The first record of the scraping of teeth to remove calculus a process called scaling and polishing in modern times was detailed by Abukasis a Spaniard.
Vesalius the founder of modern anatomy discredited several uncontested theories. He was able to similarly claim that teeth were arranged to articulate in a specific fashion what is called occlusion today.
Fauchard in 1728 published a book “Le chirurgien Dentiste” which translates literarily as the dental surgeon. This book is regarded as one of the most important ones in dental literature.
John Hunter who excelled mainly as an English physician and a professor of surgery contributed immensely to dental science, He was a trained anatomist, reforming the classification of teeth into incisors, cuspids, bicuspids and molars. He went on to design several appliances used to straighten crooked or mal-aligned teeth.
He practiced the complete removal of the pulp of a teeth today referred as root canal therapy. He crowned it all by publishing “The natural history of the teeth detailing the structure , development , form growth and diseases of the teeth”.
Toothache was described by Ambrose Pare as the most atrocious pain that can torment man without being followed by death.
Restorative dentistry and fillings had its share of developmental phases too; John Barker introduced the use of dental gold to be used as fillings in 1768.
Paul revere had a lot of work in prosthetic dentistry where Natural teeth lost or missing are replaced by artificial ones.
The first college of dentistry in the world was founded in Baltimore in 1840 by Chaplin Harris.
Dental amalgam used in dental fillings was introduced a s a silver dental amalgam paste in 1826 by G M Taveau in Paris. Prior to these period gold has been used almost exclusively for fillings in dentistry.
The use of dental amalgam did not last long before problems came to fore as there were problems with the manipulation. In 1843 silver dental amalgam use was declared mal-practice by the American Society of Dental Surgeons. It should be noted that silver dental amalgam is in use in dentistry today, it is safe and certified. The errors of previous formulations have since been corrected.
Dental assistants were introduced to dentistry by a certain Edmund Kells .They were known as the first lady in attendance, prior to this period it was difficult for ladies to attend the dental surgery without their husband or escort. This is something surprisingly having vestiges in some middle eastern communities where women cannot be attended to by a male doctor etc or the northern part of Nigerian in which some communities do not allow the women to attend the clinic alone without an escort or receive treatment most especially surgery without their husband or even receive family planning without the consent of the husband there are many ramifications to this , Some fatalities have resulted from Caesarean sections not being carried out as the husband was not around or the Jehovah witnesses refusing to have blood and blood products transfusions. Some would not allow tooth extraction without the consent of their husband, for a minor the consent of the parent may be understandable for surgery but for a medically and healthy adult I believe they can give self consent.
There have been a lot of developments and machinery and inventions through dentistry a few are mentioned below
Dental engine
The development of the dental engine made the process of creating cavities for fillings to treat tooth decay less arduous, it also enhanced dentist ability to work quickly and treat dental caries.
Cohesive gold
The introduction of cohesive gold to dentistry greatly enhanced the use of gold in tooth fillings it was introduced Robert A Arthur of Philadelphia in the USA. This led to use of dental inlays and gold crowns.
X RAYS
Cathode rays were discovered in 1895 by Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen X rays have been applied to dentistry and indeed into general medicine ever since
Anaesthesia
Introduced to dentistry by Horace Wells in 1844, the main use was pain relief from the process of tooth extraction.
Ether was introduced as an anaesthetic by William T G Morton firstly in dentistry and later to supplement surgical operations.
There is no need to be a genius to think of the excruciating pain in dental work prior to these period, as the old fable went, the tooth was tied to the door knob and pulled for extractions. Similarly one would wonder how amputations were done in those periods where the practice of loss of blood from trepanation was accepted, to trepan a hole is made into the skull and blood let out to “cure” psychosis.
This article will not be complete without a few words about dentistry development in Africa and Nigeria that will be done in due course see you next week
