Dentistry in Ancient Egypt

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http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/iss/archives/dentistry/dentistry01a.html

We know from Herodotus that there were physicians who specialized in teeth, however, exactly what those practices were do not come from Herodotus, but surviving papyri. It is through those documents that we can gain some understanding into the dental practices.

From one rather random text, we learn that there was a belief that toothaches were caused by worms.

            “A mns-scribe is here with me, every muscle of whose face twitches; the wstt-disease has developed in his eye, and the worm grows into his tooth. I cannot leave him to his fate” (Leek 51).

Another papyri, this one medical, offered recipes to cure the tooth ailments. These recipes can be divided into two groups, medical and magical.

Here are a few of the recipes:

1.     Fixing a loose tooth – mixture of crushed seeds, ochre, and honey made into a paste and applied to the tooth.

2.     Toothache – paste of ground up veggies and minerals with honey.

3.     Septic tooth – cumin, colocynth, and frankincense.

4.     Treating the teeth by rinsing the mouth – two plants are chewed and spat out.

Inflammation of gums – dates and beans, which are exposed to dew, mixed with milk, and chewed and spat out, for nine days.

5.     Making teeth “healthy” – two vegetable drugs, mandrake and species of Potentilla, chewed and spat out (Leek 51-53).

The remedies are concoctions applied directly to the tooth and seem to be gritty in nature.

Interestingly enough, none of the treatments were for cavities. Archaeological evidence shows that there were very few cases of cavities, but tooth wear did exist due to coarse and gritty foods.

[Cavities were not a prevalent problem, as they are today, due to the lack of refined sugar. Foods were often sweetened using other agents such as honey. – VB]

Often times, the ailments of the teeth would be treated with the above remedies, but the medicines would often only relieve symptoms for a brief time, rather than a cure. The solution for tooth problems, which occurred rarely, was to removal of the tooth itself. Left uncured, the problems worked their way down to the jaw. The procedure would then have to be surgical.

Source: “The Practice of Dentistry in Ancient Egypt” by F. Filce Leek. Published by Egypt Exploration Society in The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology. 1967.