A TERRIFYING ORDEAL

Taranaki Daily News, 14 October 1933, Page 2 (Supplement)

A TERRIFYING ORDEAL

OLD-TIME DENTISTRY SOME ANCIENT PRESCRIPTIONS. There was a time—and it does not seem to. be long ago—when we postponed a visit to the dentist if at all possible. It was sure to be a painful business. Nobody volunteers to make a visit even now, but the dentist’s chair has been robbed of most of its terrors. Dentistry once the happy hunting ground of .charlatans and quacks, has become a science, says the News Thronicle. Dentistry, in some of its cruder forms seems to have come into being as soon as man began to experience trouble with his teeth. It was practised as a specialty in Egypt during the time of Herodotus, about 500 8.C., for it is recorded that “Egypt is quite full of doctors; those for the eyes, those for the head; some for the teeth, others for the belly or for occult maladies.” A cure for toothache is described in the papyrus of Ebers—a work which dates from 3500 to 1500 B.C. It consisted of one part each of seps-grains, dough, honey and oil, which had to be made into a plaster and applied to the aching tooth. Artificial teeth, roughly fashioned of wood, have been picked up in Egyptian sarcophagi, and both filled and artificial teeth have, it is asserted, been found in the mouths of mummies, the former stopped with gold or gilded wood. It is supposed that these fillings were inserted during life for the purpose of preserving the teeth, though by some writers it is stated that this work may have been part of an embalming process. The celebrated medical works of China refer to toothache, and describe nine varieties of the malady. Puncturing the gums, as well as distant parts of the body for the relief of toothache and abscesses was practised. Of the 383 sites for puncturing which the Chinese had, 26 were for the relief of toothache. They used gold, silver, or steel needles, and cauterised the site with a sort of slow burning vegetable wool applied through a hole in a coin. It was the belief of the Chinese that there were worms in the teeth, and among the remedies they used was arsenic made into pills, one being placed near the aching tooth or into the ear on the opposite side of the aching organ, whereupon the pain, ro it was believed, positively ceased. Scribonius Largus, writing during the first century of the Christian era, expressed the belief that worms were the cause of pain and decay in the teeth. This worm superstition existed for more than 1000 years. Largus suggested that - if the seeds of henbane were burned on charcoal, and the fumes inhaled, they would cause the worms to fall from the teeth. It is noteworthy that the seed buds of henbane when burned form an ash that much resembles worms, and that the drug has a narcotic effect that probably soothed and relieved the pain.

Coming along to the Middle Ages it is stated in the works of an Arabian author that replantation of teeth was extensively practised, and artificial substitutes

were made of ox bone to replace those that had been lost. He advocated replanting teeth that had been removed by mistake or accident. John Gaddesden, an English doctor at Oxford, who lived from 1400 to 1450, believed that the fat of a green frog would positively cause teeth to fall out. He was also an authority for the statement that “the brains’of a hare rubbed on the gums not only facilitate dentition, but will make teeth grow again where they have been lost.” These remedies were employed by many later writers, who claimed to-have performed marvellous cures with them. Giovanni Plateario (1450-1525), a professor at Pisa, was a pioneer to whom we ought to raise cur hats. He was the first dentist to use the sitting posture for performing operations on the teeth, others before him having used the horizontal position. The prevailing custom was to let the patient lie on the ground and to hold his head between the operator’s knees with a vice-like grip. Pierre Fauchard, who died in Palis in 1761, is described as the founder of modern dentistry. It was he who helped to destroy many of the age-long superstitions which still gripped the people. He published a work in which he revealed everything he knew. Able dentists before him had guarded their secrets lest someone might profit at their expense. He admitted the possibility of worms being in the teeth, but stated that he had never seen them. He was strong in his condemnation of elixirs and cures by magical means so much practised in his day, and refers to the large and increasing number of charlatans of the day.