The percentage of dental caries was low in pre-agricultural societies, but the growth in agricultural societies about 10,000 years ago led to an increase in dental caries.
The oldest recorded dental practice, between 13,820 and 14,160 years old, was found in Italy by a tooth that had been cleaned with flints. Although there was a study in 2017 indicating that Neanderthals used primitive dental tools. Also, evidence was found proving the practice of dentistry in the Indus civilization, 7000 years before Christ. Researchers have found a place in Mehrgarh that is believed to have been used to treat dental diseases with primitive tools such as arcs, and it appears that this was done by skilled craftsmen. These ancient tools that were used in ancient times were emulated and turned out to be effective and appropriate tools. The oldest dental filling process dates back to 6,500 years in Slovenia, and beeswax was used in it. Dental practice in prehistoric Malta is attested by a skull dating back to 2500 BC from which an abscess had been hollowed out for the root of a tooth.
A Sumerian text dating back to 5000 BC described (the mouth worm) as a cause of tooth decay. Evidence of this belief was also found in: Egyptian, Indian, Chinese and Japanese history. The legend of the mouth worm was mentioned in the writings of Homer. In the late fourteenth century, the surgeon (Guy de Chauliac) endorsed the belief that worms were among the causes of tooth decay.
Recipes for treating dental pain and infections are spread in the Lahun Papyri, the Ebers Papyrus, the Bruges Papyrus, and the Horst Papyrus in ancient Egypt. The Edwin Smith Papyrus, written in the 17th century BCE but believed to reflect experiences as early as 3,000 BCE, discusses treatments for jaw fractures. In the eighteenth century BC, the Code of Hammurabi – a constitution of laws during the reign of the sixth king of the ancient Kingdom of Babylon – referred to the process of tooth extraction twice in the context of punishments. Examinations of the remains of the ancient Egyptians and the Greek Romans also revealed their attempts in the field of dental prostheses. There is a possibility that this kind of attempt was applied to the deceased to make them look better.
Several Greek scholars, such as Hippocrates and Aristotle, wrote about dentistry. For example, they mentioned the way teeth erupted and treated their cavities, and the extraction of teeth by means of hooks and tying the teeth together using wires to fix loose teeth, as they mentioned gum diseases and jaw fractures. Some attribute the first use of dental appliances and dental bridges to the Etruscans (inhabitants of Italy) 700 BC. In ancient Egypt, Hesi Ra was the first to be called a “dentist” in history. The Egyptians knew how to tie teeth together with gold wires. The Roman medical writer Cornelius Celsus wrote extensively about dental diseases and their treatments, such as his writing on anesthesia and vasoconstrictors. The first process of filling teeth with dental amalgam was documented in a medical text of the ruling dynasty of China called (Tang) written by the Chinese physician (Su Kung) in 659 AD and was presented in Germany in 1528 AD.
Among the Muslim scholars, we mention (Abu Bakr Al-Razi) (932 AD), who talked about the anatomy of the jaws and teeth in detail, as well as the great surgeon Abu Al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi, who designed and drew many surgical tools that are close in accuracy to the current tools, and Ibn Sina spoke in his famous book Canon in Medicine about treatment Maxillary fractures and the necessity of splinting the fracture pieces in their correct position, and inferring this by occluding the teeth in place from the dental arch. Then Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi came and wrote the book al-Tasrif and talked about dental surgery. He explained and pictures of scrapers for cleaning teeth from calculus. He also explained and pictures of clips (plural of hooks) for tooth extraction. He mentioned the process of making bridges to fix weak teeth. He also mentioned the process of spreading teeth and clasping molars and teeth with threads of gold and silver. Machines to cut excess flesh from the gums, and he mentioned the complications resulting from dental diseases, and he mentioned oral fistulas associated with dental diseases and their lesions, and he recommended cauterizing the fistulas with irons with heads whose capacity is commensurate with the capacity of the fistula’s lumen. The jaw joint, the rabbit lip, and the frog tumor [12]
Historically, tooth extraction was used as a treatment for some ailments. In the Middle Ages, dentistry was not an independent profession during the nineteenth century, but was practiced by general physicians and barbers. The role of barbers was limited to tooth extractions to relieve pain caused by chronic tooth inflammation. The tools used in tooth extraction are an extension of the machines that were used in previous centuries. In the fourteenth century, Guy de Chauliac invented a machine that resembled a swan’s beak to extract teeth, and this machine was used until the late eighteenth century. Then it was replaced by the so-called (tooth key). And in the twentieth century it was replaced by the modern hook.
The first book that focused on dentistry only was the book “Artzney Buchlein”, which was written in 1530 AD. The first dental book written in English was entitled “Operator for the Teeth” (literally: the therapist for the teeth) written by Charles Allen in 1685 AD.
In the United Kingdom, there were no specific qualifications for those who wanted to provide dental treatment until 1859 AD. In 1921, training and familiarity with the field were set as a condition for its practice. In 1979 the British Royal Commission for Health issued a report stating that registered dentists per 10,000 population were more than double the number in 1921.
