Prestige and Expanding Scope of Korean Dentistry- Dr. Jong-Suh Ahn

Dentists have been striving to find ways to relieve patients' pain and discomfort. The prestige of dentists is made up of dentists' self-sacrifice, academic research and pursuit of patients' well being. However, nowadays the dentists' prestige has been lost and practice on humanity has merely existed. At this time, it is meaningful to shed new light on life of a pioneer in Korean dentistry and take some time for self-examination. Today, we are going to look into life of Dr. Jong-Suh Ahn and his achievements in Korean dentistry. In 1925, Dr. Ahn Jong Suh graduated from KyungSung Dental school as a first graduating class. Then, he learned advanced dentistry at Severance Hospital and in April of 1932 as a young dentist with full of potentials, he opened his dental clinic in Tianjin, China. As an awakening Korean, in 1925 he organized an association of Korean dentists, called HanSung Dental Association and worked as a secretary to manage general affairs. Han Sung Dental Association later became today's Korean Dental Association. On December 9th, 1945, he founded ChoSun Dental Association. He accomplished great deals during his five consecutive terms as a chairman and held other important positions with prestige to lead and expand the scope Korean dental association. There were three other successors to Dr. Ahn as the presidents of Dental Association. Dr. Yong-Jin Kim had a great interest in internal affairs and dental materials. Dr. Myung-Jin Park was active in scientific affairs and Dr. Dong-Chan Han focused on smooth operation of the association. From 1945 to 1963, Dr. Ahn submitted important agendas such as dentist's qualification, scientific and academic affairs, general affairs, dental materials, public oral health, and dental administration to Dental Association's general meeting and central committee. Dr. Ahn overcame hardships of Japanese imperialism, celebrated independence of Korea, experienced 6.25 Korean War and lived through evolving Korean dentistry in 1960s. Dr. Jong-Suh Ahn, who showed the prestige of dentist and expanded the scope of dental association, is exemplary to all dentists.