Dr. Leonard Chapman's Office —View Slides—
Dr. Leonard Chapman graduated from the Chicago College of Dental Surgery (Loyola University School of Dentistry), at the age of 20 in 1926.
He practiced general dentistry in Chicago for over 45 years, and through his career he practiced in the same office on the second floor of a commercial building. (A second floor location was quite the common location for a dental or medical office in that time era).
His office consisted of two operatories, a small business and laboratory and a waiting room. This exhibit represents the operatory where he treated his adult patients. He was also wonderful with children and loved treating them, so his other operatory was designed especially for this purpose. The operatory had a dental cabinet in the shape of a doll house and he hung pictures of Humpty Dumpty and the pictures created by his young patients on the wall.
Dr. Chapman was a solo practitioner who throughout his career, worked standing-up, and later on with the help of a chair side assistant.
He was an immaculate individual and a strong advocate of sterility in his office. Everyday he came to the office in white shirt and tie, and changed into a clean white dental gown to treat his patients. He also kept up academically, going to lectures and reading articles related to his practice of dentistry.
The dental work he preformed was typical of that done by American dentists in this country in the 1930s 40s 50s and 60's. While he did do periodontal and endodontic procedures, for the most part he did dental fillings. In this era in dentistry the fillings were either silver amalgam, gold inlays, or silicate fillings. He also constructed fixed bridges, both partial and full dentures and a limited amount of Orthodontics. Upon retiring, his practice was taken over by his soninlaw, Dr. Richard Glenner. We are grateful to Dr. Glenner who graciously donated the dental items in this exhibit to the Pierre Fauchard Academy's Museum of Dental History.
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