Oldest tooth filling was made by an Ice Age dentist in Italy

[Judi Lynn]

7 April 2017
Oldest tooth filling was made by an Ice Age dentist in Italy


Scared of the dentist? Be glad you don’t live in the Ice Age. A pair of 13,000-year-old front teeth found in Italy contain the earliest known use of fillings – made out of bitumen.

The teeth, two upper central incisors belonging to one person, were discovered at the Riparo Fredian site near Lucca in northern Italy.

Each tooth has a large hole in the incisor’s surface that extends down into the pulp chamber deep in the tooth. “It is quite unusual, not something you see in normal teeth,” says Stephano Benazzi, an archaeologist at the University of Bologna.

Benazzi and his team used a variety of microscopic techniques to get a close look at the inside of the holes, and found a series of tiny horizontal marks on the walls that suggest they were cavities that had been drilled out and enlarged, likely by tiny stone tools.

More:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2127300-oldest-tooth-filling-was-made-by-an-ice-age-dentist-in-italy/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=news&campaign_id=RSS%7CNSNS-news

[eppur_se_muova]

1. So the world's oldest profession may be ... dentistry ?

That's not what we were taught.

[Lithos]

2. Doubtful

You do not realize just how old the three other older professions are... For the sake of brevity, the 2nd and 3rd are politics and religion... (religion being a tool of politicians determines the order)

[Warpy]

3. Dentistry without anesthetic had to be brutal

but maybe they found that powdered bitumen and whatever they mixed it with would kill infection--or slow it down so the poor bastard with the bad tooth didn't die of sepsis.

I've seen some of the old bones that didn't get this done, holes in the mandible or maxilla showing where tooth abscesses ruptured through the bone before they turned fatal.

Dentistry and dental anesthesia are things I hope we can save come the Apocalypse.

[luvMIdog]

4. guess I'm the slow kid in this glass I have a question

I googled bitumen and it said this:

{DEFINITION of 'Bitumen'
A substance produced through the distillation of crude oil and known for its waterproofing and adhesive properties. Bitumen production through distillation removes lighter crude oil components, such as gasoline and diesel, leaving the “heavier” bitumen behind. It is often refined several times in order to improve its grade.

BREAKING DOWN 'Bitumen'
In modern times bitumen is most likely to be manufactured from crude oil, but bitumen can be found in nature. Deposits of naturally occurring bitumen can be found at the bottom of ancient lakes, where prehistoric organisms have since decayed and have been subjected to heat and pressure.

Bitumen is generally for industry use. Early uses of bitumen involved its natural adhesive and waterproofing characteristics, but it was also used as a medicine. It was used to bind building materials together, as well as to line the bottoms of ships. Herodotus, a fifth century BC Greek historian, claimed that the walls of ancient Babylon were strengthened through the use of bitumen. The material was traded between ancient civilizations.}

My question is this- Where do you think they found the stuff & how would they get it not to dissolve in the tooth?

[Brother Buzz]

5. Oil seeps, like, say, La Brea Tar Pits

Asphaltum and crude bitumen are waterproof, and were one of the first 'super glue epoxies' know to man. I suspect the dentist was an arrow or spear maker because the tar adhesives were used extensively to fix points to shafts.