One of the few benefits from World War I was the knowledge and experience gained by both medicine and surgery through treating battlefield casualties.

Canada was fortunate in having Fulton Risdon and Carl Waldron assigned to the Maxillofacial Centre for the Canadian Forces at Sidcup where they rendered outstanding service despite an overwhelming casualty load.

Following the war, Risdon retumed to Toronto as a pioneer specialist in plastic and oral surgery, and was appointed as Professor of Oral Surgery at the R.C.D.S. He was a resourceful innovator who introduced, among other things, the Risdon twisted wire arch and intermaxillary wiring to replace the cumbersome and time-consuming cast cap splints for the treatment of jaw fractures. He contributed many excellent works to the early literature of plastic surgery and oral surgery.

Waldron moved to the United States after the war, where he was later actively involved in establishing the Board of Oral Surgery. He also served as the first editor of the American Journal of Oral Surgery, released in 1942.

The Ontario Society of Oral Surgeons was organized about 1930. At that time, its membership was not large and its activities were quite limited.

World War II also left its impact upon dentistry, as hundreds of Canadian dentists, uprooted from their practices, witnessed dentistry applied under war-time conditions in unusual places and under varying circumstances.

When they returned from overseas, many investigated the feasibility of returning to their practices through the avenue of a specialty. Specialization in medicine expanded rapidly in the immediate post-war years; the same trend was apparent in dentistry.

About this time, Alberta amended its Dental Act so that no person could declare him or herself to the public as a specialist without acquiring the stated academic standard. Unfortunately, as no effort was made to provide the training necessary to meet these standards, the specialty of oral surgery did not progress as it might have.

In 1944, the Ontario Licensing Board adopted a bylaw requiring a strict limitation of practice to the specialty and a graduate course of one year, embracing the necessary biological sciences, anesthesia and evaluation of clinical competence. It was a time of flux and uncertainty, but in 1945, the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Toronto established such a graduate program.

In the United States, a Board of Oral Surgery was formed, analogous to the American Board of Surgery offering certification and the designation of Diplomate to the successful candidates. This training program involved one year of biological sciences followed by two more years as an intern and resident in an approved institution. Accompanying this event was provision for a so-called "grandfather clause" which enabled established practitioners to achieve the Diplomate status, over a three-year period, by upgrading themselves to Board standards, all by correspondence.

In 1954, the Board of Directors of the Ontario Licensing Board stipulated that the graduate training program in Oral Surgery was to be three years, with statutory requirements virtually identical to those of the American Board of Oral Surgery. The following year, the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Toronto instituted such a program, which still continues.

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