Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 164, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 July 1918 — New Jersey Dentist First to Fill Tooth With Gold [ARTICLE]

New Jersey Dentist First to Fill Tooth With Gold

The first dentist to fill the nerve cavity with.gold was Edward Maynard, who was born in Madison, N. J., 105 years ago. Maynard was also the Inventor of many of the instruments now used in dental surgery. He had a varied career. His ambition was to become a soldier, and he was appointed to the West Point Military academy, but resigned because of ill health. In 1835 he graduated in dental surgery and settled in Washington, where he practiced for 55 years. While Doctor Maynard was experimenting with improved fillings for teeth, and inventing new appliances, Doctor William T. G. Morton, a Boston dentist, robbed surgery of much of Its horrors by Introducing the use of ether in operations. This was in 1844, a few years after the first dental college In America was founded in Baltimore. Doctor Maynard was also the Inventor of the breech-loading Maynard rifle patented in 1851, which was the forerunner of the modern rifle. He died in Washington in 1891.