POST TIME: Dentists have served county for a century

Readers: Country doctors usually are the first medical types to show up in a new settlement. But in late April, we heard from retired Lake Worth dentist Gernie Moorhead, who retired last year after 48 years.

Moorhead sent us a history of dentists in the county, written in 1976 by Leslie Bell, who practiced for 52 years and was a president of the local and state dental societies.

"Dr. Bell was my family dentist in the 1950s and I later practiced dentistry with him until his retirement in 1988," Dr. Moorhead wrote. Bell died at 88 in 2000.

Excerpts of the history:

In 1925, Palm Beach County had just 16 dentists: nine in West Palm Beach, one in Palm Beach, two in Lake Worth, and one, semi-retired, in Delray Beach. Plus two "colored dentists." And one "advertising dentist"; on Clematis Street. ("Advertising dentist" apparently refers to the time when dentists did not advertise and one who did often was not on the up-and-up.)

The next nearest dentists were one in Stuart and a few in Fort Lauderdale.

In 1926, a local society was proposed, and 13 dentists met at the Monterey Hotel, at Clematis Street and Rosemary Avenue. (The hotel would be razed in the 1970s.)

In 1928, the society began a free dental clinic for indigent children, with each member donating one or a few days per month. The operation was set up at the old Palm Beach High, now the Dreyfoos School of the Arts.

Later, the school district constructed a building on school grounds and the Kiwanis Club of West Palm Beach sponsored the clinic, hiring a full-time dentist and installing equipment. A 1952 story said the clinic was serving 17,000 children a year.

The club raised money for the clinic with an annual benefit at the Paramount Theater in Palm Beach. It featured such luminaries as Al Jolson and Irving Berlin and raised as much as $25,000 per event ($25,000 in 1928 is more than $375,000 now).

The 1928 hurricane and the real estate crash affected everyone, including Kiwanis. The county began contributing to the clinic and took it over altogether in 1961, moving it to the county's health department.

Post Time appears in print every Thursday in Neighborhood Post. Submit your questions to Post Time, The Palm Beach Post, 2751 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach, FL 33405. Include your full name and hometown. Call 561-820-4418. EK@pbpost.com. Sorry; no personal replies.