A Brief History of Tooth Extractions

Tooth extractions have a history almost as long and as detailed as the history of dentistry itself. And as the technology and science of medical treatment changed, the understanding of how oral health relates to the health of the rest of the body has advanced. Here's a brief history of tooth extractions and dentistry throughout the ages.

Tooth Extractions: A Cure-All
Before the advent of antibiotics and germ theory (the notion that illnesses are caused by microorganisms), doctors believed that decayed or infected teeth were the reason for greater illnesses. So if someone picked up pneumonia or a particularly nasty strain of influenza, and they happened to have a decayed tooth, a doctor would remove the tooth in hopes that it would clear up the patient's overall health.

The Tools of the Tooth Extraction Trade
These days, a dentist will use a pair of dental forceps to -- as gently as possible -- rock your tooth back and forth in its socket until the periodontal ligament (which holds it in) is broken-down enough to pull the tooth out. But that wasn't always the case. In the 14th Century, a surgeon named Guy de Chauliac invented a device called a dental pelican, which looks exactly as painful as it sounds. The pelican was intended to extract teeth (though it's not entirely clear how). The pelican fell from fashion when dentists began using "dental toothkeys," devices that looked like door keys and were meant to dig decayed teeth out of the sockets. Be grateful you live in the 20th Century.

The First Guide
Before the 1700s, dentists weren't, strictly speaking, dentists. They were barber-surgeons, men who traveled from town to town doing things like pulling teeth and lancing boils. But then a French physician named Pierre Fauchard wrote Le Chirugien Dentiste, a book that described basic oral anatomy, as well as methods of removing tooth decay and restoring teeth to heath. He also discussed dental prosthetics, or false teeth. In part because of his book, doctors performed fewer extractions. And when extractions were performed, dentists took steps to find some way to replace the missing teeth so that patients could live relatively normal lives.