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"The instruments used for extraction are large pincers which grasp the tooth and do not let go their hold even if the patient shrieks as much as he likes...Then the dentist takes a crooked, knobbed instrument, with which he loosens the tooth with difficulty and causes horrible pain. Then he takes another kind of instrument, similar to a hammer, with which he strikes the pincers from above and drives home the tooth a little more at each blow. And the greater part of the time, the patient is overcome by the pain, and shrieks dreadfully."
—1728 text The Surgeon Dentist by French dentist Pierre Fauchard
Past generations often had to overgo excruciating and even life-threatening dental treatments.
By examining some darker chapters from the long history of dentistry, we can all appreciate how far the field has come.
Before the 1840s, dental extractions were horrifically painful ordeals.
Patients endured the raw agony.
Each tooth was forcibly wrenched from its jaws without anesthesia—relying only on alcohol, opium, or physical restraints for relief.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, human teeth for dentures were harvested from various sources.
These included:
This grim practice continued until the late 1800s with the advent of porcelain teeth.
The porcelain freed dentistry from its dependence on human teeth.
Dentists in the 1800s and early 1900s routinely used mercury-based amalgam fillings containing hazardous materials like mercury and sometimes arsenic.
Medicine was unaware of the severe health risks these substances posed to people at the time.
Mercury amalgams were used until the 1950s!
In the primitive era of dentistry, "door-string dentistry" was a crude DIY tooth extraction method.
It involved tying one end of a string to the problematic tooth and the other to a door handle—the door would be slammed shut to remove the tooth forcefully.
It was common in rural areas.
As these backwater communities lacked professional dentists.
The practice resulted in severe trauma, tissue damage, and infections.
Before the field of dentistry came into existence.
Blacksmiths and barbers were your only hope for relief.
These blacksmiths and barbers fashioned crude tools and performed brutal procedures with no formal training or understanding of oral health.
It wasn't until the early 20th century that dentistry evolved into a legitimate medical science.
Proper training and credentials are a modern phenomenon in this world.
Prior to the advent of modern anesthesia, dental procedures were horrifically traumatic experiences—patients had to be physically restrained with leather straps to prevent injury—while dentists performed excruciatingly painful surgeries.
This left patients with physical pain and deep psychological trauma.
It was an actual horror novel.
Turn-of-the-century orthodontics emerged with crude and brutal beginnings.
Pioneering orthodontists employed medieval-like torture devices such as head collars and metal braces that exerted extreme, sustained pressures on children's developing facial structures.
Causing severe pain and permanent skeletal deformation.
Comparable to a blacksmith's vise.
The brutal technique continued until the 1930s when modern braces started to appear.
In the 1800s, dental schools faced a critical shortage of human specimens for anatomical study.
This led many institutions and students to resort to grave robbing and body snatching to obtain the cadavers needed for training.
Though unethical today, it eventually gave way to legitimate channels for cadaver donation.
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