Stanley Gelbier

Stanley Gelbier was born in November 1935 at Clapton Common, Hackney, London.[1] He is Jewish, and experienced antisemitism in his youth after the end of the Second World War.[2] He received his pre-clinical training at King's College and clinical dental training at the Royal Dental Hospital (1957–61).[3][4] Subsequently, he gained a licence in Dental Surgery from the Royal College of Surgeons in 1961.[5]

In 1961, Gelbier started his first job as school dental officer for Essex, where he remained until 1967. During some of this time, he also took on part-time dental work in Stoke Newington.[6]

In 1962, he was appointed house surgeon to the orthodontic and children’s departments at the Royal Dental Hospital. Gelbier recalls in his memoirs that during this post, many years before other articles on the damage to teeth by sugary drinks, he was encouraged to write his first paper about a child with tooth decay who drank about 8 bottles of cola a day.[6] Subsequently he was assigned to the Department of Children’s dentistry, followed by a post at The London Hospital, Whitechapel, and then a lectureship in child dental health at The London Hospital Medical College. He was inspired by the founder of dental clinics for children with disabilities, Neil Swallow, amongst others.[6]

Gelbier was professor and head of the department of dental public health at King's College London from 1990 to 2002. He is now professor emeritus there.[7] He was the first dentist to receive an honorary fellowship from the Faculty of Public Health (then PH Medicine).[8] Since 2010 he has been honorary professor in the history of dentistry at King's. He is a past president of the History of Medicine Society, and the former curator of the British Dental Association's museum.[7][9]

Gelbier was appointed assistant curator of the British Dental Association Museum in 1982[10] and full curator in 1987. He became the first U.K. honorary professor in the history of dentistry. His research has ranged from care of pauper children to the lives and work of leading dentists. His historical writings have covered the British Paedodontic Society, the International Association of Dentistry for Children and the British Society of Oral Health and Disability.[11]

In 2002, Gelbier was awarded the BDA's John Tomes Medal, which honours members of the dental profession and of scientific importance.[12] The BDA later honoured Gelbier with life membership in December 2007.[13] In 2016, Gelbier was presented with the American Academy of the History of Dentistry's Hayden Harris Award by Dr Sheldon Peck.[14]

He is the author of numerous works about dentistry and its history. In 1962 he wrote a paper for the Royal Dental Hospital Magazine on "Tooth Erosion in a Boy Consuming a High Intake of Cola and Similar Drinks".[15] He has written biographies of notable dentists including Sydney William Garne of Ceylon[16] and James Smith Turner of the BDA.[17]

Gelbier co-organised the Witness Seminars on the history of dentistry at the BDA as part of the John McLean Archive of Living Dental History, funded by a bequest from the estate of dental pioneer John Walford McLean. Gelbier is the joint editor with Nairn Wilson of the transcripts of all five of the seminars which were published by the BDA in 2014.[18]

Professor Stanley Gelbier and his wife (2019)

In 2015, Gelbier retired after 33 years as deputy and then honorary curator of the British Dental Association Museum.[7] In 2017 he published his autobiography, From Public Health Dentist to Dental Historian.[1]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Stanley Gelbier.

• Stanley Gelbier – Research Portal, King's College, London.
• Stanley Gelbier talking in 2014.
• Labome.org