The Practice of Dentistry in Ancient Egypt

HERODOTUS, during his travels in Egypt about 450 B.C., wrote: 'The practice of medicine is so divided among them, that each physician is a healer of one disease and no more. All the country is full of physicians, some of the eye, some of the teeth, some of what pertains to the belly, and some of the hidden diseases.' If only Herodotus had needed dental care during his residence in Egypt he might also have described the methods and remedies used. Unfortunately such is not the case and we have to rely for much of our knowledge on the surviving medical and other papyri. From these documents we can gain an insight into and understand a little of the philosophy underlying the remedial practices of the ancient Egyptians.2 A very human document which occurs in a literary miscellany of the Nineteenth Dynasty contained in Pap. Anastasi IV (B.M. 10249, I2. 5-13. 8) consists of the lament of an Egyptian official who bewails the hardships he endures in his station at a lonely outpost. At the end of his harangue he mentions the sufferings of one of his colleagues: 'A mns-scribe is here with me, every muscle of whose face twitches; the wftt-disease has developed in his eye, and the worm grows into his tooth. I cannot leave him to his fate.' This is one of the earliest instances known of the belief that toothache is caused by a worm.3 The examination of a selection of skulls of the New Kingdom shows clearly that the sufferer was indeed fortunate that only one tooth was affected. To illuminate this last sentence it is necessary to digress from the theme of the foregoing discussion and consider some aspects of dental pathology. By far the greater proportion of the teeth of adult ancient Egyptians shows extensive wear of the occlusal surfaces (pl. VIII, i)