Women in dentistry

Women in pre-20th century seems to play an unknown role in dentistry. In an early copper engraving by Lucas Van Leyden, a traveling dentist can be seen along with a woman acting as his assistant.  In 1852, AmaliaAssur became the first female dentist in Sweden. She was given special permission from the Royal Board of Health to practice independently as a dentist, despite the fact that the profession was not legally opened to women in Sweden until 1861. 

Emeline Roberts Jones became the first woman to practice dentistry in the United States in 1855.  She married the dentist Daniel Jones when she was a teenager, and became his assistant in 1855 and later on put up her own practice. Rosalie Fougelberg in 1866 became the first woman in Sweden to officially practice dentistry when profession was legally opened to females in 1861.

Dental schools throughout the world did not accept female students. Women such as Lucy B. Hobbs-Taylor and Nellie E. Pooler broke those barriers. In 1866 Lucy Hobbs Taylor became the first woman to graduate from a dental college which was the Ohio Dental College.