Long before people invented writing and the wheel, they learned how to drill the patients teeth, found by BBC Earth Explorer.
Imagine that all over the world not to find any tooth brushes or oral rinses or dental floss. Each mouth would be full of patients teeth, and every city has flourished the business of wealthy dentists.
The oldest one found in Africa of the remains of prehistoric humans seems to confirm this view.
In 1921 the miners who worked in the territory of modern Zambia in the town of Kabwe, which was then called broken hill, discovered the skull, apparently belonging to primitive man.
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He had a sloping forehead, huge eyebrows and caries in the teeth of ten. May be, the late owner of this skull one of our ancestors Homo heidelbergensis (Heidelberg man) and died just because of not caring properly for your mouth?
But no! It turns out that the skull was found at broken hill, is a strange anomaly, which is still not really invented no explanation.
Most people, whose fossil remains discovered in the mouth not a single tooth affected by caries.
Oddly enough, millions of years in prehistory our ancestors managed overall to maintain the health of the oral cavity at an appropriate level, although from the hygiene products they had except the simplest toothpicks.
Actually the decay has become a common problem recently – about 10 thousand years ago, at the dawn of the Neolithic era, when our ancestors took up farming.
Image copyrightiStock
Image captionСама the idea of the drill is still horrifies many of us
And shortly thereafter formed and relatively well-developed dentistry. In the past decade archaeologists have found evidence that in different cultures around the world were able to scrape, clean and even drilling and seal diseased teeth by removing the decayed tissue.
In other words, it appears that the ability to drill teeth appeared a few thousand years before written language, civilization and even the wheels.
In dosemealti communities cavities are also met, but very rarely. “The prevalence of dental caries among hunters and gatherers was around 1-5%, but among the Nations that have used mixed strategies of obtaining food, is about 6-8%,” – says an employee of new York University (USA) Alejandra Ortiz.
“This is in sharp contrast with the performance observed in agricultural communities, where they range from 10% to 80-85%,” she says.
Carbohydrates, in General, is bad for the teeth
According to an employee at the Australian national University Mark Oxenham, the increase in the prevalence of dental caries was first recorded in 1970-ies, and pretty soon the archaeologists came to the conclusion that this phenomenon is due to the transition of people into rich carbohydrate food as a result of the development of agriculture.
“In my opinion, the awareness – or, at least, the marketing propaganda is the fact that sugar is harmful to teeth, also belongs to this time,” the scientist said.
“Many archaeologists have made logical, at first glance, the conclusion that and carbs in General for the teeth is not helpful,” said Oxenham.
This assumption is not unreasonable. Some bacteria that live in the mouth such as Streptococcus mutans, digest the carbohydrates into acids that destroy tooth enamel, and mouth of the ancient farmers of such bacteria must be had enough.
However Oxenham and some other scientists believe that only a change in diet to explain this widespread increase in the prevalence of caries is impossible.
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Image captionЖить without dentistry would be very painful…
“In regions such as Asia, where the main crop is rice, data on changes in dental health and the development of agriculture is very confusing,” says Oxenham.
“To explain changes in the prevalence of dental diseases in Asia using the model based only on the diet, does not work,” he admits.
It is possible that the deterioration of the teeth associated with the other change caused by the development of agriculture, namely the growth of population.
Farmers usually lived a sedentary life – unlike his predecessors, hunters and gatherers and could count on more predictable sources of food than their ancestors.
In ancient agricultural communities, the condition of the teeth in women was worse than men
Both factors contributed to the increase in the birth rate. This, in turn, negatively affected the health of the mouth in women – for example, we know that what happens during pregnancy hormonal shifts in the body are associated with increased risk of gingivitis.
In addition, they cause a change of pH acidity (pH) of saliva, limiting its ability to neutralize acids that Deplete your teeth.
“I continue to believe that the impact occurred in the Neolithic age changes on women’s health in General is still undervalued,” says James Watson, an employee of the Museum of Arizona (USA), who studied this relationship on the example of North and South America.
Image copyrightGroman 123 CC by 2.0
Image captionДальнейшее the development of agriculture led to an unexpected increase in the prevalence of dental caries
According to Oxenham, there are a number of evidence that in ancient agricultural communities, the condition of the teeth in women was worse than men.
“We researched drevneegipetskie community and found a correlation between the increase in the birth rate and a substantial deterioration of the health of the oral cavity in women,” he said.
It is however clear: in prehistoric societies, people did not tolerate the pain, they began to look for ways to facilitate (and here we can understand them!). So was invented by a dentist.
Did ancient dentists to relieve tooth pain is a moot point
At the moment, the earliest possible evidence of the development of therapeutic dentistry, which we have, belong to the period immediately preceding the beginning of the development of agriculture, when the future of agricultural communities had begun to eat a variety of grains and foods with high starch content, rich in hydrocarbons – before began to grow these crops.
Last year an employee of the University of Bologna (Italy) Stefano Benazzi together with his colleagues had carefully studied the skull of an adult male, who lived 14 thousand years ago. The skull was found during excavations in Italy in the late 1980-ies.
Scientists have found signs that the chewing surface of a single decayed tooth was cleaned and scraped with a special tool – perhaps in an attempt to remove decayed tissue.
Under the microscope it is seen that the scratches on the tooth, appear to have been left by tiny silicon blade – microlite. At that time the technology was relatively new.
Image copyrightM Romandini
Image captionЛечение using such tools, it must have been very painful
A group of scientists even held a series of experiments with teeth of modern humans and tools, similar to microlite, to confirm the hypothesis that the marks on the teeth were left with these fine tools.
But did the ancient dentists to relieve tooth pain is a moot point.
So, our Italian, who lived 14 million years ago, the physician was able to remove only part of the decomposed tissues.
More effective treatments emerged only after several thousand years with the invention of improved technology – the first drill.
Where it was invented is not exactly known, but some scientists believe that it began using on the territory of modern Pakistan somewhere 7500-9000 years ago.
There, in the Neolithic cemetery, the researchers found confirmation of the fact that the procedure of drilling the teeth were subjected to at least nine people.
All of them are on the chewing surfaces of molars revealed a smooth hole with a diameter of 1-3 mm. A man had drilled as many as three teeth.
Image copyrightStefano Benazzi
Image captionЭтот 14 people thousands of years ago primitive clearly visited the dentist
Under the microscope scientists could see the inside of some holes, concentric grooves – this suggests that the teeth were not just carefully scraped, but it was drilled.
It may seem incredible that in such ancient times people were able to create a drill from the most primitive materials, but this technology really exists.
To drill these holes that we see in the teeth of people who lived thousands of years 9 ago, took less than a minute
Some indigenous peoples still to this day bore holes in the items using the so-called bow drills.
This tool consists of several wooden sticks, pointed stones and coils of rope. The rope tied to both ends of the flexible sticks so that it turns a kind of small onion.
Then the rope tightly wrapped around the second stick perpendicular to the “bow”.
For by simply moving the bow back and forth the second stick is rotated like a drill, and if you attach on the end of a pointed stone, she will be able to drill solid materials.
To understand, could bow drill with a stone tip be used in dentistry, a group of scientists working in Pakistan, have built such a tool and attempted to drill through the enamel of the human tooth.
Perhaps prehistoric dentists even used local anesthesia
The results were striking: to drill these holes that we see in the teeth of people who lived thousands of years 9 ago, took less than a minute.
Of course, inevitably there are people who doubt that in these ancient societies already had everything I needed for drilling teeth.
“Scientists are still arguing about whether they used in the time of late upper Paleolithic bow drills, or holes were knocked out of the [hollowed or scraped off],” says Mr Benazzi.
To help convince skeptics might further confirm the presence of similar dental practices in ancient agricultural communities.
Last year Ortiz with colleagues found such evidence, and in Pakistan, and at the other end of the globe – Peruvian communities in pre-colonial Latin America by the Spaniards.
Image copyrightMartinonTorres
Image captionВ dosemealti communities caries in humans is rare
Scientists have studied the remains of two people, who lived about 550-650 years ago. In the teeth of both revealed the same tiny round holes that 9000 year-old teeth found in Pakistan.
“I think, for drilling, I used two tools: a rotating drill, and then some tool for microscopic curettage”, says Ortiz.
Moreover, according to her, there is evidence in favor of the application of the procedure for drilling and in another of Peruvian culture – ICMA that existed over a thousand years ago.
Perhaps in that culture, the ancient dentists even used during surgery, local anesthesia, for example, using Coca leaves.
“They are commonly used as an analgesic, therefore it is likely that Coca leaves (or other herb) was used in order to anesthesia, says Ortiz. Especially when you consider that before the conquest of Latin America by the Spanish, the local population very well versed in traditional medicine”.
Drilling is ideal for removal of decayed tissue, but the dentist needed another skill – the filling of the tooth after treatment.
Surprisingly, there is evidence that dental fillings have been around since ancient times.
In 2012, officer of the International centre for theoretical physics in Trieste (Italy) Claudio Tunisia together with her colleagues conducted trials of a new cutting-edge technology of building three-dimensional images.
Image copyrightClaudio Tuniz
Image captionЭтой human jaw 6,500 years
One of the objects of study was the human jaw, which amounted to 6 500 years. She was found about 100 years ago in a cave near the village of Loka on the territory of modern Slovenia.
Scientists noticed that one of the teeth sticky something unusual. It turned out that it’s a piece of beeswax, such as ancient as the tooth itself. They had patched the hole in the tooth enamel.
The wax turned out to be quite suitable material for dental fillings: when heated it is soft and pliable, but when the temperature of the human body stiffens. In addition, it has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties.
“Apparently, in the canine the man of Loki is the oldest found at the moment, dental fillings,” believes Tunisia.
“Recently I was contacted from the Guinness Book of records, because our finding proved to be the most ancient recorded from them. Considering the question as to whether her new record,” he says.
The staff of the National historical Museum in Trieste, which houses the exhibit, is already convinced of its historical significance.
“Until 2012, this jawbone was kept in a small area, but now she became the star of our Museum. She is separate, which also presents visual materials with the results of our research,” says Tunis.
This exhibit, according to the scientist, has already gained great popularity among students.
No wonder: after all, despite rapid technological progress in the field of dentistry, the idea of the drill still terrifies many of us.
Now try to imagine that you will need to drill the teeth tools of the Neolithic period. Once it becomes clear how we are more courageous our ancestors were.
They were known firsthand, how scary to find yourself in the clutches of the dentist!
