Bernard Weisman

We wish to report a very sad event to the membership and associated friends of the EAED. A true and very old friend of our Academy, Bernard Weisman, passed away on the 9th April 2020 at the age of 93.
Bernard, or Bernie as we all affectionately called him, began his Dental Career as a Technician in the early 1950’s. In 1971 he founded the Whaledent Company and was the company President until 1988. He added the Swedish company, Dentatus, to his portfolio and soon established the company’s global headquarters in Hawthorne, New York State. He held the academic position of associate professor at the New York University of Dentistry for over 20 years.
Totally devoted to developing specialized products and systems for better-quality dentistry, Bernie provided dentistry and his company with a continuous stream of innovative and proprietary product ideas. Bernie was renowned as an inventor of dental products, instruments and techniques whose focus was always the development of affordable solutions that would benefit both dentists and patients. He filed over 100 patents in his career, spanning over 60 years. “One of his most notable innovations was the world’s first narrow-bodied implant (1.8 mm diameter), which Dentatus introduced in the early 1990s. It is a one-piece, self-threading transitional implant that would be inserted at the time of first-stage implant surgery and immediately loaded. At the time, it was considered an industry breakthrough that helped solve the problems related to lengthy implant restorative intervals.” (Dental Tribune, America)
Bernie was of Polish origin, and having survived the Holocaust, he emigrated to the United States shortly after World War II and settled in Brooklyn, New York City.
Upon learning of Weissman’s death, the New York Times wrote that “his expertise and in-depth knowledge of restorative dentistry earned him worldwide recognition in the dental profession, and he formed close working relationships with many of the industry’s most respected clinicians and thinkers.”
In an interview with Dental Tribune America, at the 2014 Greater New York Dental Meeting. Bernie stated: “I never allowed myself to project sales on paper or even in thought. The only thought that matters is: ‘Will it improve dentistry?’ If it does, and everything is correct, the profit will come.” 
“Remembering his long-time friend, Stephen Pohlman, a Tel Aviv-based veteran dental salesman, described Weissman as a man who was ‘small in stature, but a giant of a personality.’ “( Dental Tribune, America)
Bernard Weisman, 1927-2020, will be sorely missed.
Written by David Klaff and David Winkler.