Everyone should visit a dentist for a regular checkup, but it is surprisingly rare given how important they are for dentists to take the spotlight.
Often that is by choice; dentistry is a difficult and delicate profession, and the glare of the media may not necessarily be too helpful. After all, the priority is the dental health of the patients that sit in the dentist’s chair.
With that said, there are plenty of famous dentists, from historic pioneers to modern dental influencers and even people who were dentists but made their name in other fields.
Here are a few examples and the legacies they left.
Pierre Fauchard
Easily the most important dentist who ever lived, this French surgeon was the writer of The Surgeon Dentist which established dentistry as its own medical discipline and established its scientific basis.
He changed dentistry so completely and so fundamentally that he is considered by many historians to be the father of modern dentistry as we know it.
Edgar Buchanan
The late actor and singer left a long filmography, appearing in films such as Rawhide, The Twilight Zone, Gunsmoke, Petticoat Junction and The Beverly Hillbillies, Edgar Buchanan was also a successful dentist.
When he finally found his big break in 1939 at the age of 36, he gave his practice over to his wife Mildred, who graduated from the same dentistry class as he did.
Interestingly, he not only played a dentist in the film Texas but also starred in Tombstone, a film about an event that also featured a famous dentist.
Doc Holliday
Born John Henry Holliday, Doc Holliday was a practising dentist that travelled to the Wild West of the United States to help recover from a devastating bout of tuberculosis.
This brought him into contact with somewhat infamous lawman and gambler Wyatt Earp, which led to many gunfights and dangerous situations, most infamously the Gunfight at the OK Corral.