History of Dental Health, Dental Products and Dentistry

Dentistry as a science, art and profession has developed by leaps and bounds since antiquity. There is evidence, both written and archaeological, that man has been performing dental procedures since prehistory.

Brief History of Dentistry

There is evidence of Stone Age man using flint drills to work on teeth 9,000 years ago. Old texts such as Hammurabi’s Code and the Ebers and Edwin Smith papyri – the latter being the oldest extant written medical treatise – mention dental procedures, recommending substances such as green lead, dates, onions, and beans to be mixed and applied against the blisters of the teeth. Egyptian remains show evidence of oral surgery. The idea of extracting teeth is credited to the Greek physician, Aesculapius, who lived sometime in 1300 to 1200 BC. Writers such as Aristotle also mentioned tooth extraction and wrote about ointments and salves for oral diseases and fixing broken jaws and loose teeth with wire. In Roman times, narcotics and astringents were used in dental procedures. In Arabia, a stick with a soft, prepared end was used to apply mouthwash and preparations inside the oral cavity. This was the precursor to today’s toothbrush. Toothpaste-type mixtures were in use in China and India as long ago as 500 BC.

Dentistry in the Middle Ages in Europe was practiced as part of general medicine. Physicians would travel round to a wealthy client’s home to perform tooth extractions and the like, while for the common folk a similar service was the province of barbers.

In the 17th century, the Frenchman Pierre Fauchard started dental science as we know it. His endeavors included a book named “The Surgeon Dentist,” which was a landmark in orthodontics, the branch of dentistry that deals with preventing or correcting irregularities in teeth.

Dentistry Today

Today, dentistry, the branch of medicine that specifically deals with diagnosing and treating disorders and diseases that are local to the human mouth and its surrounding regions, is a formalized profession with practitioners that have graduated with a medical degree, have postgraduate units and have specialized training in dental surgery, dental medicine, dental science, and/or dental dentistry.

To help them in their profession, dentists have a wide array of tools to use. These range from the appliances they actually hold in their hands, to the medicines and chemicals they employ, to the special furniture that you can see in their offices. Advances in technology have also meant advances in dental techniques and treatment.

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