[The war on technicians and its origins -- an odontological battle of authorization]

From 1798 to 1916 dentistry was placed under the medical profession as a special studied subject--dentists were so to say authorized quacks. Doctors in dental practice were inviolable, but there were great problems with unauthorized groups of technicians and barbers, who ilegally gave dental treatment and acquired official permission to the lucrative transaction: to make false teeth. The fight which was basically for economic reasons but had also a professional background. It was not until 1916 with the first dental law that dentists were given their own professional status, but the quarrels with the unauthorized technicians continued until 1979.