ABSTRACT
Veterinary dentistry has exploded as a discipline within veterinary medicine over the past 20+ years, primarily due to the tireless efforts of those clinicians in the 1970s and early 1980s who took an often overlooked area of the patient, and turned it into a focus of major significance. Thanks to these pioneers in veterinary dentistry, many of us found our calling within veterinary medicine and provide a valuable service to animals throughout the world. In the early days of veterinary dentistry, those who had a special interest in dentistry would gather together and discuss conditions and treatments they had found to be particularly helpful or successful. Out of these meetings rose the organization of the American Veterinary Dental Society and the Veterinary Dental Forum. The Veterinary Dental Forum has grown to an annual meeting of nearly 1000 participants, a far cry from the early days of getting together around a cold beverage to talk about your most challenging/rewarding cases! Also blossoming out of the efforts of these pioneers has come the Journal of Veterinary Dentistry, a quarterly publication that is currently recognized internationally as the journal of record for veterinary dentistry. All these efforts were to help educate veterinarians about veterinary dentistry and to elevate the practice of veterinary medicine in general.
