Jansje Gretha Schuiringa

Jansje Gretha (Jans) Schuiringa (Balmahuizen, 9 July 1887 - Utrecht, 1 August 1975), also known as Miss Schuiringa, was one of the first people in the Netherlands to hold the title of dentist. The work that Schuiringa carried out between 1920 and 1957 as a professor of prosthetic dentistry at the Institute of Dentistry in Utrecht, was of major significance in the development of the discipline of maxillofacial dental surgery. Maxillofacial dental surgery, which operates on the jaw and the face, involves making prosthetics for the face and teeth.

Youth Schuiringa grew up in an affluent farm family in the Groningen hamlet of Balmahuizen. Her father, Jan Jacob Schuiringa, and mother, Anja Huizing, had nine children, of which two were stillborn. Jans was the eldest of the seven surviving children.

Schuiringa went to elementary school in the nearby village of Niehove. Her father requested permission for Jans to be enrolled in Higher Civic School. The request was granted and Jans received her secondary education at the Rijks Hogere Burgerschool (National Civic High School) on the Kamerlingheplein in Groningen. She received subsequent training in dentistry at Utrecht University. In 1913, while in Utrecht, Schuiringa became a member of the Utrecht Women's Student Association (U.V.S.V.). She received her diploma of dentistry on 27 June 1913, not long after the title for the discipline was changed by royal decree from 'tooth doctor' (tandmeester) to 'dentist'. She was thus among the first to bear this title. In the same year, she was appointed as the technical assistant of I.J.E. de Vries, a professor in the prosthetics department of the Institute of Dentistry in Utrecht. Between 1914 and 1918, Schuiringa was also an assistant to the lecture of orthodontics, J.A.W. van Loon.

While reading professional literature about damage to the jaw and face during the First World War, Schuiringa became interested in the treatment of patients with a combination of surgical and prosthetic methods. At the time, this form of treatment was still in its infancy in the Netherlands. Schuiringa gained practical experience at De Vrie's clinic in Amsterdam with the treatment of wounded jaws.

Professorship and Private Practice As a professor, Schuiringa was supposed to give up her dental practice in order to devote herself entirely to the education of dentists-in-training. However, she continued to see patients with deformities of the jaw and face in her private practice as there were no other treatment options for these patients at the Institute of Dentistry. Schuiringa's efforts on behalf of indigent patients did not remain unnoticed.

Royal Distinction and Retirement from the University

On 7 July 1947 Schuiringa was named an officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau, in recognition for her thirty-year commitment to dental education and to dentistry. In 1929, she founded the Utrecht chapter of Soroptimist International.

Schuiringa died on 1 August 1971 in Utrecht. She was buried in Niehove, the village where she attended elementary school. In her obituary, Schuiringa's life was described as "an altruistic, active and tumultuous life, dedicated to dental education and to handicapped people".

The collection of Schuiringa's work materials numbers approximately twelve hundred models, among which are many impressions and photographs of jaws. The Utrecht University Museum has curated these materials since 1963. A few of the prosthetics Schuiringa made are on exhibit at the museum.