Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 14: MEDICAL
Dental Health and Dental Clinics at PMSS
1919 – early 1950s

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TAGS: dental health, dental clinics, Appalachian dental health, Dr. Mahall, Dr. Raymond Grant, Dr. Arthur Welch, Kentucky Dental Unit, medical clinics

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MEDICAL Dental Health and Dental Clinics at PMSS  

1919 – Early 1950s

One of the earliest dental clinics was that arranged with the Kentucky Dental Unit held for two weeks in a trailer on campus. In August of 1919, Drs. Arthur Welch and Raymond Grant of Louisville came for a dental work clinic. A comment on that clinic follows:

Dr. Grant came back to the School again in 1923 and 1924. In 1922 Dr. Stucky and Dr. Day came to the School and set up one of the most extensive medical clinics ever held at the School for the community at large. Boys House was converted into a temporary extra hospital and even that was stretched, according to the record of Evelyn K. Wells. Dr. McGonigle and Dr. Black, dentists from Pittsburgh, came for a second time to PMSS in 1925.

Medical clinics were also sometimes held at the satellite settlements at Line Fork and at Big Laurel.

The medical records for students and for the community remain largely intact in the School’s Archive.

Dental Clinics continued to be held on the Pine Mountain Settlement School campus during the years the boarding school was in operation and intermittently in the years following. Generally, a trailer would be set up on the campus grounds and the attending nurse would assist the visiting dentist or dentists in their examinations. Often extractions would be conducted or recommendations for follow-up visits to a dentist would be made. Much of the work was gratis.

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GALLERY: Dental Health and Dental Clinics at PMSS

Students learn the benefits of tooth brushing at Pine Mountain Settlement School in its the early years.

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Return To:
MEDICAL Health and Hygiene 
MEDICAL Health and Hygiene Guide

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