Sir G. V. Black (1836-1915)
As we remember Sir Greene Vardiman Black, popularly known as Sir G.V. Black, on his 100th death anniversary this year, we commit to memory the innumerable contributions of this “grand old man of dentistry.”
Born in Winchester, Illinois on August 3, 1836, he went on to become an academician par excellence from a child who had no interest in going to school and wandered in forests trying to learn from nature itself. The teacher of teachers, as we call him today, learnt science and medicine at the age of 17 years from his elder brother Thomas G. Black, but destiny perhaps was targeting something else. The moment that changed his life was his meeting with Dr. J.C. Speer, who taught him the basics of dentistry.
With his keen observation capabilities and extraordinary potential, he picked up the art and science of dental practice very fast. He started his own private dental practice at Winchester and was the first dentist in Scott Country. Owing to his excellent clinical acumen, he soon became a very popular dentist in his region.
Sir G.V. Black had another side to his persona, which was an immense feeling of patriotism for which, he left his flourishing dental practice and joined the army during the civil war. Time took a reverse turn in 1863, when, because of a knee injury, he was forced to quit the army and move to Illinois. Thereafter, perhaps, there was no looking back for this great visionary, whose farsightedness raised the level of dentistry to the highest standards, backing it up with a strong scientific rationale. He started spending lot of time in studying dental materials and the armamentarium, trying to modify them for better clinical applicability.
He became the founder member of Missouri State Dental Association in 1866 and then became the trustee of Missouri Dental College where he served as faculty from 1870 to 1881, during which he was awarded the DDS degree in 1878.
His zest for knowledge was never ending, and a scientific breakthrough occurred when he released his first textbook in 1883 “The formation of poisons by micro-organisms.” In 1890, he released his second book “Dental anatomy” because of which he became enormously popular in all the dental colleges worldwide. Five of his scientific papers were then published in 1891 in “dental cosmos” on “management of enamel margins.” It was here that he introduced the term “extension for prevention,” which became the golden statement later on in the field of restorative dentistry.
With years of hard work and research on dental amalgam, he carved out a new path for re-emergence of a scientifically balanced dental amalgam in 1896, giving us the first formulae for its preparation as he knew its secrets of expansion and contraction. It is his hard work and research on Dental amalgam that this wonderful restorative material re-emerged in dentistry and overcame its existing drawbacks.
His colossal work entitled “operative dentistry” appeared in 1908, in the form of a two-volume book demonstrating his mammoth labor and unending sleepless nights that he spent working on ideal techniques of tooth preparations and designing new instruments. This book became world famous in no time and raised the level of dental education by leaps and bounds.
He laid down the “principles of cavity preparation” which comprised a seven-stage operative sequence. These principles are being followed till date in one form or the other and are guiding the dental professionals world wide. A novel way of providing instrument formulae for designating each instrument for effortless identification was also his brain child. He devised a system of classification of cavities and of dental instruments. He established that the chemical constitution and physical characteristics of teeth wear were not only determining factors in their susceptibility or immunity to caries.
It was Sir G.V. Black who revealed a method of maintaining the cohesive properties of gold foil and described the physiochemical principles of its contamination. Along with Sir McKay, he worked a lot on the brown stained teeth of people living in Colorado, which he designated as Mottled enamel and interpreted the condition to be a developmental imperfection. For all his contributions to the field, he is also called as the “father of operative dentistry.” He served during the last seventeen years of his life as the Dean of North-Western University Dental School from 1897 onward and finally on August 31, 1915, he left this world, leaving behind a rich heritage for all of us to inherit.
Sidney Lanier truly remarked about this legend “until the future dares forget the past, his name shall be a lantern and light unto eternity.”