A History of Dentistry from the Most Ancient Times Until the End of the Eighteenth Century

Before there were toothbrushes, fluoride, or anesthesia, humans were already wrestling with toothache. This 1909 work represents one of the earliest ambitious attempts to trace how our ancestors, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Chinese, Hebrews, medieval Europeans, understood, treated, and suffered from diseases of the teeth and mouth. Vincenzo Guerini, writing in an era when dentistry was still solidifying its status as a legitimate medical discipline, gathered evidence from archaeological remains, ancient texts, and early scientific literature to construct a narrative spanning millennia. His goal was establishing dentistry's historical pedigree: proving that the struggle against dental suffering was as old as civilization itself, and that each era contributed fragments of knowledge that would eventually accumulate into modern practice. The book moves from ancient peoples through the Renaissance and concludes at the eighteenth century, on the eve of dental science's transformation. Guerini documents everything from primitive extractions and crude fillings to the emergence of professional dental practitioners. For dental professionals, medical historians, or anyone curious about the long and often grim history behind our smiles, this remains a remarkable document, proof that the universal human horror of tooth pain drove innovation across every culture and century.