A FEW of my friends recently persuaded me to take a break from the usual remonstration and write something of a lighter annotation so today I will deal with dentistry from a historical perspective so that readers can appreciate the depth of the profession.
Oral diseases have been a problem for humans from the beginning of history. Skulls of Cro-Magnon, who inhabited the earth 25,000 years ago, show evidence of tooth decay. The earliest recorded reference to oral disease is from an ancient (5000 BC) Summerian text that describes “tooth worms” as a cause of tooth decay.

The famous Papyrus Ebers of Egypt contains references to diseases of the teeth as well as prescriptions for substances such as olive oil, dates, onions, beans and green lead, to be mixed and applied “against the throbbing of the blisters in the teeth”. An Egyptian lower jaw, dated by experts as originating between 4900 and 4750 years ago, demonstrates two holes drilled through the bone presumably to drain an abscessed tooth.

Perhaps those who made the most significant contribution to the principles of preventive dentistry are the Arabs. They attached great importance to clean teeth. They described various procedures to “scrape” the teeth and designed sets of specialized instruments to accomplished that task. A very similar procedure still exists today. Mouthwashes and tooth powders were applied by the Arabians using a “toothbrush”, a small polishing stick that was beaten and softened at one end.

While surgeons visited the homes of the wealthy patients to perform dental procedures, dentistry for the poor took place at the marketplace where self-taught vagabonds would extract teeth for a small fee. Up to the early 1700s, much dental therapy was provided by “barber surgeons”. This jack-of-all-trades would not only extract teeth but would do circumcisions and embalm the dead.

Although the dentist began graduating from the first dental school in Baltimore, USA, a few years after slavery was abolished, until 1937 everyone practising dentistry here in Guyana were quacks. The first batch of qualified dentists (mostly Guyanese) began practising here in the early 1940s. In 1971 only seven dentists worked for the Ministry of Public Health.
Gold was the first material used for filling. Later the French described the use of soft lead. It was a Frenchman named Pierre Fauchard, who died in 1761, that is credited with being the Father of Contemporary Dentistry.

George Washington, the first US President had at least one set of dentures that were made of wood. Skilled craftsmen and carpenters made dentures from wood, gold, silver or ivory. These materials changed to rubber and balata when in 1851 a process to harden the juices of certain tropical plants was discovered by Charles Goodyear. He developed the process of vulcanisation. A popular brand of vehicle tyres is maned after him. The ability to mould this new material against a model of the patient’s mouth and attach artificial teeth allowed the manufacture of cheaper dentures.

A major contribution from the dental profession to the future of health care occurred in 1844 when a dentist named Dr. Horace Wells discovered that when nitrous oxide (laughing gas) is inhaled, anaesthesia follows. This is the first anaesthetic substance and is still used today. The medical community later modified and adopted it.