Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/166

* DENTISTRY. 132 DENTISTRY. llic o|(rriitions of cxlrailin;! twtli. iiiiplnntation, repluiitutioii, truiisplaiilalion (see below), re- inoviil ot deposits from al>out the teetli, and the treatment of tlic various diseases or injuries of the dental or^-aii'i or their surroundings. The making of artilieial dentures, erowns. bridge- work, obturators, and arlilieial vela i> proslliet- ie: but the adjustment of suoli applianees. or perhaps the prelimliiary treatment, may require no small amount of surgieal knowledge and skill. The operative dentist must also to a certain extent be qualified as an oral surgeon, in order that he may treat some of the ordinary diseases or injuries wJiieh may alFeet the mouth or maxil- lary bones. The correction of irregularities of twth and the making of appliances for the pur- jHisc are larL'cly mechanical, and for that reason usually classed under the head of prosthetic dentistry. Strictly speaking, however, the opera- tion is not a prosthetic one. and many prefer to cla.ss this as a third branch or subdivision of dentistry, calling it orthndontin, and the opera- tor an "orthodontist.' iSince the duties of the dentist include operations not only upon the teeth, but also upon their surroundings in and about the buccal cavity, many are in favor of applying to dentistry the more comprehensive name xtumniology, which means 'the science of the mouth.' As a distinct profession, dentistry has only developed iluring the past century. Prior to that period, so far as we can determine, it ex- isted only as a somewhat unimportant branch of the healing art: and some of the operations' now considered to Ijelong only to the domain of dentistry were then performed by the medical practitioner, or perhaps by some artisan who made claim to a certain amount of proficiency in the performance of such operations. The time is not so long passed as to be beyond the recollec- tion of some of the dental practitioners now living when it was perfectly lawful and permissible for the barber or blacksmith to perform the opera- tion of extracting human teeth, and to receive a fee or award therefor, and also when it was cus- tomary for the silversmith or jeweler to make artilieial dentures. Certain branches of dentistry were practiced long before the modern profession came into existence, and dental operations were performed at a verj- early date in the history of civilized nations. The Romans probably acquired their dental knowledge from the Etruscans, and the Ktruseans and Greeks from the Egj-ptians. Specimens of dental work in the shape of natural teeth bound together with gold, or artificial leetli of ivorv. bone, wood or stone, attached to the natural ones by means of cord, or gold or silver hands or ligatures, have been found in the jaws of nuinnnies, which were probably buried five or six hundred years before the Chris- tian Era; Imt so far as we know at present, there arc no authentic examples of tooth-filling of equal antiquity. In writings upon the subjtvt of dentistry, the statement is not infrequently made that teeth of nunnmies have l>een found filleil with !.'old. Hut. according to the researches of Van Mater and others, the truth of such statement', is certainly to be questioned. Van Mater, who hail unusually good opportimities for nrchieologieal invest igat ion, asserts that in his careful study of the teeth of many ot the remains taken directlv from excavations of ancient tombs in Italy, and also of the teeth of mummies in various museums and private collections, he was unable to lind a single ex- am])le of a gold lilling in such teeth. The results of his investigations seem to show that cases hitherto supposed to he examples of gold lilling were nothing more or less than specimens of ^ bridge-work, or perhaps the baiuling of teeth H with gold for the support of loose ones, or to ■ hold artificial teeth in place. Many of the speci- mens found were so covered with the accumu- lated dust of centuries that it was impossible, before removing some of that accumulation, to tell whether they were examples of gold fillings in the teeth, or gold bands about the tirth. It is well known that the higher orders of Egyp- tians often caused the nuimniies of their deceased friends and relatives to be lavishly decorated with paint and gilding, and in several instances the supposed gold fillings in the mouths of Eg^'p- tian nnimmies have, on mere scratching with a knife, proved to be nothing but superficial gild- ing on the natural teeth. References to dental operations are found in the writings of Herodotus and Hippocrates in the fifth century B.C. Aristotle wrote on this sub- ject about n.c. 3,50, and lleraclidcs of Tarentum, llerophilus, and Erasistratus are recorded as dental operators, three centuries before our era. According to the writings of C. Aurelinus. Erasis- tratus deposited in the temi)le of the Delphian Apollo a leaden 'odontogogue' (forceps), "to prove that (oidy) those teeth ought to be re- moved which are loose or relaxed, and for which a leaden instrument will sullice." t'elsus. who lived about u.o. 100, was the first to recommend the use of the file in the mouth: saying that the points of a decayed tooth, which hurt the tongue, should be removed Avith an iron file. Horace (B.C. 65 to 8). Ovid n.c. 43 to a.d 17 or IS), Martial (c.43-104 ..li.l. and other of the ancient (Ireek and Latin poets, allude in their writings to artificial teeth, as does Cicero. The further history of dentistry is meagre and uncer- tain. IJcfore the invention of printing, the meth- ods of recording and transmitting knowledge were so laborious and expensive that only matters of great impirtance were transcribed, while other matters, of lesser importaiue. Vcre trans- mitted and preserved only by word of mouth. It is owing to these conditions that the early his- tory of the profession is so imperfect and un- certain. The oldest printed book known to dental bibliography is one dated iri32. [irinted in German by Peter .Jordan, and containing extracts or quotations from the works of Galen, Avi- cenna. Mesne. Cornelius, Pliny, and others. This book was written for lay readers, by an anony- mous writer, and in the chapter treating of de- cay of the teeth, the author, quoting from Mesne, advises, as one method of treatment, first to scratch and clean with a fine chisel, knife, file, or any other suitable instrument, the parts at- tacked, anil then to fill the cavity with gold leaves for the preservation of the remaining parts of the tooth. If this quotation is reliable, the operation of filling teeth with gold must have been knowii more than a thousand years ago. Galen (a.d. IfiO) treated the subje<!t of the teeth more exten- sively than any other of the ancient authors, and his writings on that topic were the best up to the time of Fallopius. Eustacliius. and .mbroise Parf. in the sixteenth cenlurv- Fauchard wrote on