PDM Class of 1879
Dr. Willoughby D. Miller
Scientific Pioneer in Preventive Dentistry
A member of the first graduating class of Penn Dental Medicine, Dr. Willoughby D. Miller is credited as the first to accurately describe the process of tooth decay, laying the scientific foundation for modern preventive dentistry.
His landmark publication, Micro-organisms of the Human Mouth, was one of the first works to shift the focus of dentistry from treatment to prevention. Through this and other contributions, Dr. Miller helped introduce modern biological principles to dental science, profoundly influencing the course of dental research and education.
Image source: Penn Dental Medicine's History of Innovation
"During the last few years the convinction has grown continually stronger, among physicians as well as dentists, that the human mouth, as a gathering place and incubator of diverse pathogenic germs, performs a most significant role in the production of various disorders of the body, and that many diseases whose origins are enveloped in mystery, if they could be traced to their source, would be found to have originated in the oral cavity."
- W.D. Miller
Miller, W. (1891). The Human Mouth as a Focus of Infection. The Lancet, 138(3546), 340–342. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(02)01387-9
