"The Fascinating History of Dentistry"

The Fascinating History of Dentistry

Introduction

Dentistry, also known as dental medicine and oral medicine, is a branch of medicine that consists of the study, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases, disorders, and conditions of the oral cavity (the mouth), commonly in the dentition (development and arrangement of teeth) as well as the oral mucosa, and of adjacent and related structures and tissues, particularly in associated maxillofacial (jaw and facial) area. The field of dentistry or dental medicine includes teeth as well as other aspects of the craniofacial complex including the temporomandibular joint and other supporting, muscular, lymphatic, nervous, vascular, and anatomical structures. The practitioner is called a dentist. A dentist is a person licensed to practice dentistry under the law of the appropriate state, province, territory or nation. Dentistry is the science and art of preventing Diagnosis and treating diseases, injuries and malformation of the teeth, Jaws and mouth.

History

Dentistry first assumed it’s position as a profession with a certain independence in the literature of the eighteen century, during the baroque period, a time of absolutism. Thus the actual histories of the profession start in this period. If you had a toothache in the Middle Ages in Europe, you’d see your barber – pulling teeth was a routine part of their job description.

Tooth decay was low in pre-agricultural societies, but the advent of farming society about 10,000 years ago correlated with an increase in tooth decay (cavities). An infected tooth from Italy partially cleaned with flint tools, between 13,820 and 14,160 years old, represents the oldest known dentistry, although a 2017 study suggests that 130,000 years ago the Neanderthals already used rudimentary dentistry tools.

The First Dentists?

The Indus valley has yielded evidence of dentistry being practised as far back as 7000 BC, during the Stone Age. According to the American Dental Education Association, the history of dentistry – one of the oldest medical professions – can be traced back to 7000 BCE and the Indus River Valley Civilization in what is now Pakistan, northeast Afghanistan, and northwest India. The Neolithic site of Mehrgarh (now in Pakistan's south western province of Balochistan) indicates that this form of dentistry involved curing tooth related disorders with bow drills operated, perhaps, by skilled bead-crafters. The reconstruction of this ancient form of dentistry showed that the methods used were reliable and effective.

The earliest dental filling, made of beeswax, was discovered in Slovenia and dates from 6500 years ago. Dentistry was practised in prehistoric Malta, as evidenced by a skull which had an abscess lanced from the root of a tooth dating back to around 2500 BC.

· Ancient Origins

From 5000 B.C. to 201 A.D.

5000 B.C.

A Sumerian text of this date describes “tooth worms” as the cause of dental decay.

3000 B.C.

Gold tooth picks found in exacavation in mesopotania, Babylonians & assyrians-periodontal problems – gingival massage combined with various herbal medicines.

2600 BC

Death of Hesy-Re, an Egyptian scribe, often called the first “dentist.” An inscription on his tomb includes the title “the greatest of those who deal with teeth, and of physicians.” This is the earliest known reference to a person identified as a dental practitioner.

2500 B.C.

Chinese civilization h-wang devotes a chapter in his book to dental & gingival diseases.

1700-1550 BC

An Egyptian text, the Ebers Papyrus, refers to diseases of the teeth and various toothache remedies.

Dental treatment can be found in egypt more than 1500 years before the Christ.

1500 B.C.- Egypt

Ebers papyrus describes oral disease & offer a number of prescriptions for strengthening of teeth & gums.

1000 B.C. Indian civilization

Sushrutha samhita numerous descriptions of severe periodontal diseases with loose teeth & purulent discharge.

500-300 BC

Hippocrates and Aristotle write about dentistry, including the eruption pattern of teeth, treating decayed teeth and gum disease, extracting teeth with forceps, and using wires to stabilize loose teeth and fractured jaws.

100 BC

Celsus, a Roman medical writer, writes extensively in his important compendium of medicine on oral hygiene, stabilization of loose teeth, and treatments for toothache, teething pain, and jaw fractures.

166-201 AD

The Etruscans practice dental prosthetics using gold crowns and fixed bridgework.

· The Beginnings of a Profession - Middle Ages

F From 500 A.D. to 1575 A. D.

700

A medical text in China mentions the use of “silver paste,” a type of amalgam.

1210

A Guild of Barbers is established in France. Barbers eventually evolve into two groups: surgeons who were educated and trained to perform complex surgical operations; and lay barbers, or barber-surgeons, who performed more routine hygienic services including shaving, bleeding and tooth extraction.

1400

A series of royal decrees in France prohibit lay barbers from practicing all surgical procedures except bleeding, cupping, leeching, and extracting teeth.

1530

The Little Medicinal Book for All Kinds of Diseases and Infirmities of the Teeth (Artzney Buchlein), the first book devoted entirely to dentistry, is published in Germany. Written for barbers and surgeons who treat the mouth, it covers practical topics such as oral hygiene, tooth extraction, drilling teeth, and placement of gold fillings.

1575

In France Ambrose Pare, known as the Father of Surgery, publishes his Complete Works. This includes practical information about dentistry such as tooth extraction and the treatment of tooth decay and jaw fractures.

16 Centaury-

Barbar dentist were sent from England to U.S some of them even worked as part time dentist.

· The Development of a Profession - 18th Century

From 1723 to 1790

1723

Pierre Fauchard, a French surgeon publishes The Surgeon Dentist, A Treatise on Teeth (Le Chirurgien Dentiste). Fauchard is credited as being the Father of Modern Dentistry because his book was the first to describe a comprehensive system for the practice of dentistry including basic oral anatomy and function, operative and restorative techniques, and denture construction.

1746

Claude Mouton describes a gold crown and post to be retained in the root canal. He also recommends white enameling for gold crowns for a more esthetic appearance.

1760

John Baker, the earliest medically-trained dentist to practice in America, immigrates from England and sets up practice.

1760-1780

Isaac Greenwood practices as the first native-born American dentist.

1768-1770

Paul Revere places advertisements in a Boston newspaper offering his services as a dentist. In 1776, in the first known case of post-mortem dental forensics, Revere verifies the death of his friend, Dr. Joseph Warren in the Battle of Breed’s Hill, when he identifies the bridge that he constructed for Warren.

1789

Frenchman Nicolas Dubois de Chemant receives the first patent for porcelain teeth.

1790

John Greenwood, son of Isaac Greenwood and one of George Washington’s dentists, constructs the first known dental foot engine. He adapts his mother’s foot treadle spinning wheel to rotate a drill.

Josiah Flagg, a prominent American dentist, constructs the first chair made specifically for dental patients. To a wooden Windsor chair, Flagg attaches an adjustable headrest, plus an arm extension to hold instruments.

· Advances in Science and Education - 19th Century

From 1801 to 1899

1801

Richard C. Skinner writes the Treatise on the Human Teeth, the first dental book published in America.

1825

Samuel Stockton begins commercial manufacture of porcelain teeth. His S.S. White Dental Manufacturing Company establishes and dominates the dental supply market throughout the 19th century.

1826-------

M.T.Averse of Paris- introduced the first form of amalgam.

1832

James Snell invents the first reclining dental chair.

1833-1850

The Crawcours (two brothers from France) introduce amalgam filling material in the United States under the name Royal Mineral Succedaneum. The brothers are charlatans whose unscrupulous methods spark the “amalgam wars,” a bitter controversy within the dental profession over the use of amalgam fillings.

1839

The American Journal of Dental Science, the world’s first dental journal, begins publication.

Charles Goodyear invents the vulcanization process for hardening rubber. The resulting Vulcanite, an inexpensive material easily molded to the mouth, makes a excellent base for false teeth, and is soon adopted for use by dentists. In 1864 the molding process for vulcanite dentures is patented, but the dental profession fights the onerous licensing fees for the next twenty-five years.

1840

Horace Hayden and Chapin Harris found the world’s first dental school, the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, and establish the Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) degree. (The school merges with the University of Maryland in 1923).

The American Society of Dental Surgeons, the world’s first national dental organization, is founded. (The organization dissolves in 1856.)

Harvard university establishing the first university affiliated dental programmer.

1841

Alabama enacts the first dental practice act, regulating dentistry in the United States. The act called for the assignment of a dentist to the state’s medical board in order to grant licenses for practicing dentistry in the state, however, the act was never enforced, few dentists are ever assigned a seat on the medical board and only a couple of dental licenses are ever granted during the forty years it was on the books.

1846

Dentist William Morton conducts the first successful public demonstration of the use of ether anesthesia for surgery. The previous year Horace Wells, also a dentist, had conducted a similar demonstration that was regarded a failure when the patient cried out. Crawford Long, a physician, later claims he used ether as an anesthetic in an operation as early as 1842, but he did not publish his work.

1855

Robert Arthur originates the cohesive gold foil method allowing dentists to insert gold into a cavity with minimal pressure. The foil is fabricated by annealing, a process of passing gold through a flame making it soft and malleable.

1859

Twenty-six dentists meet in Niagara Falls, New York, and form the American Dental Association.

1864

Sanford C. Barnum develops the rubber dam, a piece of elastic rubber fitted over a tooth by means of weights. This simple device isolates the tooth from the oral cavity, a troublesome problem for dentists.

1866

Lucy Beaman Hobbs graduates from the Ohio College of Dental Surgery, becoming the first woman to earn a dental degree.

1867

The Harvard University Dental School, the first university-affiliated dental institution, is founded. The school calls its degree the Dentariae Medicinae Doctorae (DMD), creating a continuing semantic controversy (DDS vs. DMD).

1869

Dr. Robert Tanner Freeman, graduating from Harvard University Dental School, becomes the first African-American to earn a dental degree.

1871

James B. Morrison patents the first commercially manufactured foot-treadle dental engine. Morrison’s inexpensive, mechanized tool supplies dental burs with enough speed to cut enamel and dentin smoothly and quickly, revolutionizing the practice of dentistry.

The American George F. Green receives a patent for the first electric dental engine, a self-contained motor and handpiece.

1877

The Wilkerson chair, the first pump-type hydraulic dental chair, is introduced.

1880s

The collapsible metal tube revolutionizes toothpaste manufacturing and marketing. Dentifrice had been available only in liquid or powder form, usually made by individual dentists, and sold in bottles, porcelain pots, or paper boxes. Tube toothpaste, in contrast, is mass-produced in factories, mass-marketed, and sold nation-wide. In twenty years, it becomes the norm.

1883

The National Association of Dental Examiners is founded by the members of the dental boards of several states in order to establish uniform standards in the qualifications for dental practitioners, the administration of dental boards overseeing licensing and the legislation of dental practice acts.

1885

The first female dental assistant is employed by C. Edmond Kells, a prominent New Orleans dentist. Her duties include chair-side assistance, instrument cleaning, inventory, appointments, bookkeeping, and reception. Soon “Lady in Attendance” signs are routinely seen in the windows of 19th century dental offices. The American Dental Assistants Association is founded in 1924 by Juliette Southard and her female colleagues.

1887

Stowe & Eddy Dental Laboratory, the first successful industrial-type laboratory in the U.S., opens in Boston, marking the ascendancy of the modern commercial dental laboratory. The earliest known dental laboratory in the U.S. was Sutton & Raynor which opened in New York City around 1854.

1890

Ida Gray, the first African-American woman to earn a dental degree, graduates from the University of Michigan School of Dentistry.

Willoughby Miller an American dentist in Germany, notes the microbial basis of dental decay in his book Micro-Organisms of the Human Mouth. This generates an unprecedented interest in oral hygiene and starts a world-wide movement to promote regular toothbrushing and flossing.

1895

Wilhelm Roentgen, a German physicist, discovers the x-ray. In 1896 prominent New Orleans dentist C. Edmond Kells takes the first dental x-ray of a living person in the U.S.

1896

The first dental X-ray was taken in 1896, and five years later Edward H. Angle started the first school of orthodontics.

1899

Edward Hartley Angle classifies the various forms of malocclusion. Credited with making orthodontics into a dental specialty, Angle also establishes the first school of orthodontics (Angle School of Orthodontia in St. Louis, 1900), the first orthodontic society (American Society of Orthodontia, 1901), and the first dental specialty journal (American Orthodontist, 1907).

· Innovations in Techniques and Technology - The 20th Century

F From 1903 to 1998

1903

Charles Land devises the porcelain jacket crown.

1905

Alfred Einhorn, a German chemist, formulates the local anesthetic procain, later marketed under the trade name Novocain.

1907

William Taggart invents a “lost wax” casting machine, allowing dentists to make precision cast fillings.

1908

Greene Vardiman Black, the leading reformer and educator of American dentistry, publishes his monumental two-volume treatise Operative Dentistry, which remains the essential clinical dental text for fifty years. Black later develops techniques for filling teeth, standardizes operative procedures and instrumentation, develops an improved amalgam, and pioneers the use of visual aids for teaching dentistry.

1910

The first formal training program for dental nurses is established at the Ohio College of Dental Surgery by Cyrus M. Wright. The program is discontinued in 1914 mainly due to opposition by Ohio dentists.

1911

The U.S. Army Dental Corps is established as the first armed services dental corps in the U.S. The Navy institutes its Dental Corps in 1912.

1913

Alfred C. Fones opens the Fones Clinic For Dental Hygienists in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the world’s first oral hygiene school. Most of the twenty-seven women graduates of the first class are employed by the Bridgeport Board of Education to clean the teeth of school children. The greatly reduced incidence of caries among these children gives impetus to the dental hygienist movement. Dr. Fones, first to use the term “dental hygienist,” becomes known as the Father of Dental Hygiene.

1917

Irene Newman receives the world’s first dental hygiene license in Connecticut.

1930

The American Board of Orthodontics, the world’s first dental specialty board, is founded.

1937

Alvin Strock inserts the first Vitallium dental screw implant. Vitallium, the first successful biocompatible implant metal, had been developed a year earlier by Charles Venable, an orthopedic surgeon.

1938

The nylon toothbrush, the first made with synthetic bristles, appears on the market.

1945

The water fluoridation era begins when the cities of Newburgh, New York, and Grand Rapids, Michigan, add sodium fluoride to their public water systems.

1948

President Harry S. Truman signs the Congressional bill formally establishing the National Institute of Dental Research and initiating federal funding for dental research. Dr. H. Trendley Dean is appointed its first director. The Institute is renamed the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research in 1998.

1949

Oskar Hagger, a Swiss chemist, develops the first system of bonding acrylic resin to dentin.

1950

The first fluoride toothpastes are marketed.

1955

Michael Buonocore describes the acid etch technique, a simple method of increasing the adhesion of acrylic fillings to enamel.

1957

John Borden introduces a high-speed air-driven contra-angle handpiece. The Airotor obtains speeds up to 300,000 rotations per minute and is an immediate commercial success, launching a new era of high-speed dentistry.

1958

A fully reclining dental chair is introduced.

1960

Sit down, four-handed dentistry becomes popular in the U.S. This technique improves productivity and shortens treatment time.

Lasers are developed and approved for soft tissue work, such as treatment of periodontal disease.

The first commercial electric toothbrush, developed in Switzerland after World War II, is introduced in the United States. A cordless, rechargeable model follows in 1961.

1962

Rafael Bowen develops Bis-GMA, the thermoset resin complex used in most modern composite resin restorative materials.

1980

Per-Ingvar Branemark describes techniques for the osseointegration of dental implants.

1989

The first commercial home tooth bleaching product is marketed.

1990

New tooth-colored restorative materials plus increased usage of bleaching, veneers, and implants inaugurate an era of esthetic dentistry.

1997

FDA approves the erbium YAG laser, the first for use on dentin, to treat tooth decay.

1998

The National Institute of Dental Research is renamed National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research to more accurately reflect the broad research base that it has come to support.

Innovations in Techniques and Technology 21st Century

From 2001 to 2021

Computer technology merges with dentistry for the diagnosis and treatment of dental diseases. Comprehensive research on oral health increases, and importance of dentistry to overall health is given more focus and inclusion in health care.

The 21st century continues to prove that dentistry will keep evolving. Orthodontics is just one area where things have already improved, with the development of Invisalign and a process known as micro-osteoperforation to fix malocclusion more quickly.

By now, we’re assuming that you’re pretty relieved to be living in the 21st century and to be able to reap the benefits of modern dentistry (no more gold fillings!). With the right protocol at home and regular trips to the dentist for cleaning and checkups, you can maintain a beautiful smile. And if you do run into dental problems, modern tools and procedures will ensure an experience that’s as pain-free as possible.

Laws made in Mesopotamia –were such that nobody in this era would like to become a dentist , the dread full laws are as follows.

Law 196. ----------

If somebody injures the Eye of a lesser, he is fined a mine of silver.

Law 200----------

If someone knocks out the tooth of an equal, his own tooth is knocked out.

Law 201 ----------

If somebody knocks out the tooth of a lesser, he is fined 1\3 mine of silver.

Although a Tooth is worth only 1\3 as much as an Eye,considering the high value of Eye this is still a substantial evaluation.

Obviously these laws remind us of the old testament statement, “An Eye for An Eye, A Tooth or A Tooth….

The tooth worm as tormentor of Hell- What the Orthodox use to believe.

Ancient-Orient (Egypt)

Carious first mandibular molar from the Predynastic period. With cyst formation at the distal root (from Ruffer).

India

Mandibular reduction (Mukhopadhyaya)

India

Beard tweezers and toothpick, Delhi (Museum fur Volekerkunde, Berlin)

Japan

Japanese colored woodcut showing a tooth extraction with forceps; prosthesis in the foreground around 1820.

Japan

Japanese carved wooden denture with flint teeth and aniheads as occlusal surfaces (from Homma).

Japan

Japanese carved wooden denture with flint teeth and aniheads as occlusal surfaces (from Homma).

Japan

Radiograph of the illustration above (from Homma).

Pre-Columbian America

Classification of pre-Columbian dental mutilations; A5, F7 F8, F9, G1, and G3 in Central America ; E4, E5, and F9 in Sout America; all others in the entire continent ( from Romero).

Pre-Columbian America

Redrawing, from colored frescoes, presumed to show the filing of teeth, in the “Earthly Paradiese” of Tepantitla, Teotihuacan, Mexico.

The Greek Region

Reduction of mandibular luxation, form the Nicetas Codex of Apolloonios of Citiun.

The Roman Empire

58. Tooth forceps, full size (National Museum, Athens; from Sudhoff).

The Roman Empire

58. Oral treetment by a Scythian warrior, depicted on a metal vase relief found in the Crimea. 4^th century B.C. (from Artamonov).

The Roman Empire

Etruscan Donar with complete dentition, found in a temple in Veji.

The Roman Empire

Roman gold band denture, from Teano in the Campania, southern ltaly (Berlin).

The Roman Empire

Roman instruments, including a drill bur at the upper right.

The world of Islam

mThe “ siwak”.

The world of Islam

Abu Qasim ; Cautery and protective cannule in the Latin translation of Gerard of Cremona (Stadtbibliothek Bamberg. Ms. LIII 15).

The world of Islam

Scheref ed-Din Sabuncuoglu; Operation for a ranula, 1465 (from Huard and Gremek).

The world of Islam

Scheref ed-Sabuncuoglu; Cauterzation of the dental pulp through a cannula, 1465 (from Huard and Gremek).

High and Late Middle Ages In Europe

Cautry points for tooth ache, ad dentium dolorem,” in a manuscript of the 13^th century (Oxford, Bodleian Libray, me Ashmole 1462, fol. 9v).

High and Late Middle Ages In Europe

Placement of a bandage, from Roland’s “ Chirurgia” in a manuscript of the 13^th century (Rome Bibl. Casanatense, ms. 1382, fol. 19r).

High and Late Middle Ages In Europe

Examination of the mouth, caiterization, and bandaging of the mouth in a French gloss on Roger, from the 13

Ancient-Orient (Egypt)

Carious first mandibular molar from the Predynastic period. With cyst formation at the distal root (from Ruffer).

Egypt

Gold wire binding with mandibular molars. approximately 2500 B.C. from Junker 1929.

Egypt

The molars top view ( Roemer- Pelizaeus Museum, Holdesheim 1972).

Egypt

Gild wire ligature with maxillary anterious, approximately 2500 B.C. (from Harris, lskander,farid).

Egypt

. & 200 of the Hammurabi code 35.

Egypt

Pazuzu, a protective demon, to keep off (disease) demons; bronze, 15 cm high (Louvre, Paris).

India

Dental hygiene instrument (Dantalekhana or Dantashanku).

India

Forceps (Samamsha).

India

Extracation instrument, similar to a lever. “Instrument with an arrow tip” (Sharapunkhayantra).

Mesopotamia

The molars top view ( Roemer- Pelizaeus Museum, Holdesheim 1972).

Mesopotamia

Gild wire ligature with maxillary anterious, approximately 2500 B.C. (from Harris, lskander,farid).

High and Late Middle Ages in Europe

Autopsy of a human body by Mondino, the physician and antatomist (Anathomia Mundini 1316. Lyon impression 1528, fol.1v).

High and Late Middle Ages in Europe

Hoop cramp (from Brockhaus dictionary, 1901); pelican and dental forceps in the transiantion of Guy de Chauliac of Nicaise, from a later copy.