[Exploring innovative approaches by Zhu Xitao to promote the modernization and internationalization of Chinese stomatology].

Abstract

In the mid-20th century, dental education in China was in a critical period of transformation from traditional dentistry to modern stomatological education. Based on archival materials, academic works, memoirs and interview data, this paper systematically sorts out the historical contributions of Zhu Xitao to the construction of stomatology in China. It reconstructs how he systematically advanced the disciplinary construction of stomatology through a four-dimensional strategic framework-"laying the foundation through educational reform, empowering through interdisciplinary innovation, building academic communities, and expanding international exchanges"-thereby leading Chinese stomatology through its transformation from tradition to modernization and leap toward internationalization. With forward-looking educational innovation, he consolidated the foundation of talent training and promoted the establishment of textbook systems and teaching models; he activated the endogenous motivation of the discipline through scientific research breakthroughs and took the lead in applying interdisciplinary methods to open up new research fields; he gathered the joint force of the industry by establishing academic organizations and platforms as well as constructed the first nationwide collaborative academic network; he broke the disciplinary barriers through international exchanges and initiated efforts to enhance China's academic discourse power in alignment with global standards. Through his strategic practices with both forward-looking and systematic characteristics, he promoted Chinese stomatology to realize the historic leap from scattered empirical accumulation to a systematic modern discipline, providing historical enlightenment for the development of stomatology in the new era.