DENTAL PROGRESS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 643, 22 September 1933, Page 7

DENTAL PROGRESS

through the ages

SUPERSTITION AND MAGIC CREATE TERRIBLE ORDEALS. IGNORANCE OF ANCIENTS There was a time — and it does nof seem to be long ago — when we postponed a visit to the dentist if at all possible. It was sure to be a painful j business. Nobody volunteers to make a visit even now, but the dentist's } chair h'as been robbed of most of its j terrors. Dentistry, once the happy I hunting ground of charlatans and quacks, has become a science. Dentistry in some of its cruder fornis seems to have conie 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, ahout E>00 B.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 descriibed in the papyrus of Ebers — a work which dates from 3500 to 1500 B.C. It consisted of one part each of sepsgrains, dough, honey, and oil, which had to be made into a plaster and applied to the achting 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 mum- j mies, the former; stopped in gold or j gilded wood. It is supposed that these j 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 emhalming process. Chinese Prescriptions. The celehrated 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 pracfcised. Of the 388 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 belicf 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 tooth or into the ear on the opposite side of the aching organ, whereupon the pain, so it was believed, positively ceased. Another favourite prescription used by the Chinese read as follows: Roast a bit of garlic and crush it between the teeth, mix with chopped horseradish seeds or saltpetre, make into a paste with milk, form pills, and introduce one into the nostril on the opposite side to where the pain is felt. Scribonious Largus, writing during the first century of the Christian era, expressed the belief that worms were the cause of pain and deeay in the teeth. This worm superstition exisced more than a 1000 years. Largus suggestcd 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 isnoteworthy that the seed buds of henbane when burned form an ash that much resembles worms, and that the drug has a narcotic effect that prohably soothed and relieved the pain. i

Artificial Teeth. 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 advoeated replanting teeth that had been removed 'by mistake or accident. John Gaddesden, an English' doetor at Oxford, wh0 lived from 1400 to 1450, believed that the fat of a green frog would positively cause teeth to fall out. He was also 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 heen lost." These remedies were employed by many later writers, whc 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 our hats. | He was the first dentist to use the j sitting posture for performing opera- | tions on the teeth, others before him j having used the horizontal position. ' "The prevailing custom was to let the ' patient he prone on the ground and . to h'old hi's head between the opera- | tor's knees with a vice-like grip. j ' Gold Fillings. The first authentic record of gold • fillings having been placed in teeth ; for their preservation during life time is datcd ahout 1450, In a hook published in 1630 by the physician to the Imperial Baths at ! Carlsbad, reference is made to many crude and wopthless remedies that were still used for toothache. This author was one of the first to cast doubt on the value of fumigations to cause worms to fall from the teeth, though he did not in the least doubt the existence of worms themselves, suggesting oil of vitriol or a decoc•tion made of a frog cooked in vine- ! gar to kill them instead. Pierre Fauchard, who died in Paris in 1761, is describ'ed as the founder of modern dentistry. It was he who helped to destroy many of the agelong 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 a.t their expense. He admitted the possibility of worms being in tbe teeth, but stated that he had never seen them. He was strong in his condemnation of elixirs and cures hy magical means so much practised | in his day, and refers to the large and increasing numher of charlatans of the day. "There will shortly be more dentists than persons affeeted with dental diseases," he once said. He advised seating the patient in an easy armchair for the purpose of per- [ forming dental operations, and coni demned the practice of seating him | on the ground or floor and holding

the head between the operator's knees as unskilful and unsanitary. For filling the teeth he preferred tin first, next lead, and lastly gold. He made a full upper set of teeth for a lady of high nank, holding it in place with springs. The materials most in use for making false teeth were huiman teeth', hipopotamus tusks, ivory and ox bone. Crowns were placed on natural roots, if liealthy, and held in place with screws or bound to neighbouring teeth. Painless Extraction. Of tbe many pioneers in dentistry to whom we -are all thankful for their contribution to painless extractions, none deserves mention more than Horace Wells, the first to use laughing gas. His discovery took place in the following manner: — He and his wife attended a lecture on chemistry and natural philosophy, given by Prof. G. Q„ Colton, in Hartford, Ameriea, on Decem'ber 10, 1844, in which he demonstrated the effect of laughing gas • on willing subjects for the amusement of the audience. Dr. Wells inhaled the gas, and also noted its effects on the others. Another spectator, Samuel A. Cooley, was severely hruised and injurtd by his frantic pranks while under the effects of gas without knowing it or feeling the least pain. From that incident Wells was so convinced that painless operations could be performed under its effects that he made arrangements that night with Colton to go to his office next day, and administer the gas on him, while Riggs, his former pupil, extracted a troublesome tooth for him. Thus surgical anaesthesia by means of nitrous oxide was discovered on December 11, 1844. Sir Humphry Davy had suggestcd laughing gas for painless operations in 1776, but no one had successfully used it before Wells. A few weeks later Wells went to Boston to introduce his discov'-ry hut after giving one demonstration on a hoy who cried out while having a tooth extracted, although he subsequently stated that he did not feel any pain, was hissed hy the students as a humbug, denounced as a failure, and th'e learned doctors of Boston would have nothing further to do with him. He returned to Hartford, and after many troubles, due to experimenting on himself too much, he ended his life on January 24, 1848. Dr. J. Y. Simpson, of Scotland, discovered the anaesthetic properties of chloroform in 1847, and cocaine was first successfully used for extractions in 1886, and was in use for many years.