The Great Spokane Tooth War
Advertising dentists battle traditional practitioners over new state regulations and the right to practice.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
War has broken out between the advertising dentists of Spokane and the non-advertising branch of the fraternity. The basis of the fight is the new law recently regulating the practice of dentistry. The non-advertising element is endeavoring to enforce the law, while the advertisers claim the law is unconstitutional and will soon be declared so by the courts. The law requires that all persons before entering upon the practice of dentistry must file with the state board of dentistry an application for a license and must appear before the first meeting of the board thereafter for examination. It also mandates that firms employing dentists must post the names of all employees in a conspicuous place. The prosecuting attorney's office has issued warrants against five local firms and individuals charging them with violating the state law. In every case, the firm affected is a heavy advertiser in the daily papers. The complainants are Dr. M. D. Thurston and Dr. A. Starke Oliver, two of the non-advertising fraternity.
“The non-advertising element is endeavoring to enforce the law, while the advertisers claim the law is unconstitutional.”
Early 20th-century professional ethics often centered on bans against advertising, viewed as 'unprofessional.' This conflict prefigures modern disputes over how corporate chains and digital health platforms challenge the traditional autonomy and gatekeeping of independent medical practices.
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