Nathan Friedman, D.D.S., a pioneering periodontist and professor of dentistry at the University of Southern California (USC), has died at the age of 97, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times.
Dr. Friedman is credited with developing a groundbreaking program in the 1960s to help apprehensive patients overcome their fear of dental work. He also founded the school's department of behavioral dentistry and served as its chairman for decades.
He graduated from the University of Columbia in 1951 and moved to Beverly Hills to open his dental practice. He retired at the age of 88.
His focus on improving what he called the dentist's "chairside manner" grew out of observations he made in his practice and an increasing fascination with psychology, according to the Times.
He was also well-known for his contributions to periodontology. Some of Dr. Friedman's research of periodontal treatment and bone surgery "was so solid it will never age," Hessam Nowzari, D.D.S., Ph.D., director of USC's periodontology program, told the Times. "Even today I still teach his findings."
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