Worms and Pelicans: Dentistry’s Rotten History

October 25, 2021·28 min·1 clip

For centuries, people blamed tooth decay on worms living inside their teeth.

1. Every Little Thing investigates the rotten history of dentistry and the rise of routine oral hygiene. 2. Flora Lichtman hosts Amanda from Virginia, whose question about dental care starts the investigation, with Henry Clark and Richard Barnett providing historical expertise. 3. The episode asks how societies moved from tooth worms, public extractions, and black teeth to toothpaste, electric drills, and regular checkups. 4. Hesi Ray is identified as the first known dentist and surgeon to the pharaoh and the pharaoh's household in ancient Egypt. 5. Egyptian practitioners used salves and medicines and splinted loose teeth with gold wire for living patients and the afterlife. 6. Phoenicians made sophisticated bridges by wiring in false teeth or casting artificial teeth from gold. 7. Early toothbrush evidence comes from China and Islamic traditions, including fibrous cleaning sticks made from tree roots. 8. Henry Clark says the tooth-worm theory dates to Babylonia around 1700 BCE and persisted into 1700s Europe. 9. European tooth pullers used a pelican, a crowbar-like lever that could damage jaws, adjacent teeth, eyes, and blood vessels. 10. Richard Barnett says refined sugar became cheap enough in 17th-century Europe to cause widespread dental deterioration before its role was understood. 11. Pierre Fauchard published a major practical dentistry book in 1728 and called himself a dentiste. 12. Fauchard recommended cleaning and stabilizing teeth, warming instruments, using a steady touch, and moving extractions from marketplaces into offices. 13. Queen Elizabeth I reportedly received the same basic pelican extraction as poorer subjects, although hers occurred privately and respectfully. 14. W.D. Miller worked in Robert Koch's Berlin laboratory and identified about 30 bacteria involved in sugar-driven acid production. 15. Around 1900, electric drills, cheap long-lasting fillings, Novocaine, plaque cleaning, and toothpaste changed cavity care. 16. Chris Lyons makes thin overlays that discolor actors' teeth and thicker appliances that add recession, chips, crookedness, or missing teeth. 17. Lyons made approximately 20 Freddie Mercury tooth sets for Rami Malek because life-size measurements were too large for Malek's face. 18. Flora Lichtman and Amanda present the material through listener questions, historical interviews, wordplay, and comic reactions. 19. Pierre Fauchard and movie-makeup fans will enjoy this dental history. 20. Listeners seeking quiet, non-medical storytelling may skip the tooth-pulling details.

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