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Stone Age Dentists
morleron writes "Scientists have found evidence in Pakistan that the Stone Age had dentists. They used flint drills to remove cavities and attempt other tooth repair. No evidence as to whether or not the patients were conscious during the procedures."
No evidence as to whether or not the patients were conscious during the procedures
During the "Stone" Age, I think it's obvious that even the patients were conscious, they weren't be soon after the procedures started.
I'm more interested in knowing if the patients were still alive after the procedures.
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I dont think I want to know what kind of anesthesia they would have used then...
they didn't use novocaine, they used NovoClub
NovoClub: Only one swing and the pain goes away!
Probably not as bad as you'd think. Hemp, opium, datura, henbane, mandrake and hemlock were all known to be used as prehistoric anaesthetics. Dwale, an anaesthetic used in old England, was a reasonably sophisticated mixture of bile, lettuce, vinegar, bryony root, hemlock, opium, and henbane.
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Any dentists here?
If the tooth bone (pulp or whatever the stuff below the enamel is) is exposed, wouldn't it start to rot in no time?
If yes and the further decay is limited (4 teeth showed decay associated with the hole), would that suggestion that they filled the hole with clay, resin, or some other material capable of hardening?
Bert
Codeine, a powerful pain reliever is a constituent of Opium. Opium has been known to be used by Neanderthals roughly 40,000 years ago and it's effects were well known in Ancient Greece, Egypt and Mesopotamia. Considering that this is Pakistan, I would imagine that they had supplies of Opium nearby.
They weren't exactly grunting fools 8,000-10,000 years ago.
"Tread softly because you tread on my dreams"
'I tell you, Barney, I don't need to see no dentist! I can do this myself...' 'But Fred...' 'Look, I've tied one end of this rope to my tooth, the other end to a boulder. Then I just push it over this cliff and... yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!' 'Fred? Hey, where'd you go, Fred?' *voice from bottom of cliff* 'Call the dentist, Barn.'
Toothpain? No problem...Captain Caveman fix you good
Captain Caveman apply anesthetics so you dont feel pain (SLAM!)
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
Eh, let us not wildly exaggerate the pain involved. My father had all his fillings as a child without anaesthesia. It isn't unheard of for people to refuse it today.
What I find more curious about this report is that the ancient men were observant enough to realize that if you stopped the decay by drilling it out, you needn't lose the tooth later. As late as the 18th century or so, I believe the standard treatment for a decaying tooth was: (1) wait until it really starts to hurt, and then (2) pull it out. Drilling the decay out (while preserving the tooth) is a lot more sophisticated.
As I had a spate of dental problems the last year and because I was wondering why we evolves such apparently wretchedly fragile teeth (sharks have it nice, three rows of ever-emerging teeth keep popping up and the old ones pop out), and read up on dentistry in general to take better care of my teeth.
There are a lot of people out there who keep repeating that cavities were not a problem in most people until refined sugar hit the scene around the 1700s and that the industrial revolution made it cheap for the masses.
This is true to a point but I guess this article shows it's stupid to think that no one had cavities before refined sugar.
Drspiller.com being a good site to look up some info. Meat won't give cavities. Natural starchy foods (vegetables like potatoes) and fruit have many natural fibers that wash their own sugars off your teeth before they have time to settle, and the acids in them negligent because of dilution. With a drink of water afterwards should prevent any problems.
So it's true, processed and refined foods, especially with sugar, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, etcetera, are the biggest causes of cavities.
However, dried fruits are sticky and should be treated as refined sugar or processed foods (these all can cause cavities) and may be the biggest cavity causer of the old world (along with perhaps alcohols, like mead, etcetera).
Stone age dentistry happens even today... a little more updated, but not too much, for most of the billions on this planet.
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I don't know; I don't see a lot of advanced technology in today's dentistry. They have instruments with finer precision, sure, and they have fillings that last longer, but essentially, they're just plugging holes for the most part, which has always been possible with a bit of tree resin. Essentially, dentistry is a major contrast to other medical professions, because it has made little progress towards prevention or CURES for decay, besides physical stuff like toothpaste and floss.
Lately, there was a slashdot story about changing the electrical properties of teeth so that plaque can't attach. In sci-fi, there are ideas like hermetically sealing teeth. I really think dentistry should be working much harder towards things like that.
In the past 9000 years, the only real advancement in dentistry appears to be the addition of fillings to the procedure. Otherwise, going to the dentist is still pretty much like having a neolithic barbarian bang on your teeth with rocks.
You can go to the Qandahari Bazaar of Quetta today, and you'll see dentists lined up on the footpath fixing peoples teeth. There are cars and rickshaws blaring away a few feet away from them. Dentists themselves are stocky muscular dudes in the same traditional dress, shoes taken off sitting on the cloth mat and sometimes with a made-in-china loupe holding boiled metal tools that they sharpen using knife sharpeners or simply ceramic bricks.
They obtain their tools from the organic waste of hospitals of Karachi which are sold on trolleys in the bazaars there. You see thousands of scalpels and the likes lined up under the sun sold for Rs 5 (10c) or less even to the grand public. Get up real close and in the crevices of the handle you'll notice dried up blood.
But the dentists DO boil their tools sometimes before your eyes on gas cookers, on the footpath. You'll occasionally hear a moan where a tooth is getting right out... real men dont need anasthetic.
With my full dental insurance here in Toronto, I still am put on long holds, have to fill out way more paperwork, and in the end, its still an italian surgeon who remarkably resembles the Qandahari Bazaar surgeons complete with hairy forearms, who pulls the teeth. Even the tools look the same. So stop pretending we've advanced that much!
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Considering that this is Pakistan, I would imagine that they had supplies of Opium nearby
Nope, sorry, but the opium poppy is an introduced species in Pakistan. Alexander gets the credit for the introduction, circa 327 BC, from "Ancient Greece, Egypt and Mesopotamia".
It's a plant native to the Mediterranian basin.
The first record of opium being used medicinally in India (remember that Pakistan did not exist until the last half of the 20th century) occurs circa 1200 AD and recreational use of sufficient quantity to be notable did not begin until circa 1600, "coincident" with:
Massive cultivation of opium in India did not begin until the Portuguese, followed by the Dutch and English, began exporting it from India to China. It was the Dutch who taught the Chinese to smoke it, circa 1700.
Opium in Asia is one of the earliest byproducts of Eurpean "colonization" of the Orient. It was entirely unknown there before the Iron Age.
KFG