Roger Forshaw

The practice of dentistry in ancient Egypt

This paper addresses the questions of whether a dental profession existed in ancient Egypt and if it did then considers whether these practitioners were operative dental surgeons as we know them today or whether they were pharmacists. Evidence from hieroglyphic inscriptions, from the dentitions of the surviving mummified and skeletal remains, and from ancient documents and artefacts are examined. The conclusion would suggest that operative dental treatment if it did exist at all was extremely limited. The dental treatment that appears to have been provided was mainly restricted to pharmaceutical preparations that were either applied to the gingival and mucosal tissues or used as mouthwashes, and these at best may only have provided some short term relief. It seems apparent that many ancient Egyptians suffered from widespread and painful dental disease, which the available treatments can have done relatively little to alleviate.

Dental indicators of ancient dietary patterns: dental analysis in archaeology

What can the study of ancient teeth tell us about the dietary habits of our ancestors? Diet plays a prominent role in the organisation and evolution of human cultures and an increasingly diverse array of analytical techniques are available to help reconstruct diet in ancient populations. Dental palaeopathology is particularly important as it can provide direct evidence of the type of diet an individual consumed during life. Heavy occlusal tooth wear is the most frequent condition recognisable and an examination of both macro and microscopic patterns of wear can establish the differences between the hard fibrous diet typical of a hunter-gatherer, and a diet primarily consisting of softer plant foods consumed by an agriculturist. The distributions of trace elements and stable isotopes in food webs make it possible to use them as natural tracers of foodstuffs. Through a consideration of photosynthetic pathways, the ratios of the different stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen can determine which specific groups of plants and animals were dominant in the food chains of various populations – a fact that has been used to trace the spread of agriculture in ancient civilisations.

Reduction of temporomandibular joint dislocation: an ancient technique that has stood the test of time

The first known recorded evidence for the reduction of a mandibular joint dislocation is documented in a papyrus dated to c. 1500 BC that originated from ancient Egypt. This same technique was later discussed by Hippocrates in Greece and the Hippocratic corpus is referred to in early Islamic writings. It is detailed in medieval European texts and eventually was incorporated into modern dental and medical practice. Today, mandibular joint dislocation is probably not that common but to be included in an important ancient Egyptian treatise, predominately concerned with trauma to the head and neck, could suggest it was a more frequent occurrence in antiquity. This could relate to the heavy tooth wear, frequent antemortem tooth loss and the related sequelae of severe malocclusion and overclosure evident in many surviving ancient Egyptian skulls.

Orthodontics in antiquity: myth or reality.

Malocclusion, although a common finding in todays world, appears to have been less frequent in antiquity. There are references to overcrowding, delayed exfoliation of deciduous teeth and basic orthodontic treatment in the writings of classical authors such as Hippocrates, Celsus and Galen. However, early authentic archaeological finds of dental appliances are extremely rare. Considerable attention has focussed on gold banded devices excavated from ancient Etruscan sites in central Italy which have been dated to around the seventh to the fourth centuries BC, with a number of authors suggesting an orthodontic function for these appliances. This paper reviews the evidence for the possible treatment of malocclusions in antiquity and concludes that the use of orthodontic appliances to facilitate tooth movement is not supported by the available evidence.