The earliest (disputed) evidence of tool use for dentistry comes from Neanderthal culture.
•The first confirmed instance comes from an infected tooth found in Italy from 14,000 BC, which had been cleaned with flint tools.
•Using handheld drills to remove or drain infections is first seen in the Indus Valley civilization of 7000 BC.
•The earliest filling was found in a jaw in Slovenia, dated at about 4500 BC, and made of beeswax.
•It was a common belief from this period up to the Middle Ages that toothache was caused by toothworms, whose removal or destruction would alleviate the pain.
•Toothpicks were used from at least 3000 BC (having been found in ancient Sumerian sites).
•In ancient Egypt in about 2650 BC, the skills of Hesi-Re, ‘greatest of all physicians and dentists’, included wiring loose teeth in place using gold wire.
•The Code of Hammurabi (1800 BC) mentions dental extractions as a form of punishment (the rule of ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’ is first mentioned in this book of law).
•Pliny the Elder (AD 23–79) recorded tooth-related superstitions including tying a frog to your jaw, or using eardrops made of olive oil in which earthworms had been boiled.
•About 2,000 years ago, the Romans were using sticks as toothbrushes. Unfortunately they were using them with pastes that contained abrasives, such as emery, resulting in teeth being worn down to the roots.
•By the medieval period, dentists in China had developed a filling made of mercury, silver and tin (while Western dentistry was using more squalid fillings such as candle wax, lead and even ‘raven’s dung’).
•Bristled toothbrushes were invented in China about AD 1000 – they were used with a tooth powder made out of soap beans.