Al Richards, an inventor and retired professor of radiography at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry, died September 6 at the age of 91. Richards is credited with improving the quality of dental x-ray imaging and reducing radiation exposure for dental patients.
Richards was a professor at the university for more than 40 years and "probably taught radiography to half the working dentists in Michigan by the time he retired," Sharon Brooks, a University of Michigan dental school professor, told the Ann Arbor News.
Among his other contributions to the field, Richards created the first dynamic tomography pictures, allowing dentists to look at layers of tissue long before CT scanners were developed.
