There is evidence tracing the practice of dentistry as far back as 7000 BC. This involved fairly primitive methods of treating tooth disorders with crude tools such as bow drills. However, the fact that this practice, however primitive and far removed from modern techniques, did enjoy relative success, and so it caught on. There is also writings in ancient Egyptian, Chinese and Japanese about dentistry.
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.
The main treatment available right up to as late as the medieval times was tooth extraction. The middle ages still did not see dentistry flourish as an art of its own, so patients who had problems with their teeth would go to their barber and their physician to have their teeth taken out. Instrumental in this treatment was the "dental pelican" invented by Guy de Chauliac in the 14th C; it was the medieval counterpart to the modern forceps.
The first book to ever concern solely dental practice was "Artzney Buchlein" which was written in 1530. It was not until 1685 that the first dental textbook was written in English: it was called "Operator for the Teeth" by Charles Allen. And it was between this period and the 1800s that dentistry as a standalone science was developed.
It was the introduction of innovative treatments such as fillings, along with the discovery of the causes of tooth decay, that made dentistry what it is today. The French 17th century physician Pierre Fauchard is often credited as the father of modern dentistry.
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.
The main treatment available right up to as late as the medieval times was tooth extraction. The middle ages still did not see dentistry flourish as an art of its own, so patients who had problems with their teeth would go to their barber and their physician to have their teeth taken out. Instrumental in this treatment was the "dental pelican" invented by Guy de Chauliac in the 14th C; it was the medieval counterpart to the modern forceps.
The first book to ever concern solely dental practice was "Artzney Buchlein" which was written in 1530. It was not until 1685 that the first dental textbook was written in English: it was called "Operator for the Teeth" by Charles Allen. And it was between this period and the 1800s that dentistry as a standalone science was developed.
It was the introduction of innovative treatments such as fillings, along with the discovery of the causes of tooth decay, that made dentistry what it is today. The French 17th century physician Pierre Fauchard is often credited as the father of modern dentistry.
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