Page 46 - RADC Bulletin 2018

The Forward Dental Team
Major N G Gibbs RADC
Before the Corps
With the RADC coming towards its Centenary year in 2021 it seemed a good time to reflect on why we were formed, our work in Medical Regiments today
and to consider how we might deploy in the future. While we may spend most
of our time in Dental Centres our unique ability is to be able to deliver dentistry on Operations and this article focuses on this aspect of our role.
0ver 400 years ago in 1617 John Woodall was the Surgeon General for the East India Company and he produced a list of surgical items for the treatment of dental disease. This became the list that was used by the Army and it allowed rudimentary treatment of toothache in the field. In 1687 a dental standard was introduced to ensure that all soldiers had healthy incisors so they could bite the paper cartridge cases and use their muskets. This standard remained for nearly 200 years until paper cartridges became obsolete.
then accepted in to the British Expeditionary Force along with 12 other dentists to provide treatment in Belgium and France. Frederick William Broderick LDS RCS MRCS LRCP was one of the first dentists to be sent to the Western Front; he has a RADC prize given each year in his honour.
To begin with, each dentist was
attached to a Casualty Clearing
Station (CCS) and had a case
of instruments, a portable chair
and nitrous oxide. While this
allowed treatment of some oral conditions they were unable to effectively repair and make dentures. The squalor and stress of the trenches meant that unusual conditions like Vincent’s Angina (Necrotising Ulcerative Gingivitis) were seen frequently. By the end of 1914 there were over 260,000 Officers and Soldiers serving in France and Belgium and only 20 dentists – meaning a ratio of 1 dentist per 13,000 troops!
Towards the end of WW1 the dental teams had been organized into Mobile Dental Units
During the late 19th century oral conditions had a significant impact on the Boer wars. In the third
Boer War of 1899
5,000 recruits were
unable to join the army
while a further 2,000
were evacuated from
South Africa due to
oral conditions, both
of which significantly
impacted on the
fighting power of
the British Army.
The British Dental
Association actively
argued for better
dental provision for
soldiers and in 1901
four civilian dental
surgeons were contracted to the Army providing dentistry in the UK.
At the outbreak of World War 1 (WW1) there were no facilities for dental treatment
in the field and no dental surgeons accompanied the 250,000 soldiers of
the expeditionary force that deployed to France. Soon after the start of the war, in October 1914, General Sir Douglas Haig
had very bad toothache and, with no British military dentists on the Western Front, he was treated by a French-American dentist, Charles Valadier, who arrived in his converted Rolls Royce car. Charles Valadier was
(MDU), with each of the 5 Armies having one, and by the end
of the war there were 850 dentists serving
in the British Army.
No. 2 (MDU) was attached to 4 Army and moved around
the Western Front from November 1917 to March 1919. They were led by a RAMC (Dental) Lieutenant and had around 15 dental mechanics. They undertook around
900 treatments per month, which kept 300 patients in the area
that would otherwise have been evacuated. On average each month they made 200 new dentures, repaired 225 dentures, extracted 70 teeth, did 20 fillings and a small amount of other treatments.
Many dentists volunteered to serve their King and Country during WW1 and 26 British Dental Association members died, mostly on the Western Front in Belgium and France. It was a great honour to be able to pay my respects to four of those who died during a recent Battlefield Study I led. The bodies of three of those to whom
At the Menin Gate
I paid respect were never found in the mud and carnage of battle, and their names are present on the memorials to the missing.
It was humbling to follow in the footsteps of the Queen and Nelson Mandela and lay a wreath at the Menin Gate to the 54,896 missing soldiers from the Ypres Salient, which include dentist Robert Heath.
The Army Dental Corps was formed soon after WW1, on the 4th of January 1921,
as the positive impact of treating of oral conditions near the front line was recognised. Our role then was to ensure that soldiers were fit to deploy and that we could treat dental problems in the field, fast forward 100 years and not much has changed.
I would like to thank the Military Medical Museum in Keogh Barracks for much of the information in the article.
Medical Regiment Dental Teams today
There are 9 RADC dental teams that work as part of Medical Regiments, and due to the reduction in RADC manning the chances of being assigned to one of these jobs is high. This article is a very brief overview
of the role of how the dental team delivers dentistry in a deployed environment within a Medical Regiment. Being able to deploy and deliver dentistry in the field is why we have uniformed dental professionals. However, for most of our career we will probably work
44 RADC BULLETIN 2018
In the third Boer War of 1899 5,000 recruits were unable to join the army while a further 2,000 were evacuated from South Africa due to oral conditions
CORPS MATTERS