Sheldon Friel
{{short description|Irish orthodontist}}
{{EngvarB|date=November 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox medical person
|name = Ernest Sheldon Friel
|image =
|caption =
|birth_date = 1888
|birth_place = Waterford, Ireland.
|death_date = 2 February {{death year and age|1970|1888}}
|death_place = Dublin, Ireland{{cite book |title=The history of the Irish Dental Association, 1922–1972 |last=Lee |first=John B. |year=1972 |publisher=Irish Dental Association |oclc=4035098 |page=37 }}
|profession = Dentist
|specialism = Orthodontics
|research_field = Occlusion
|years_active = 1909–1970
|education = Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
|prizes = Villain Prize in Orthodontics
Albert H. Ketcham Award in Orthodontics
}}
Ernest Sheldon Friel (1888 – 2 February 1970), was an Irish dentist who was the first specialist orthodontist to practise in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,{{cite journal |last=Wahl |first=Norman |year=2005 |title=Orthodontics in 3 millennia. Chapter 4: The professionalization of orthodontics (concluded) |journal=American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics |publisher=Elsevier |volume=128 |issue=2 |pages=252–257 |pmid=16102412 |issn=0889-5406 |doi=10.1016/j.ajodo.2005.06.001 }} and the second in Europe, going on to become the first Professor of Orthodontics in Europe. His obituary in The Journal of the Irish Dental Association described him as the most distinguished dentist that Ireland had ever produced.{{cite journal |year=1970 |title=Obituary |journal=The Journal of the Irish Dental Association |publisher=Irish Dental Association |volume=16 |pages=43 |issn=0021-1133 }}
Academic and clinical career
Friel studied at Trinity College, Dublin, graduating in 1908 and receiving a master's degree in dental science in 1909. During this period he also undertook specialist orthodontic studies under the father of modern orthodontics, Edward Angle, in the United States. In 1909 he established an orthodontic practice in Dublin, the first in the British Isles.{{cite journal |last=Taylor |first=Geoffrey Stuart |author2=Malcolm Nicolson |date=July 2007 |title=The Emergence of Orthodontics as a Specialty in Britain: The Role of the British Society for the Study of Orthodontics |journal=Medical History |volume=51 |issue=3 |pages=379–398 |pmc=1894876 |pmid=17603659 |doi=10.1017/s0025727300001496}} In 1910 he was appointed as Lecturer in Orthodontics at Trinity,{{cite book |title=The evolution of a profession and of its dental school in Dublin |last=Lee |first=John B. |author2=Niall J. Hogan |year=1992 |publisher=Atrium Productions |isbn=978-0-9520586-0-1 |page=25 }} receiving a Doctor of Science degree in 1928. In 1941 the college created the first professorship in orthodontics in Europe and appointed Friel to the position.{{cite web |title=Sheldon Friel Lectureship |url=http://www.eoseurope.org/eos/sheldon_friel_lectureship |work=European Orthodontic Society |access-date=15 May 2009 }} For many years following this he was the only professor of orthodontics in the British Isles.{{cite book |title=The American Association of Orthodontists: The Biography of a Specialty Organization |last=Shankland |first=Wilbur Morse |year=1971 |publisher=American Association of Orthodontists |oclc=2337379 |page=308 }}
Friel was a pioneer in the use of stainless steel, rather than the previously preferred gold, for the manufacture of orthodontic devices. Other research interests were muscle testing and training, the relation of function to the size and form of jaws, the migration of teeth and occlusion.
Professional societies
Friel was a founder member of the British Society for the Study of Orthodontics and was prominent in the society in its early years, acting as its president in 1924. He was president of the Irish Dental Association in 1932,{{cite book |title=The history of the Irish Dental Association, 1922–1972 |last=Lee |first=John B. |year=1972 |publisher=Irish Dental Association |oclc=4035098 |page=46 }} of the European Orthodontic Society from 1935 to 1937,{{cite journal |last=Poswillo |first=D. E. |date=February 1989 |title=Myths, masks and mechanisms of facial deformity |journal=The European Journal of Orthodontics |publisher=European Orthodontic Society |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=1–9 |doi=10.1093/oxfordjournals.ejo.a035958 |issn=0141-5387 |pmid=2653849 }} and of the Odontological Section of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1949.
In 1945 Friel undertook a campaign in the profession for the greater specialisation of orthodontics in Britain at a time when much treatment was undertaken by non-specialist dentists.
Awards and fellowships
In 1948 Friel was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England,{{cite journal |date=7 May 1948|title=Universities and Colleges |journal=British Medical Journal |pages=318–319 |issn=0959-8138 | doi = 10.1136/bmj.2.4570.318 | pmc = 2091220 |volume=2 |issue=4570}} and in 1951 of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He received the Villain Prize in orthodontics from the Fédération Dentaire Internationale in 1957,{{cite book |title=The story of the Federation Dentaire Internationale, 1900–1962 |last=Innes |first=John |year=1967 |publisher=Fédération Dentaire Internationale |oclc=458013 |page=154 }} and in 1960 he became the first person outside North America to receive the Ketcham Award from the American Board of Orthodontics. In 1962 he was elected an honorary fellow of Trinity College Dublin.{{cite book |last=Webb |first=D.A. |editor-first=Barlett |editor-last=J.R.|date=1992 |title=Trinity College Dublin Record Volume 1991 |location=Dublin |publisher=Trinity College Dublin Press |isbn=1-871408-07-5}}
Legacy
Three years after Friel's death his family provided funding to the European Orthodontic Society for the annual Sheldon Friel Memorial Lecture.{{cite book |title=Awards, Honors & Prizes: International and Foreign |last=Webster |first=Valerie J. |year=1999 |publisher=Gale Group |isbn=978-0-7876-2189-6 |page=125 }}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Orthodontics}}
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Category:Alumni of Trinity College Dublin
Category:Irish medical researchers
Category:Honorary Fellows of Trinity College Dublin