Dentistry – Progression and Innovation to Better Serve You

There are countless advances that have helped to make dentistry a highly respected and sought-after profession. From the simple tool, the toothbrush to treatments and procedures such as root canals and braces, our team at Chinook Mall Family Clinic thought you may enjoy reading of their origins. Every invention and break though related to oral hygiene and care has brought us to where we are today.

Dentistry is one of the oldest medical professions, dating back to 7000 B.C. with the Indus Valley Civilization.  However, it wasn’t until 5000 B.C. that descriptions related to dentistry and tooth decay were available.  At the time, a Sumerian text described tooth worms as causing dental decay, an idea that wasn’t proven false until the 1700s! In ancient Greece, Hippocrates and Aristotle wrote about dentistry, specifically about treating decaying teeth, but it wasn’t until 1530 that the first book entirely devoted to dentistry—The Little Medicinal Book for All Kinds of Diseases and Infirmities of the Teeth—was published.

By the 1700s, dentistry had become a more defined profession.  In 1723, Pierre Fauchard, a French surgeon credited as the Father of Modern Dentistry, published his influential book, The Surgeon Dentist, a Treatise on Teeth, which for the first time defined a comprehensive system for caring for and treating teeth.  Additionally, Fauchard first introduced the idea of dental fillings and the use of dental prosthesis, and he identified that acids from sugar led to tooth decay.

The Toothbrush

With ancient roots the concept of the toothbrush is old as time. But the invention of the commercial mass-produced toothbrush is attributed to the Englishman William Addis, who in 1770 came up with the idea while in prison. Using swine bristles thread through holes at the ends of a carved cattle bone, he created the first toothbrush prototype. Once released from prison, he started to mass-produce it. The first three-row bristle toothbrush was invented in 1844 and the first nylon toothbrush was commercialized by DuPont in 1938. The first electric toothbrush was created in 1939.

Toothpaste

The world’s oldest-known formula for toothpaste was created by Egyptians. They crushed rock salt, mint, dried iris flowers and pepper and mixed them together to create a cleaning powder. Although this concoction is known to create bleeding gums, research suggests it is the most effective compared to most toothpastes used as recently as a century ago.

The development of toothpastes in more modern times started in the 1800s. Early versions contained soap and in the 1850s chalk was included. Betel nut was included in toothpaste in England in the 1800s, and in the 1860s a home encyclopedia described a homemade toothpaste that used ground charcoal. In the second half of the twentieth century modern toothpastes were developed to help prevent or treat specific diseases and conditions such as tooth sensitivity. Fluoride toothpastes to help prevent decay were introduced in 1914. Toothpastes with very low abrasiveness were also developed and helped prevent the problems caused by overzealous brushing.

Braces

Orthodontic braces weren’t invented until the early 1800s, but people‘s preoccupation with straight teeth, and/or proper jaw alignment dates back to the time of the ancient Egyptians. Years ago, archaeologists discovered ancient mummies with metal bands wrapped around their teeth, indicating primal dentistry. This finding was reinforced when yet another researcher found a number of teeth bound with a gold wire inside of a Roman tomb in Egypt.

Years ago, traditional ‘metal’ braces were wrapped entirely around each tooth with bands and wires made of precious metals, such as gold, platinum, and silver. Steel was not commonly used for braces until the 1950s. In the 1970s, direct bonding of brackets to the teeth became popular and by the mid-70s, lingual braces were invented, which used bonded brackets placed on the inside of the teeth, making them ‘invisible.’As technology continues to advance the science of orthodontics, procedures now focus on being as comfortable, quick, and as invisible as possible. Dental treatment is nearly undetectable and digital computer imaging is often utilized to make treatment plans for each patient more precise.

The Dentist Chair

Significant improvements in the comfort and versatility of the dental chair have been made over the last 300 years. Prior to the 17th century, tooth extractions were often performed with the patient sitting on the floor, their head held firmly between the operator’s knees. Everyday armchairs occasionally served to make dental procedures less awkward and fatiguing. But not until the early 1700s did Pierre Fauchard, French dental surgeon extraordinaire, set a new trend in comfort by consistently getting patients off the floor and onto a chair for an examination or extraction. 

A normal, wooden chair with no head rest was all patients got to sit on during their visit to the dentist up until 1790. It was not unusual for the dentist to ask the patient to lay on the floor while he was performing a dental extraction and needed to have better access to the patient’s teeth. But in 1790 an American dentist named Josiah Flagg created the first ever headrest for dental chairs that would keep the head in a fixed position during the dental procedure. His design was used for a long time, until the reclining chair was born, some forty years later.

Dentistry has moved forward profoundly since these ancient times. There’s evidence that stone-age people actually took a piece of flint and kept working at a tooth long enough to create a hole into the tooth, probably to relieve an abscess. Dentistry has come a long way, modern technology and advances in medicine help dentists provide comfortable and high quality dental treatment for a range of conditions.

We feel it a privilege to be part of an industry that continues to advance for the betterment of a healthy life.  In our Chinook Mall dental office, we understand how important technology is to our practice and to our patients.  As new methods, of treating teeth, become available, we aim to incorporate the technology and tools into our practice in order to improve the experience of our patients.