[Louis Maurice Champagne and the "Ecole dentaire française"]

The Royal Edict of Louis XIV had created a new category of practitioners, "The Teeth Experts", and at the dawn of the second half of the 19th century, France had no dental school nor specific legislation. The situation worsened when many American dentists settled in France. Thus the creating of the "Ecole dentaire de Paris" in 1880 constituted a significant event which was followed by the opening of the "Ecole Dentaire de France" in 1884 and of the "Ecole Dentaire Française" in 1896. Louis Maurice Champagne will be its director from 1926. At the St Ouen Jules Vallés Market, we fortuitously discovered a framed document containing three photographs of Louis Maurice Champagne's surgery located, 3 Place de la Madeleine in Paris. Thanks to his son and through various documents, we could trace the exceptional professional carrier of this practitioner who eventually bought the "Ecole Dentaire Française" from Dr Louis-Jules Rousseau. Then, we discuss the legal frame work of the 1892 law created the "Chirurgien-dentiste" diploma and we describe the scientific and practical teaching for the "Ecole dentaire française". The operating layout of the clinical rooms is presented by opposing the ergonomic aspect of the demonstration surgery of the director and the two large operative dentistry rooms used for students. We conclude by emphasizing Louis Maurice Champagne's determination to overcome adversity which was peculiar to him as a young orphan immigrant without resources. To solve the problem of the "Chirurgien Dentiste" statute considered by its promoters as a stage of transition towards fuller reforms, we present various projects like from Dr Hulin's. This practitioner presided the Dental Section of the Medical Council Order before being voted in the first President of the "Chirurgien Dentiste" National Council Order in 1945. In 1942 he was the first to advocate a legislation based on the independence of the dental profession, still in force nowadays.