Dentistryis one of the oldest medical professions, dating back to 7000 B.C. with the IndusValley Civilization. However, it wasn’tuntil 5000 B.C. that descriptions related to dentistry and tooth decay wereavailable. At the time, a Sumerian textdescribed tooth worms as causing dental decay, an idea that wasn’t proven falseuntil the 1700s!
In ancient Greece,Hippocrates and Aristotle wrote about dentistry, specifically about treatingdecaying teeth, but it wasn’t until 1530 that the first book entirely devotedto dentistry—The Little Medicinal Book for All Kinds of Diseases and Infirmitiesof the Teeth—was published.
By the 1700s, dentistry hadbecome a more defined profession. In1723, Pierre Fauchard, a French surgeon credited as the Father of ModernDentistry, published his influential book, The Surgeon Dentist, a Treatise onTeeth, which for the first time defined a comprehensive system for caring forand treating teeth. Additionally,Fauchard first introduced the idea of dental fillings and the use of dentalprosthesis, and he identified that acids from sugar led to tooth decay.
In 1840, the first dentalcollege (Baltimore College of Dental Surgery) opened, establishing the need formore oversight. In the United States,Alabama led the way by enacting the first dental practice act in 1841, andnearly 20 years later, the American Dental Association (ADA) was formed. Thefirst university-affiliated dental institution, the Harvard University DentalSchool, was founded in 1867.
By 1873, Colgate had massproduced the first toothpaste, and mass-produced toothbrushes followed a fewyears later.
What may come as a surpriseis that the first African American to earn a dental degree dates all the wayback to 1869, and the first female dental assistant was employed in New Orleansin 1885. What might be most surprising of all is that most Americans did notadopt good brushing habits until after World War II, when soldiers stationedabroad brought the concept of good oral health back to the United States!
OtherFun Teeth Facts
- Hesy-Rewas an Egyptian scribe who lived around 2600 B.C. and is recognized as thefirst dental practitioner.
- PaulRevere, famous for warning Colonial troops that the British were coming, wasalso trained as a dentist by America’s first dentist, John Baker.
- EdwardH. Angle, who started the first school of orthodontics in 1901, created asimple classification for crooked teeth in the late 1800s, a system still inuse today.
- The first dental X-ray wasused in 1896.
