There is evidence of people practicing something very much like dentistry from as early as 7000BC. It consisted in treating ailments with primitive tools such as bow drills. Though this is obviously quite different from the practice we know today, the fact that it was continued long enough to catch on means it must have enjoyed at least limited success. There is evidence found also in the writings of the ancient Egyptian, Chinese and Japanese.
These primitive practices were not removed from superstition. There is a Sumerian text from 5000BC that attributes many tooth problems to the “tooth worm”; and similar references can be found in Ancient Greek writers like Homer. However, it was during the Ancient Greek period that writers like Aristotle and Hippocrates began to treat the practice a little more scientifically, offering detailed thoughts about the eruption patterns of teeth, as well as descriptions of tooth decay and gum disease.
Right from the ancients up through to the middle ages, the primary method for treating tooth problems was for the problematic teeth to be extracted. Even in the middle ages dentistry was not considered a separate pursuit and so patients with complaints about their teeth would go to their barbers or general physicians to have their teeth pulled. The instrument known as the “dental pelican”, invented by Guy de Chauliac in the 14th C, was the old counterpart of the forceps and was vital to the practice back then.
It was not until 1530 that a book written solely about dentistry was written: the “Artzney Buchlein”. In 1685 the first textbook was published in English, called “Operator for the Teeth” written by Charles Allen. It was between this and the 1800s that dentistry began to develop into a separate pursuit and science.
The inclusion of fillings, along with the knowledge about what causes tooth decay and gum disease are what has made dentistry the modern and effective science it is now. It is the French physician (17th C) that is often referred to as the father of modern dentistry.
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