ) in the USA. After the Second World War (1945 /46), he examined the occurrence of gingivitis in U.S. soldiers in Germany ( Trench Mouth or Vincent's infection called ). In 1948, he became the first director of the newly founded National Institute of Dental Research. In 1953 he retired, but still seemed to 1959 in the Research Advisory Board of the American Dental Association.

Occur in certain areas of the USA endemic mottled teeth ( Mottled Teeth ) on among residents. After three independently operating groups of scientists had identified as the cause of the occurrence of fluorides in local tap water, Dean was asked to identify and develop economically viable measures to curb the regional distribution of this problem within the United States. Several researchers have indicated that in such regions the dental caries occurs less intense and so he explored in his further career the optimum fluoride content of drinking water, which would prevent tooth decay. After he himself had in 1944 initially expressed health concerns at a meeting with David B. Ast 's Fluoridierungs - committee, he eventually joined since the early 1950s publicly for the fluoride added to drinking water, which is however still controversial.

In 1952 he received the Lasker ~ DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award.