Environment of dental technicians at that time
The Environment for Dental Technicians at the Time
To backtrack a bit, after graduating dental technology school, Geller worked for four years at a lab in Austria. He then became head of the high-end ceramics department at a large lab, a position focused on pursuing aesthetics. Even then, Geller had a desire to create beautiful metal ceramics, to craft teeth rather than just crowns. By “beautiful metal ceramics,” he meant “natural appearance” and “creating teeth that appropriately replicate the color tones of aged teeth.” To achieve this, it was necessary to mix other materials and stains into the body porcelain, not just apply surface stains. The materials available then included
One opaque shade, enamel, and dentin, but no colored opaque. While stains existed, it was an era and environment with an extremely limited number of colors. This simply couldn't meet our demands for what we wanted to create. To reproduce the shade of each individual case, Geller would blend the ceramic colors himself, approaching the work like an experiment in shade reproduction.
While many technicians made porcelain crown samples back then, Geller didn't create samples. Instead, he tackled shade reproduction in daily clinical cases, making it seem as if he were creating sample cases. Even then, technicians working this way were extremely rare worldwide. This experience would later deepen and build Geller's knowledge and expertise in porcelain.
As the color matching required to reproduce the hues of metal-ceramic materials grew increasingly complex, issues such as thermal expansion rates also arose. Mixing and modifying numerous materials to achieve the desired results was an extremely difficult task. Through conducting these experiments, Geller gained extensive experience and learned the properties of ceramic materials. Around this time, the dental industry began to gradually incorporate opinions from dental technicians, not just dentists, and started to recognize the importance of dental technicians.
Geller states, “Unfortunately, however, we dental technicians were still not treated as human beings back then...”
Additionally, in the pages of ZERO Vol.12, No.2 Spring 2013, Geller stated the following. In response to Mr. AIiba's question, “Are there any dental technicians or dentists you respect, or people who influenced you?”, he said, "There weren't many dental technicians who influenced me. This is because, at that time, dental technicians weren't given a stage (opportunities to lecture), so there were no famous dental technicians. Therefore, I didn't have the chance to meet any dental technicians I respected."
Hearing this story, we understand that while Europe today has an image of being innovative within the world, even Europe back then had a negative, conservative era. Additionally, another backdrop in Europe at that time was the period following the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, when educated individuals fled abroad. Dental technicians who had escaped came to Geller asking him to teach them dental technology. Peace had yet to come to Europe.
Hungarian Revolution
People gather around a fallen statue of Soviet leader Josef Stalin in front of the National Theatre in Budapest, Hungary, 1956.
(excerpt from the Guardian ）
A group of men hold a flag on top of a tank in front of the Parliament building during the Hungarian Revolt, Budapest, 1956.
Thirteen years after the Hungarian Revolution, the Prague Spring occurred in 1968. Due to the reform movement in Czechoslovakia, Czechs fled from Czechoslovakia to Austria and came seeking help.
At that time, immigrants—dental technicians or untrained individuals without experience—also came to Geller's lab seeking employment. After finishing their own jobs, they would visit the lab in the evenings. It was an era when Geller and others would give them work on a trial basis, observing their skill level while training them.
Prague Spring
During the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovaks carry their national flag past a burning tank in Prague. (excerpt from Wikipedia)
A crowd of protesters surrounding T-55 tanks and BTR-40 armored vehicles painted with white lines for friend-or-foe identification (excerpt from Wikipedia)
Given this background, Geller taught dental technology to immigrants in the same town. He didn't charge for the instruction; instead, he trained people who came to his lab for several months, with the aim of employing them in the lab's other ceramic departments.
Environment of dental technicians at that time