Minnie Evangeline Jordon

Minnie Evangeline Jordon (June 22, 1865 – October 10, 1952) was an American dentist, and the first dentist in the United States to specialize in pediatric dentistry.

Minnie Evangeline Jordon, from a 1910 publication.

Early life

Minnie Evangeline Jordon was born in Fulton County, Illinois, the daughter of Eugene B. Jordon and Catherine Rebecca Calvert Jordon.^[1] She moved to California in 1887 and graduated from the Los Angeles State Normal School in 1891. She went on to graduate from the University of California's dental program in 1898.^[2] While she was in dental school, she ran an oral health clinic at an orphanage in San Francisco.^[3]

Career

Jordon taught elementary school and worked as a dental assistant while she was training to be a dentist in Berkeley, then opened her own dental practice in Los Angeles. At first she had a general practice; in 1909, she established the first dental practice in the United States devoted only to pediatric patients.^[4][3] In 1916 she gave a lecture to the Los Angeles County Nurses' Association on "The Relation of the Teeth to the Development of the Child".^[5] She presented a paper, "Relation of Food to the Developing Teeth", at the 1921 meeting of the California State Dental Association, recommending fewer sweets and more milk, coarse grains, eggs, and vegetables in children's diets.^[6][7] As a "pioneer in pedodontics" she published the first textbook on the subject in 1925, titled Operative Dentistry for Children.^[8][9][10]

She was an associate professor of dentistry at the University of Southern California, and an officer in the Southern California Dental Association. She was a founder and first president of the Federation of American Women Dentists and a founder of the American Society of Dentistry for Children.^[9]

Personal life

Minnie Evangeline Jordon died in Los Angeles in 1952, aged 87 years.^[11]

References

1. Robert Burdette, ed., Greater Los Angeles and Southern California: Portraits and Personal Memoranda (Lewis Publishing 1910): 66.
2. Keith Anderson, The Los Angeles State Normal School: UCLA's Forgotten Past, 1881-1919 (Lulu.com 2015): 81. ISBN 9781329317192
3. Alma Whitaker, "Fame Won as Dentist by Woman" Los Angeles Times (April 7, 1933): A5. ProQuest 163114590
4. Richard A. Glenner (1997). How it evolved: dentistry's pursuit for excellence. ADR Publishing.
5. "Los Angeles County Nurses' Association" Pacific Coast Journal of Nursing (April 1916): 222.
6. M. Evangeline Jordon, "Relation of Food to the Developing Teeth" Pacific Dental Gazette (November 1921): 603-610.
7. Alyssa Picard, Making the American Mouth: Dentists and Public Health in the Twentieth Century (Rutgers University Press 2009): 57. ISBN 9780813547114
8. "M. Evangeline Jordan-Pedodontics" Sindecuse Museum, University of Michigan School of Dentistry.
9. Loevy, H. T.; Kowitz, A. A. (Spring 2006). "M. Evangeline Jordon, Pioneer in Pedodontics". Journal of the History of Dentistry. 54 (1): 3–8. PMID 16764231.
10. M. Evangeline Jordon, Operative Dentistry for Children (1925).
11. "Obituary: Dr. M. E. Jordon" Los Angeles Times (October 12, 1952): A18. ProQuest 166385029