Leon Williams

James Leon Williams (April 18, 1852 – February 23, 1932) was an American prosthodontist and a pioneer dental histologist. He discovered the significance of dental plaque.

Sometime around 1879, J. Leon Williams began a two-year apprenticeship by a Dr. Roberts in North Vassalboro, Maine and later began practicing in the same town. Williams later passed examinations for the DDS degree at the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery and the equivalent LDS degree in Ireland. He joined the Maine Dental Society and used the opportunity to borrow their microscope to study the histology and pathology of tooth enamel. and had an interest in anthropology, including the Piltdown Man.