Mosquitoes, flies and dental cavities: Dr. Howard Riley Raper's public campaign to prevent toothache.

Dr. Howard Riley Raper (1886-1978) was an early oral health pioneer and dental roentgenology faculty member of the Indiana Dental College (IDC) who single-handedly introduced key concepts in radiology to dentistry. Due to his efforts, IDC became in 1910-11 the first dental school to have a regular course in dental radiology. Virtually all American dental schools soon added this subject to their regular curriculum. Raper's text, Elementary and Dental Radiography (1913) became the first comprehensive student textbook of dental X-ray diagnosis. In his 1933 Blue Book entitled, The New Aim in the Care of the Teeth, Raper elaborated upon his mission to prevent caries, by comparing the insidious damages of tooth decay with the threat of insect-borne disease.