Who were the best dentists of antiquity? I have heard that the Egyptians actually were able to fill decayed teeth (with gold foil), but this doesn’t sound like a repair technique that would last. How about the Romans? I actually wonder how big of a problem dental caries were in the ancient world-refined sugar was expensive and scarce-most likely, people had only honey as a sweetener-and very little of that. Has anyone studied ancient skulls to see how well their teeth lasted?
Also, I understand that if you were an ancient Egyptian, your teeth were just about worn out by age 45 or so-flour was milled in Egypt, by mixing sand with the grain-and you were eating sand baked into your bread (which wore your teeth down). As for medieval Europe-did people have any kind of dental hygiene? Once a tooth became decayed, a barber could pull it-other than that, no treatment at all! Still, I don’t think people had a big problem with tooth decay, until refined sugar became cheap and plentiful (by the 1600’s). So, was the ancient world a bad place to be, if you had a toothache?
There’s an excellent book called An Excruciating History of Dentistry that I gave Pepper Mill for Christmas one year, but neve read myself. Doubtless it can answer many of your questions.:
That said, Prehistoric Man had his own problems – even without refined sugar, you can get problems from plaque, or you could be predisposed to have cavities. It wasn’t just Egyptians who ground grain, and grit in the grain is a worldwide issue in abrading teeth. They’ve also found prehistoric molars with odd characteristic wear grooves in them. They finally figured out that these were due to people running tendon material between their teeth to separate single fibers and shape them (tendons were essential for making arrows and spears and the like, and standard prep method was to chew it. suppose running it through tooth grooves followed natually – but it wore down the teeth)
Most primitive dental work, I’ll bet, consisted of clever pulling, as you suggest.
I don’t recall her name now, but one of Louis XIV’s lovers was famous for her teeth. She kept them longer than most and whiter than most.
Only in her dying bed did she confess to washing them every day with her own brush (dentists used a single brush for all their customers) and a mixture of salt and strawberry juice.
Washing was seen as a dirty thing to do, y’see. (The people in the movies always have much better hygienic habits than the actual folks of that time did)
It also used to be common knowledge that a woman lost a tooth for every baby - all that calcium has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is you, if you don’t have all the benefits of modern nutrition.
I saw this mentioned in another thread recently (was that you also?) - but it doesn’t make any sense. How would the body absorb calcium so selectively? Isn’t it more likely that this is just an old wives’ tale, any perceived truth in which is just coincidence of statistics?
Mangetout, just put the “common knowledge” in commas 
I don’t understand… It looks to me as though Zsofia is presenting this as folk wisdom with an underlying core of truth. I don’t think it is true at all.
I think you’re being wooshed, but it may be me.
After all, one of the things I’m sick of is dental workers berating me for smoking and then giving me a double dose for lying about my smoking. It’s common knowledge that if you’ve got yellow teeth it’s because you smoke, they say.
And when I say “bistraciclina” they turn into pools of sorry on the floor… but I still want to hit them with something brick-dense and brick-shaped.
Alright, Nava, you brought it up… what is “bistraciclina”?
Not that I am in any way defending or refuting this, but I could see how the calcium is not abserbed selectively (of course) but in general and how it often resulted in a tooth lost or two. Women who were constantly having babies would have this problem more seriously than women with fewer.
The old saying “Statistically, women of child bearing age show a loss of denture that correlates to 0.87 teeth lost per child birthed” never kinda caught up and we got stuck with a more popular version of it.
Sorry, don’t have a cite, but i remember that some ancient egyptian bread, found in a tomb, was analyzed. it contained a lot of silica grit-whether sand was intentionally added 9or just blew in from the desert) wasn’t clear.
This was more or less the gist of the ‘coincidence of statistics’ thing I mentioned - there are so many other factors involved, I’d be really surprised if any meaningful correlation existed, but we should perhaps start by finding out whether any mechanism actually exists in the human body to reabsorb calcium from teeth. Is there such a thing? (specifically for teeth)
One of a group of medicines (tetracyclines) that were great for treating flu but which happened to damage bone. They left a generation of people with yellow teeth that can not be whitened by lasers (since the yellowing isn’t just a dyeing of the outer tooth, but happens throughout the whole skeleton). Once this trend was noticed, they were taken out of the market out of fear that they wouldn’t just make bones yellow but actually weaken them.
Wasn’t me before, I don’t think, but I’ve always read that that’s common knowledge with a core of truth. I mean, not that you’d specifically sacrifice one tooth to each baby, but that having and breastfeeding babies without eating well yourself is bad for your own teeth.
not quite ancient, but in my parents days (30s) it was not uncommon for a 21st present to get a set of false teeth on the understanding that you probably have had most or all of yours pulled out by then due to rampant decay.
My guess ancient dentists were good at pulling, and grinding/sharpening teeth and little else
I saw something about a Roman skull where an iron ‘tooth’ had been hammered into the socket.
Calcium depletion from pregnancy & breastfeeding are more likely to cause bone loss than tooth loss. This source stresses that good calcium intake will usually protect the mother & kid. But teenage mothers, still forming their own bones, are more vulnerable.
However, pregnancy can affect dental health–& vice versa.
Healthy, full grown women who eat well & have access to good medical & dental care don’t have much to worry about.
But, throughout history & in some parts of today’s world* women start having babies too young, have them every year, may not eat well & rarely see doctors or dentists. Tooth loss is just one of their problems.
- That includes parts of the USA, of course.
so, does anyone have a good answer to this question?