A TOOTH-PULLER AT A PUBLIC PLACE IN HOLLAND
From an engraving of the Seventeenth Century.
“It happens in general that owing to vapors that rise from the stomach, a certain deposit is formed on the teeth, which may be perceived by rubbing them with a rough cloth on waking. One ought, therefore, to rub and clean them every morning, for, if one is not aware of this, or considers it of little account, the teeth become discolored and covered with a thick tartar, which often causes them to decay and to fall out. It is then necessary that the diligent barber should remove the said tartar with the instruments destined for this purpose.”
We have seen that the practice of the dental art was for the most part in other hands than in the barber’s. Nevertheless, the important operation of the removal of tartar was also carried out by him. If, therefore, even the barbers, who were not in the least the true representatives of the dental art of that period, carried out such an important operation, it may logically be argued from this, in support of what we have said before, that the sphere of action of the true dental specialists of those times (especially of the best among them) was not at all so limited as imagined by those who affirm that in past times dentists properly so called did not exist, but only tooth-pullers.
The barbers, however, having become, in a certain manner, members of the medical class, sought to extend their sphere of action, and it is probable that in a later period than that of Tiberio Malfi and Cintio d’Amato they invaded the whole field of dental activity; for which reason, when the barber’s art came down to a very low level, the dental art must have degenerated, too, and have been represented for a certain time only by ignorant barbers and tooth-pullers. Vicissitudes similar to these have occurred in different epochs, not only in various parts of Italy, but also in other countries of Europe.
Fleurimond. In 1682 a little book on dental hygiene was published in Paris by a certain Fleurimond, the title of which was: Moyens de conserver les dents belles et bonnes. Portal, in his history of anatomy and surgery, makes mention of this pamphlet, and, briefly alluding to certain parts of it, he says: “The author proves by observation that acids act upon the enamel of the teeth. He makes some very just reflections upon dentition. Fleurimond speaks of a tooth powder invented by him, but does not say how compounded.”[381]
In fact, it seems that this pamphlet was compiled from a commercial point of view, viz., that of making known the special tooth powder invented by the author. The era of advertisement had already begun!
Anton Nuck (1650 to 1692), a Dutch surgeon and anatomist, who taught most ably in the University of Leyden, devoted great attention to dental surgery and prosthesis. Relative to the extraction of teeth, he says that, in order to be able to carry out this most important operation, an exact anatomical knowledge of the alveoli and of the teeth themselves is required. He insists on a principle of capital importance that has only had its full application in the nineteenth century, viz., that the instruments to be used for the extraction of teeth ought to vary according to the tooth to be extracted. For the removal of the incisors, he says, the “goat’s foot” should have the preference; the canines ought to be extracted with the common dental forceps, but sometimes, when they are decayed, they may be extracted with greater security with the pelican; for the small molars the straight-branched pelican is to be preferred, for the large molars the curved pelican; as to the extraction of roots or of splinters of bone, this ought to be carried out with the rostrum corvinum.
The author counsels never to extract teeth during pregnancy, except under circumstances of the greatest urgency, and especially to avoid the extracting of the upper canines (or eye teeth), this being capable of producing pernicious effect on the visual organs of the fetus!