A face mask long before COVID | British Dental Journal

British Dental Journal volume 237, page 587 (2024)Cite this article

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Several of our cover series have been created in collaboration with the BDA Museum. This treasure of the Association collects, curates and displays the most amazing range of artifacts that help chronicle the development and progress of the profession. We have used items from the Museum photographed from unusual angles or perspectives as teasers as well as celebrating weird and wonderful inventions dreamed up by dentists, and others, over the years.

The series which inspired the cover on this current issue was a more direct look-back and comparison with modern practice and was published in the second half of 2019. One item was an operating face mask from the 1920s, complete with its stylish box. As the series drew to a close at the end of that year, no one had any notion whatsoever of the pandemic that was about to engulf us in 2020 when the use of personal protective equipment became such a crucial element of enabling continuing health care.

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Stephen Hancocks OBE

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Correspondence to Stephen Hancocks OBE.

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Hancocks OBE, S. A face mask long before COVID. Br Dent J 237, 587 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-024-8046-8

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Published: 25 October 2024

Issue Date: 25 October 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-024-8046-8

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