The dentist's chair is coral pink and just one-half standard size. Similarly scaled are the office furniture and the sinister battery of burrs. Out in the color-splashed anteroom, little patients putter peacefully with toys and coloring books. The tranquil scene: the office of a New York pedodontist, or children's dentist—a member of one of dentistry's fastest-growing specialties. By last week 750 full-time pedodontists were practicing in the U.S., membership in the American Society of Dentistry for Children had risen to 8,000 (v. 1,000 in 1947), and a friendlier bogeyman was fast replacing the awesome drill wielder of the past.
The pedodontist inherited...