thumb|Emeline Roberts Jones '''Emeline Roberts Jones ''' (1836–1916) was the first woman to practice dentistry in the United States.<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite web|url=http://cwhf.org/inductees/science-health/emeline-roberts-jones |title=Emeline Roberts Jones | Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame |publisher=Cwhf.org |access-date=2011-10-08}}</ref>
She married the dentist Daniel Jones when she was a teenager (at age 18) but she did not become his assistant until 1855.<ref name="wustl1">{{cite web|url=http://beckerexhibits.wustl.edu/mowihsp/health/womenindentistry.htm |title=Missouri Women in the Health Sciences - Health Professions - "Women in Dentistry" by E.N. King |publisher=Beckerexhibits.wustl.edu |access-date=2011-10-08}}</ref> Her husband believed that dentistry was not a suitable career for a woman. He thought the “frail and clumsy fingers” of women made them poor dentists.<ref>[Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame. The Virtual Hall. Science and Health. Emeline Roberts Jones</ref> However, she studied in secret and after Emeline showed him a two-quart jar of several hundred of his extracted teeth she had secretly filled he allowed her to assist him.<ref name="autogenerated1" /><ref name="autogenerated2">{{cite web |url=http://www.cda.org/page/Library/cda_member/pubs/journal/jour0602/hyson.html |title=June 2002 CDA Journal - Feature Article, Copyright 2002 Journal of the California Dental Association |publisher=Cda.org |access-date=2011-10-08 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928181315/http://www.cda.org/page/Library/cda_member/pubs/journal/jour0602/hyson.html |archive-date=2011-09-28 }}</ref>
After her husband's death in 1864 she continued to practice dentistry by herself, in eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island.<ref name="autogenerated1"/><ref name="wustl1"/> She often traveled with a portable dentistry chair.<ref>[http://www.cwhf.org/inductees/science-health/emeline-roberts-jones/#.UyjoqV6jJJc], Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame.</ref> From 1876 until her retirement in 1915 she had her own practice in New Haven, Connecticut.<ref name="autogenerated1"/> It was one of the largest and most lucrative practices in Connecticut.<ref name="autogenerated2"/> She had two children, a son and a daughter.<ref name="autogenerated2"/>
Emeline served on the Woman’s Advisory Council of the World’s Columbian Dental Congress in 1893.<ref name="autogenerated2"/> In 1912 she was elected to an honorary membership in the Connecticut State Dental Society, and in 1914 she was elected to an honorary membership in the National Dental Association.<ref name="autogenerated2"/> She died in 1916 at age 80.<ref name="autogenerated2"/> In 1994 she was posthumously inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame.<ref name="autogenerated1"/>
==See also== * Women in dentistry in the United States
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Roberts Emeline}} Category:1836 births Category:1916 deaths Category:19th-century American dentists Category:20th-century American dentists Category:American women dentists Category:Women's firsts