Colombian Dental Literature During the Twentieth Century

Colombia is one of the Latin American countries in which both research and academic writing are considered virgin areas. The dental profession is not the exception. The purpose of this paper is to construct a database of the dental books written in Colombia from the mid-1800s to 1900s and to analyze those books according to the decades in which they were published. The first book published in Colombia on Dentistry was Odontotecnia u observaciones sobre la estructura, fisiología, anatomía y enfermedades de los dientes (Dental Techniques or Observations on the Structure, Physiology, Anatomy and Dental Diseases), written by American dentist Joseph Watson ver Valen and released in Bogotá in 1849. In 150 years, a total of 72 dental books were found, most of which were published in Bogotá and Medellin.