in 1906 he trained his chairside assistant (and his cousin), irene m. newman, to clean teeth and perform other preventive treatments on children, making her the world's first dental hygienist. newman's training consisted in large part in learning to clean teeth under fones' guidance. for teaching aids, fones took the many extracted teeth from his practice, mounted them in a modeling compound and painted plaster of paris around the neck of each tooth to represent calculus and stains. newman started performing oral prophylaxis for the public in 1907. (she later received the first license as a dental hygienist in connecticut, and she became the first president of the connecticut dental hygienists association; she died november 15, 1958, at the age of 83.)