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Museum features 150 years of dental history
■ An anatomy professor’s
collection of antique dental
tools goes on display.
By Adam Klinker
Staff Reporter
People who walk through the
door to Stan Harn’s anatomy class
may feel themselves regressing to
the pioneer days, when nobody was
4 afraid of anything - except perhaps a
visit to the dentist.
Ham, an associate professor of
anatomy at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln’s College of
Dentistry, has turned his lab into a
temporary museum of dental histo
ry. The museum concentrates on the
last 150 years of dentistry, Ham said.
During the past 19 years, Harn has
been collecting and receiving pieces
of antique dental tools, which he dis
plays every year for homecoming at
the dentistry college. The temporary
museum makes a return this year
after not showing in 1996 due to
construction at the college.
“The museum is set up around
Nebraska dentistry and dentistry at
the time Nebraska became a state,”
Harn said. “We just try to portray
what that time period would be like.”
The collection includes five
operatories, or dental workspaces,
from different time periods. Each
consists of a patient’s chair, tools of
dentistry and light fixtures. Each
operatory shows improvements in
dental technology from one era to the
next.
The displays aren’t the only part
of the collection that has changed
over time. Ham’s collection has been
growing steadily over the years par
tially because of426 donors that look
for possible additions. They also help
Ham cover costs. Ham hopes that one
day a donor can be found to build a
permanent building.
• He estimated that 98 percent of
the exhibits were donated. Ham also
searches for himself, stopping at
antique shops and flea markets on
trips he takes.
“I’m always looking, wherever I
go, for anything that is related to den
tistry and dental history,” he said. For
Ham, that means papers, pamphlets,
toothbrushes and even wall decora
tions from early dental offices, some
items dating back to the early 18th
century. Due to the size of the collec
tion, Harn could not estimate how
many items are displayed.
Some museum visitors said they
were amazed at Harn’s acquisitions
and the way dentistry has changed.
“Every year there’s always some
thing new, something you haven’t
seen,” said Rhonda Simpson, a dental
assistant at the college. Simpson and
two of her colleagues, Becky Case
and Deann Valverde, visit the muse
um every year.
“(Dentistry) has thankfully
changed for the better,” Case said.
“Especially in terms of sterilization
and anesthetics. It must have just
been a nightmare back then.”
Harn says, however, that it is
important that students and visitors
know where dentistry has been, so
they can have a better idea of where it
is going with technology.
“We encourage people to come
out and see what dental history is all
about,” he said.
The museum will be open for the
remainder of this week, subject to
these daily hours: today and Thursday
8 a.m.-9 p.m., Friday 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
and Saturday 8-11:30 a.m.
^ ^
_ . . . Ryan Soderlin/DN
MARK SCHLOTHAUER, a senior pre-dental major at UNL, opens wide to a few of the dental tools on display at the dental museum. The dental tools are only
on display this week, which Is homecoming week for thffdtiiidfolalffiitry.
Moeser not worried about small freshman class
By Sarah Baker
Assignment Reporter
UNEs class of 2001 may be leaner than those
of previous years, but if Chancellor James Moeser
has his way, it will also be meaner - or at least bet
ter educated
The high rate of academic excellence within
this year’s freshman class was a main topic of dis
cussion at Tuesday’s Academic Senate meeting.
Moeser said even though die overall number of
students is down by 1,100, the lower numbers are
not long taro. ; -
“RecrultmeiSlis always a concern for us,”
Moeser said bottom line is that we are
now enrolling
Moeser sa&t&Hjncrease was so drastic that
with the incoming class, the mean ACT score of
the entire student body increased by one score
point, from a 23 to a 24.
Moeser said he was hoping to see a recovery in
the numbers of enrollment within the next three
years. He also is looking for improved numbers in
other areas thanks to the new admissions stan
(lards
“l am hoping for a higher freshman retention
rate, as well as an increase in the graduation rate,”
he said.
Moeser asked professors to challenge this new
class both in and out of the classroom, for the ben
efit of the students.
“After all, it’s not all about ratings, it’s also
about academic integrity and quality,” he said.
The senate also discussed the status of post
tenure revie^ President Jim Ford said the adminis
tration made some minor changes to the docu
ment, and was incorporating suggestions from die
Post-Tenure JReview Committee into the final
draft.
“This is a very important document, and I think
it’s good that we are taking time on it,” he said.
The senate was slated to vote on the old version
of the document at Tuesday’s meeting., but instead
voted to table the issue indefinitely.
Gail Latta, the libraries senator, assured the
senate there would be ample time to discuss the
revised draft.
“The senate will have one month before the
final vote on the proposed document,” Latta said.
‘This leaves ample time for review and discus
sion.”
Medical clinic care
SHARING from page 1
both quality health care at a location
convenient to many needy families
and essential experience for stu
dents learning to care for a diverse
population. .
“It’s good for the students; it’s
good for the patients,” said Paul
Paulman, a UNMC family medicine
professor and physician supervising
the students. “It’s really a win-win
situation.”
Medical student Christopher
< Connolly, co-president of SHAR
ING, said students will provide a
variety of health care, including
physical exams, care for sick
patients, well-baby checkups and
pregnancy testing.
Students will also help patients
manage chronic diabetes and hyper
tension, two diseases that require
frequent medical attention,
Connolly said.
Until now, high cost has placed
such routine care out of reach for
many poor south Omaha families
without health insurance.
“A lot of people in the communi
ty can’t afford to see the doctor
every couple months,” Connolly
said. “We want to try to remove that
obstacle.”
He said he hoped the clinic’s pre
ventative medical care would keep
patients from waiting until sickness
or disease became life-threatening
to seek medical attention at a hospi
tal emergency room. Taxpayers
would then pay the high medical
bills, he said.
Medical student and clinic vol
unteer Sharon Stoolman said that
although health care in “free clin
ics” has been available to such poor
or indigent Omaha residents in the
past, a low-cost clinic was needed.
“These are working people with
homes who are not fortunate enough
to have insurance,” she said. “When
you have this much dignity,” she
said, pinching an inch of air between
her fingers, “you have every right to
keep it.”
The clinic’s low fee for health
services helps poor, working parents
feel like they are still providing for
their families, Stoolman said. The
fee may help families who refuse to
accept handouts feel comfortable
accepting the volunteers’ health
care. v
{Caroline Anderson, medical stu
dent and SHARING co-president,
said students are “falling over them
selves” to sign up to help at the clin
ic.
Second-year medical students
have experience in clinics and med
ical offices but seek experience
working one-on-one with patients,
Anderson said.
As more patients come to the
clinic, a large number of volunteers
will allow the clinic to expand its
days and hours of operation, she
said.
“I’m just overwhelmed by peo
ple’s outpouring of generosity,”
Anderson said.
Perkumas, sitting in the clinic’s
waiting room, agreed. “It’s wonder
ful.”