Dentist, artist, pioneer: orthodontic innovator Norman Kingsley and his Rembrandt portraits.

BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW: Norman W. Kingsley (1829-1913) was one of the most inventive contributors to the early development of orthodontics and cleft palate therapy. Gifted not only in dentistry but also in art, he was a sculptor and painter of considerable renown in his day. The author reports the rediscovery of two Kingsley paintings--exacting copies of Rembrandt self-portraits. Kingsley created them by using pyrography, a rare and difficult wood-charring artistic technique that he helped perfect.