The History Of Dentistry Pt. I- At First There Was Tooth Decay

Toothaches are one of those things that we can be sure even our forefathers dealt with. We shudder when we hear how some people solve their toothaches with a monkey wrench. Our elders also had some pretty good solutions as well. In these articles, you can see the evolution of dentistry into its present form.

I the year 2000 BC, Babylonians made documents attesting to their mastery of dentistry. They firmly believed that toothaches were caused by an invisible worm inside of the teeth.

Due to the death cult of the Ancient Egyptians, we have some very good insight into how ancient Egyptians dealt with tooth illnesses, and what sort of illnesses they got. The teeth of ancient mummies suggest signs of caries as well as periodontitis. Egyptians of this day and age ground their wheat on millstones, and these tended to get caught in teeth and start the tooth decaying process. The rough grains wore teeth out, and often you can find mummies with teeth worn down to the pulp. Needless to say, these teeth got infected quite easily.

Even if the teeth of the living did fall out, in death, they got their teeth reattached with a golden wire to make sure that they had teeth in the afterlife.

Toothaches usually got treated with medication, and fillings were made using stone dust, resin, malachite, and the seeds of different plants. These fillings were filled up, in addition, with frequent rinsing and incantations. Neither did much to help the patients.