Course work. History of dentistry in ancient Greece and ancient Rome. Dentistry - antiquity

PLAN1) Healing during the royal period (VIII-VI centuries BC)
2) Medicine of the period of the republic (end of the 6th century BC - 31).
BC e)
o Sanitation
o
3) Medicine of the imperial period (31 BC - 476 AD)
o The formation of military medicine
o Development of medical science
4) Galen: his teaching and Galenism

Periodization of history and medicine

Healing during the royal period (VIII-VI centuries BC)

Medicine of the Republic period (late 6th century BC - 31 BC)

Sanitation

Sanitation

Start of organizing a medical business

Start of organizing a medical business

Medicine of the Imperial Period (31 BC - 476 AD)

The formation of military medicine

Development of medical science

Galen: his teachings and Galenism

Galen: his teachings and Galenism

Recently, the author of the site, that is, your humble servant, suffered an unpleasant, but quite common problem - in Once again I had a toothache and had to urgently go and “surrender” to a dentist I knew. The procedure is not very pleasant (and often not very cheap), but it is necessary. But still modern dentistry took a big step forward, now dental treatment does not look as scary and painful as in the picture above. And drilling machines are less scary, and not as they were, say, back in the relatively recent Soviet years (those who are older remember this very well). This is all good, but this is how things were with bad teeth, not in our time, but in past centuries. How teeth were treated in the Middle Ages and antiquity, what dentists were like in ancient Greece And Victorian England, what did Ukrainian Cossacks and Japanese samurai do with bad teeth? In fact, the history of dentistry goes back centuries, because paleoanthropologists discovered traces of caries in the skulls of Neanderthals from the Early Paleolithic era (100-50 thousand years BC). That is, the problem of toothache has accompanied man almost from the very beginning of history.

Unfortunately, we do not know how the Neanderthals treated their diseased teeth (or whether they treated them), because these gentlemen, alas, did not leave behind any traces of such healing activity. It is believed that the first time people began to treat teeth appeared approximately 9000-8000 years ago - in 2001, during archaeological excavations in Pakistan, the oldest dental drill in history was found, which had lain underground for 9 millennia! It was made to look like a fire making tool and looked something like this:

In addition, eleven people buried there had traces of dental intervention. Now this is the first known page in the history of dentistry, although who knows, maybe there were skilled dentists long before this, of whom there simply are no traces left (or the traces left are still waiting for their discoverer-archaeologist).

With the advent of the most ancient developed civilizations, fully developed dentistry suddenly appeared. It (as well as medicine in general) received especially significant development in ancient Egypt. Thus, the Egyptian dental priests were the first to learn how to place dental fillings and make artificial teeth(they were tied using a special wire to adjacent healthy teeth). A detailed description of dental diseases is mentioned in the oldest Egyptian medical document - the Eber papyrus (1550 BC). Moreover, it was in Egypt that the first in history appeared toothpaste made from a mixture of pumice, eggshells, myrrh and ashes from the burnt entrails of a bull. And yes, even 5,000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians could boast of the whiteness of their healthy teeth.

In addition to the Egyptians, skilled dentists of ancient times were the Etruscans, who were very good at making dentures. They were made by cutting out suitable animal teeth. Inserted in a special way, they were durable and perfect even for chewing rough food. Later, the dental skills of the Etruscans were adopted by the ancient Greeks and Romans.

Since the era of Antiquity, many works of Greek and Roman doctors have come down to us, including those devoted to the treatment of diseased teeth. New page in the history of dentistry already in the 1st century AD. e. was discovered by the ancient Roman surgeon Archigen, who was personal doctor Roman Emperor Trajan - he was the first to drill a tooth cavity with a trephine for medicinal purposes. Later, with the onset of the Middle Ages, this technique was forgotten for several centuries.

“But the centuries were so-so, middle ages,” Vysotsky once sang. And they were accompanied by a great decline not only of culture, but also of medicine, including dentistry.

The picture in front of you shows ordinary tongs. It was this instrument that became universal for many centuries. remedy medieval dentists. The medical treatises of Antiquity were somehow half-forgotten, and with them half-forgotten various ways dental treatment, such as fillings, dentures, etc. Dental treatment The Middle Ages was reduced to removing diseased teeth with the help of forceps like these.

Or like this:

The place of dentists in the Middle Ages was taken not even by doctors, but by ordinary bathhouse attendants, farriers, barbers, the latter could not only cut and shave, but remove a tooth (this would be if we now did not go to the dental office, but to a regular hairdresser). By the way, gopnik titushki in a dark alley can also, to a certain extent and in certain circumstances, replace your classical dentist by demonstrating the wonders of medieval dentistry, but we do not recommend trying this method.

However, in the general medieval-dental darkness of ignorance, there were also pleasant exceptions, glimmers of the light of knowledge. One such glimpse was the University of Bologna professor Giovani di Arcoli, who lived in the 15th century. He again used the method of Archigen, and several centuries later he again took up dental treatment.

Another next page in the history of dentistry was opened by George Washington’s personal dentist, John Greenwood, who invented the first dental drill in 1790. He was also the first to make a drill, which was operated using a foot (there was a special pedal).

And this is what the dental office actually looked like at that time. Later another American doctor— James Morrison improved Greenwood’s machine, and, importantly, patented this invention. The year 1871 was already on the calendar; 5 years later, the company he created, SS White, launched the dental innovation into mass production and it soon spread throughout the world.

And this is a picture from the beginning of the 20th century, dentistry has undergone such a transformation in relatively a short time and came to the form by which we know it well now.

Doctors were often slaves or freedmen cudzoziemscy. With a little skill and large dose good luck, doctors, slaves achieve the release of stolen property, and even nationality.

Roman society had a deep mistrust associated with foreign doctors. Many Romans used the services of doctors offering suspected mysterious ointments, elixirs, or increased prayers to the gods. Most often a variety of medications herbal mixtures and implement according to the saying that "IN healthy body, healthy spirit!".

We know that the armies had their own hospitals and surgeons, who treated more often than their urban counterparts. In Rome he became famous, many prominent doctors: Asclepiades, Galen, Cornelius Celsus. Galen became known as the father of experimental physiology, reportedly performing dissections on monkeys. Cornelius Celsus (Aulus Cornelius Celsus), Was the author medical encyclopedia, and agreements on medical procedures. Interestingly, it seems that the ancients knew anesthetics and methods of sterilizing instruments. In addition, it is worth noting that doctors are often forced to perform operations outside, fearing that the patient cannot przerzyć transport to the hospital.

The Romans treated patients with a combination of common sense, belief in gods and magic, because superstition flourished in Rome. As a cure for broken ribs, wrappings of goat dung mixed with wine and saliva are suggested to protect against snake venom. The most important preventive measures inspired common sense who had a definite contribution to Rome in the history of medicine. In his treatise on medicine in the first century BC. Celsus performed physical exercise and a reasonable diet is the most reliable way to maintain good condition.

The Romans understood the importance of hygiene, indeed regular baths of pure spring water. Toilets are typically flushed with bath water. Knowledge of anatomy, however, was extremely unsatisfactory, and rather doctors from the East were constantly increasing their efforts to understand the functioning of the human body. Soran, Doctor-Ephesus, who during the reign Trajan practiced in Rome, specializing in gynecology and Galen, The father of experimental physiology impressively expanded knowledge about human body doing the monkey section. Although many diseases remain incurable, the pioneers of modern medicine learned the importance of careful patient monitoring.

Pharmacies

Many treatments prescribed by doctors in Rome were based on herbs. Pharmacists, doctors, in accordance with the command, formulated herbal mixtures, the use of which would bring relief from suffering ( sick, patientis.)
in my work "Natural history" includes descriptions of herbs used by the Romans and lists of 40 different plant names. A very popular medicinal compound is one of the components of garlic, used both in the treatment of leprosy, as well as mental illness. Diluted with mustard sauce, cucumbers were used to treat epilepsy and Turks would bring relief to those suffering from ulcers and warts.

The pharmacists of the ancient Romans handled the collection of herbs and forwarded it to doctors for mixing according to their own recipes.

Surgery

Already because of the way of life, constant wars, battles and victories, being wounded was putting the Romans almost on the agenda. Named Doctor Galen apparently learned some operations, caring for wounded gladiators. Each legion had its own medical training in the wound and trauma treatment team, which is one experience while serving in the military. The doctors were able to diagnose the risk for installation in the morning when I leave a review in the flesh and when I try to remove it. The legions also have their own well-equipped hospitals. In one of them, located near the German border, archaeologists discovered ovens in which to sterilize surgical instruments. The most complete picture of the work of the surgeons of the Roman treaty emerges that Cornelius Celsus, For treatment. According to the advice of the ancients, the surgeon and doctor should be young, have strong, efficient and reliable hands and good vision and should never give up. Having compassion for his patients, but at the same time keeping his distance, which allows him to harden his moans. IN otherwise There may be pressure to work faster and therefore be less accurate or not cut deep enough.

Roman medical instruments. Up: bone forceps And bone "podważniki".

Roman doctors knew anesthetics. Herbs especially recommended: henbane and opium poppy. However, the key issue is to conduct operations in as soon as possible, not in the patient's pain. The surgeon must also have good and strong assistants who could sometimes be necessary to carry out wyrywającego, be patient. Celsus mentions over 100 different instruments used by ancient physicians. Interestingly, many of them are used in modern medicine, even if: scalpels, catheters, probes, forceps, hooks are completed special means, used to remove arrowheads, and pliers to pull out a tooth, and some, such as a catheter, and a speculum, have come down unchanged. These instruments have been designed with great care and application considerations - from cataract surgery to hemorrhoids.

Galen recommended the province of steel as a material for making medical instruments. Norik However, they are also often made of bronze. Some bear the ancient doctors were very complex operations(eye surgeries) and many will die from the patient. Some skeletons were found with holes in their skulls, which are clear evidence that cutting bones to release the pain of surgery yielded tragic results.

A Roman fresco shows a doctor providing medical care.

Dentistry

Dentistry of the ancient Romans was well developed. Representative of medicine in ancient Rome, said Aulus Cornelius Celsus(Who died 48 BC) also concluded in their work "De Medicine Libri Octobrists" How to remove teeth. At the beginning we had to scrape them from the gums and move, repeating this operation until the tooth obluzuje. The next step was to pull out the tooth, the hand, and if this failed, then a special clamp had to be used. Leaving the roots in the nest requires use teak (rhizagra), which can remove it. For instructions for tooth extraction received: sharp pain, inflammation of the gums zębopochodny fistulas, ropociek teeth and alveolar milk, which is of concern during an outbreak permanent tooth. Removal of teeth with a large loss of caries, filled them to lead to this, there was no violation of the crown. In addition, it is recommended to apply losses of pepper grains, ivy berries, or alum that should have crushed the tooth. The same applies also to the inch roztartą lined with teeth and fish bones, stingrays rozprażoną earned resin. Celsus believes, like Hippocrates, that tearing teeth firmly established in the jaw is dangerous.

Modern Celsusowi, Pliny recommend chewing glaucoma, which causes cracking of the roots of the teeth. He also told the source of the water that led to the drinking tooth. Although recommended by the Celsius movement from the gingiva to the alveolar bone, a large wound was created as a result of extraction, and part of the bones can be obtained in the alveolar bone, resulting in a long healing time. Pliny recommended that these pieces of bone be found with a probe and extracted from the alveoli to prevent abscesses.

In turn, another famous doctor Roman, Galen advocates keeping the tooth in the mouth for as long as possible and, if it is necessary to remove it, acting in accordance with Celsius' recommendations. Rozchwiewał teeth with fingers or lining periodontal herbs. It is also recommended to rinse the dog's milk.
In ancient Rome, due to the great public need for dental treatment, as well as a connection to profit, not only doctors began to remove teeth. Some technicians, who had prepared only a prosthesis, began to pull teeth right on the streets, resulting in fairs.

Doctors disillusioned with the teeth were withdrawn, leaving them to their assistants, probably because the spoils were used as punishment for various crimes. During torture, it is with pleasure to remove teeth, and, therefore, dentistry has a patron - Saint Apollonius What they wanted to make them give up Christian faith all your teeth, tearing and breaking your jaws. If it is necessary to rupture a tooth, it is indicated by doctors to someone. Most executioners who came to practice torture extensively, and sometimes thrived on it. In other parts of the world, where extraction is not a punishment, the attitude of doctors towards the procedure was incomprehensibly negative.

Recently, the author of the site, that is, your humble servant, suffered an unpleasant, but quite common problem - a toothache once again and I had to urgently go to “surrender” to a familiar dentist. The procedure is not very pleasant (and often not very cheap), but it is necessary. And yet, modern dentistry has made a big step forward, now dental treatment does not look as scary and painful as in the picture above. And drilling machines are less scary, and not as they were, say, back in the relatively recent Soviet years (those who are older remember this very well). This is all good, but this is how things were with bad teeth, not in our time, but in past centuries. How were teeth treated in the Middle Ages and antiquity, what were dentists like in ancient and Victorian England, what did Ukrainian Cossacks and Japanese samurai do with bad teeth? In fact, the history of dentistry goes back centuries, because traces of caries were discovered in the skulls of Neanderthals from the Early Paleolithic era (100-50 thousand years BC). That is, the problem of toothache has accompanied man almost from the very beginning of history.

Unfortunately, we do not know how the Neanderthals treated their diseased teeth (or whether they treated them), because these gentlemen, alas, did not leave behind any traces of such healing activity. It is believed that the first time people began to treat teeth appeared approximately 9000-8000 years ago - in 2001, during archaeological excavations in Pakistan, the oldest dental drill in history was found, which had lain underground for 9 millennia! It was made to look like a fire making tool and looked something like this:

In addition, traces of dental intervention were found in eleven people buried there. Now this is the first known page in the history of dentistry, although who knows, maybe there were skilled dentists long before this, of whom there simply are no traces left (or the traces left are still waiting for their discoverer-archaeologist).

With the advent of the most ancient developed civilizations, fully developed dentistry suddenly appeared. It (as well as medicine in general) received especially significant development in ancient Egypt. Thus, the Egyptian dental priests were the first to learn how to put dental fillings and make artificial teeth (they were tied using a special wire to neighboring healthy teeth). A detailed description of dental diseases is mentioned in the oldest Egyptian medical document - the Eber papyrus (1550 BC). Also, it was in Egypt that the first toothpaste in history appeared, made from a mixture of pumice, eggshells, myrrh and ash from the burnt entrails of a bull . And yes, even 5,000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians could boast of the whiteness of their healthy teeth.

In addition to the Egyptians, skilled dentists of ancient times were the Etruscans, who were very good at making dentures. They were made by cutting out suitable animal teeth. Inserted in a special way, they were durable and perfect even for chewing rough food. Later, the dental skills of the Etruscans were adopted by the ancient Greeks and.

Since the era of Antiquity, many works of Greek and Roman doctors have come down to us, including those devoted to the treatment of diseased teeth. A new page in the history of dentistry already in the 1st century AD. That is, it was discovered by the ancient Roman surgeon Archigenes, who was the personal physician of the Roman Emperor Trajan - he was the first to drill a tooth cavity with a trephine for medicinal purposes. Later, with the onset of the Middle Ages, this technique was forgotten for several centuries.

“But the centuries were so-so, middle ages,” Vysotsky once sang. And they were accompanied by a great decline not only of culture, but also of medicine, including dentistry.

The picture in front of you shows ordinary tongs. It was this instrument that became a universal remedy for dentists of the Middle Ages for many centuries. The medical treatises of Antiquity were somehow forgotten, and with them various methods of dental treatment, such as fillings, dentures, etc., were also forgotten. Dental treatment in the Middle Ages came down to removing diseased teeth using forceps like these.

Or like this:

The place of dentists in the Middle Ages was taken not even by doctors, but by ordinary bathhouse attendants, farriers, barbers, the latter could not only cut and shave, but also remove a tooth (this would be if we now went with a bad tooth not to a dental office, but to an ordinary hairdresser) . By the way, gopnik titushki in a dark alley can also, to a certain extent and in certain circumstances, replace your classical dentist by demonstrating the wonders of medieval dentistry, but we do not recommend trying this method.

However, in the general medieval-dental darkness of ignorance, there were also pleasant exceptions, glimmers of the light of knowledge. One such glimpse was the University of Bologna professor Giovani di Arcoli, who lived in the 15th century. He again used the method of Archigen, and several centuries later he again took up dental treatment.

Another next page in the history of dentistry was opened by George Washington’s personal dentist, John Greenwood, who invented the first dental drill in 1790. He was also the first to make a drill, which was operated using a foot (there was a special pedal).

And this is what the dental office actually looked like at that time. Later, another American doctor, James Morrison, improved Greenwood’s machine, and, importantly, patented this invention. The year 1871 was already on the calendar; 5 years later, the company he created, SS White, launched the dental innovation into mass production and it soon spread throughout the world.

And this is a picture from the beginning of the 20th century; dentistry underwent such a transformation in a relatively short time and came to the form by which we know it well now.

22.12.2015 0 11577

In ancient times, people believed that teeth lies a mysterious power associated with immortality, and the teeth of the enemy give the winner strength, wisdom and, if not eternal life, then at least health. But amulets made from other people’s teeth, alas, did not relieve one’s own pain.

Wormy theory

Caries, which occurs sooner or later in 97 percent of people, may be one of the most ancient diseases. Due to consumption raw meat and plants, on the leaves and roots of which sand and small pebbles remained, the teeth wore out and, of course, hurt.

At first they tried to blame it on supernatural forces. But it was not possible to appease the gods with sacrifices and beg them for strong jaws. Then the most obstinate and intelligent of living creatures declared war on toothache.

Thus was born one of the most widespread “dental theories” in the world - about the toothworm, which, having settled in the teeth, causes their destruction and pain.

In cuneiform tablets found in Mesopotamia and dating back to 3500-3000 BC. e., among other medical information, signs of its appearance are described - grinding of teeth.

Ideas about the toothworm also existed in India, China and Egypt.

The “wormy” theory existed almost until the 18th century. In medical treatises of the 16th-17th centuries, European doctors seriously claimed that they had seen toothworms with their own eyes, and some even described them in detail. A 17th-century German professor of medicine reported that he personally managed to extract them from the teeth of animals - the size of an earthworm! - using pig gastric juice.

The most surprising thing is that, despite the naivety of the “terminology,” the assumption about harmful toothworms turned out to be... close to the truth. Modern medicine, equipped with sophisticated electronic devices, has now firmly established that the main culprits of caries are Streptococcus mutatis and some other acid-forming microorganisms.

Since the views of ancient people on any disease were full of superstitions and demonic ideas, similar methods of combating toothworms were used - amulets, magical techniques, incantations.

However, as ancient sources testify, dentistry existed even then. IN Ancient China For example, acupuncture and arsenic lotions were used to treat teeth.

Mayan Indians back in the 9th century BC. e. They began to fill diseased teeth by drilling holes of the required diameter in them with a round tube of jade or copper.

They rotated it with their palms or with a rope, using quartz finely ground in water as an abrasive material.

The Hindus, who saw the cause of pain in the fact that the worm was moving in the hollow of the tooth, tried to expel it from there by fumigating or rinsing. But if this did not help, the diseased tooth was removed with special forceps. Founder medical system India Sushruta (6th century BC) described them in the “Sushruta Compendium” among more than 100 different medical instruments.

In Phenicia and Ancient Greece, removal was considered very dangerous operation, therefore, before resorting to it, healers used various means, from which teeth could fall out on their own. If a tooth had to be pulled out, it was done simply by hand. Dental forceps, according to historians, began to be used only at the end of the 1st millennium. Their invention is attributed to the son of Arsippus and Arsinoe - the third Aesculapius.

For the Jews toothache was even above religious rules. Although they were strictly forbidden to work on Saturday, the ban did not apply to doctors if a person came to them with a toothache - it was equated to a threat to life. Special damage to teeth was such a serious offense that a master who accidentally knocked out a tooth for his slave was obliged to give him freedom.

The methods by which the Egyptians treated their teeth are known; as studies of mummies have shown, they were in dire need of the services of dentists. Some of the methods of dentistry are given in the famous ancient Egyptian medical treatise known as the Ebers Papyrus (named after the German Egyptologist and writer Georg Ebers, who first published it in 1875).

It is assumed that it is a copy from a medical manual compiled in the first half of the 3rd millennium BC. e. This means that even then the Egyptians knew that teeth could be treated not only by sacrificing fat sheep to the god Horus, but also with the help of special pastes and ointments.

ABOUT high level Dentistry in Egypt is also evidenced by archaeological finds of jaws with round holes in the area of ​​​​the roots of the teeth, drilled to drain pus or relieve inflammatory tension in the bone. This was done by specialists. For example, not only the name of the oldest known healer, Khesi-Ra, has reached us, but even his portrait, preserved on a wooden panel from a tomb near Sakkara.

Apparently, the most various assistance The doctors of Greece and Ancient Rome were able to provide. The Roman scientist-encyclopedist Celsus, in his book “On Medicine” (1st century AD), singled out diseases of the teeth and oral cavity in a separate chapter and advised not to rush to remove a diseased tooth, but to treat it with rinsing or fumigation. He knew how to open abscesses and scrape out the affected bone, sawing off the edges carious teeth files.

A new stage in dentistry began when the ancient Roman surgeon Archigenes, physician of Emperor Trajan (53-117), described the signs of pulpitis and invented a special drill for penetrating dental cavity. Unfortunately, this one is definitely effective technique was forgotten. Only in the 15th century, Giovani Arcolani (1412-1484), a professor at the Universities of Bologna and Padua, was able to apply Archigen’s method and described it in his work “Practical Surgery.”

Only for women!

The idea of ​​replacing lost teeth with artificial ones must have arisen sooner or later among ancient doctors. And so it happened. Based on archaeological finds, it can be judged that the Indians and Chinese used false jaws already six thousand years ago.

In 1807, during the opening of the pyramid of the Egyptian pharaoh Khephres, who lived 4,500 years ago, a wooden denture reinforced with gold wire was also discovered near the mummy.

Artificial teeth, which can be called the prototype of a modern bridge, were found in a female burial during excavations of the Phoenician city of Silona (JV-III century BC).

By the 9th-8th centuries BC. e. include finds from Etruscan tombs. Etruscan dental bridges made of very soft gold were attached to healthy teeth tiny hooks. To make dental crowns and bridges, the Etruscans also used processed calf or ox teeth, taken from the jaws of young animals before they erupted, or ground them from ivory.

It’s interesting, but all the jaws that ancient dentists worked on belonged to women. Some experts believe that gold dentures could emphasize the position of their owners in society, and their elegant shape indicated that cosmetic purposes were also pursued.

The ancient Romans, although they borrowed some of the skills of Etruscan dentists, did not add anything new to them. Naturally, prosthetics in the Eternal City were not carried out by doctors, but by barbers and jewelers.

There is evidence that implantation was already practiced in ancient times. During excavations in Honduras in 1931, a fragment was discovered lower jaw, dating back to around 600 BC. e., in which, instead of three lost lower incisors, pieces of tortoiseshell horn were inserted into the tooth pockets.

Modern experts, examining the find, carried out radiographic examination and found that there was a compact bone formation around the two implants, similar to what forms around the implanted material today.

Dentistry issues great attention paid by medieval Arab doctors. In the 11th century, the surgeon Abulkasim laid the foundation for dentures as a branch of medicine. Famous doctor Abu Bakr ibn Zakari Ap-Razi described in detail the anatomy of teeth and methods of treating caries, for which he used hot oil and filling material from alum and mastic.

Az Zahrawi, using specially made instruments, carried out various operations V oral cavity, adjusted dislocations of the lower jaw and removed tartar.

These dental bridges were made by dentists in ancient Etruria 29 centuries ago

In Europe, unlike the Arab East, the early Middle Ages were not marked by achievements in dentistry. The positions of ascetic Christianity with its contempt for human beauty and health were too strong in those days.

Only in the Renaissance did they begin to use linen cloth to clean teeth and wipe them with fragrant oils or elixirs. In 1719, the first bristle toothbrushes in Europe appeared in Germany. But for some reason, Europeans did not like brushing their teeth, and the German innovation did not spread.

Instead, toothpicks made of wood, goose feathers, and ivory were used. And the fashion for fans, which appeared in Europe in late XVI century, was dictated not only by admiration for the charming Chinese little thing that beautifully complemented the toilet - noble ladies covered their bad teeth and dispel bad breath.

IN medieval Europe Certified doctors in most cases considered tooth extraction a task unworthy of a learned person; this was done by village blacksmiths, midwives, shepherds, barbers and even executioners, for whom tooth pulling became a side income.

Some of the amateur “dentists”, having gained experience, left the blacksmith shop or barbershop. This is how a whole class of tooth-cutters, tooth-breakers and dentists appeared.

They traveled around cities and villages, setting up their “offices” in squares and fairs, where there were always a lot of people, and therefore potential clients. Moreover, they often hired musicians and jesters, whose presence drowned out the screams of the patients in the “office” and distracted the crowd’s attention from their suffering.

The rapid development of medical sciences led to the fact that in the 18th century the dentist replaced the tooth-cutter. This title was first established in 1700 in France.

But even then, the main method of treatment remained tooth extraction. As for “boothy” techniques, they were used even in the 19th century.

Dental key (1810)

The production of artificial prostheses in Europe was initially primarily cosmetic rather than functional. But to XVIII century dentures, without losing their main purpose - to serve “for beauty”, began to help chewing a little more.

Start modern stage The development of dentistry and prosthetics dates back to the middle of the 19th century. IN different countries Dental schools are starting to open. The first appears in America in 1839, and twenty years later special training dentists are introduced in England, France, Switzerland, Germany and Russia.

In the beginning there was a word

In general, in Rus' for a long time methods of dental treatment were used that differed from those common in Europe. Conventionally, they can be divided into two groups. The first was based on the power of the word - conspiracies, whispers, amulets and other means used by healers and sorcerers.

Another represented healing with the help medicinal herbs and other means such as garlic, lard or animal blood.

Dental treatment among the Scythians

At painful teething teeth, for example, the brains of young hares were used, which were used to lubricate the child’s buttocks.

In the 17th century, as relations between Rus' and Europe were established, foreign doctors. However, their services were so expensive that only the royal house could afford such luxury.

The beginning of dental science and practice in Russia, as you might guess, is associated with the reforms of Peter I. In 1706, by his decree, the first general hospital was opened in Moscow (now the military hospital named after N. N. Burdenko), and a year later it began to work under him medical school, headed by a graduate of the University of Leiden, the royal physician Nikolai Bidloo.

On September 6, 1881, in St. Petersburg, in the premises of the hospital of the Imperial Humane Society, the grand opening of the “First Russian School for the Study of Dental Art”, established by dentist F. N. Vazhinsky, took place. The school's first graduating class in January 1884 numbered 23 people.

1889, Russia, lithograph. The caption under the cartoon reads: “Fathers, dear fathers, have mercy! I'll pay you three times! Just let me in! My tooth has stopped hurting too!”

Ten years later, similar schools were already operating in many large cities of Russia, and in St. Petersburg in 1892, private docents in odontology (an outdated name for the therapeutic section of dentistry that studies the structure of teeth, their diseases, treatment and prevention) were approved at the university and the Military Medical Academy ).

The rules approved in 1845 by the Russian Medical-Surgical Academy indicate what requirements were imposed on applicants for the title of dentist.

Those wishing to be examined for this title were not required to have a general education qualification or basic literacy. It was enough to present a certificate certifying that the applicant had studied dental medicine with a famous dentist for at least three years.

But be that as it may, the number of dental specialists in the country begins to increase rapidly, and by 1900 it reaches 1,657 people. The day before October revolution In 1917, about 10 thousand dentists and dentists were already practicing in Russia.