Robert Nasmyth

Robert Nasmyth FRCSEd, FRSE (7 November 1791 – 12 May 1870) was a Scottish dental surgeon from Edinburgh who was Surgeon-Dentist to Queen Victoria in Scotland. He was President of the Odonto-Chirurgical Society of Scotland and was one of the founders of the Edinburgh Dental Dispensary, which would evolve into the Edinburgh Dental Hospital and School. Early years Robert Nasmyth was born in Edinburgh on 7 November 1791, son of Charles Nasmyth, a tailor and his wife Anne Nasmyth (née Forsyth). He was educated at the Royal High School in Edinburgh. At the age of 15, he began to study medicine at the Edinburgh Extramural School of Medicine, most notably in the anatomy school of John Barclay at 10 Surgeons' Square, where Robert Liston and James Syme were student contemporaries. He then served under Barclay for three sessions as assistant in physiology and anatomy. Barclay made a lasting impression on Nasmyth who would later dedicate his probationary essay to Barclay and name one of his sons John Barclay Nasmyth. In 1811, he passed the examination for the Diploma of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He then went to London where he became assistant to John Fuller, a dentist in Hatton Garden. Fuller had been one of the first to lecture on dentistry in London and had written a popular textbook on the speciality, A popular essay on the structure, formation, & management of the teeth. Dental career Returning to Edinburgh Nasmyth was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1823, submitting as his original work A probationary essay on tic douloureux, a form of facial pain. He set up practice as a dentist at 21, St Andrew Square in Edinburgh's New Town. His innovations included a cap splint, described by Liston in his textbook Practical Surgery. This was used for maxillary reconstruction after tumour excision and was "devised by my friend Mr. Nasmyth of Edinburgh... to have metal caps fitted to the teeth of the upper and lower jaws soldered or riveted together at their bases which shall have the effect when applied of preventing the remaining fragment of bone and chin being dragged to the opposite side". In 1856 it was copied in vulcanite by the American dentist T. B. Gunning (1813–1889) and it has since been known by his name. Nasmyth also gained a reputation for his technique of gold fillings for dental cavities. Dr.