“When a woman’s mouth smells and her gums are black and unhealthy, one burns, separately, the head of a hare, and three mice, after having taken out the intestines of two of them (not, however, the liver or the kidneys); one pounds in a stone mortar some marble or whitestone,[51] and passes it through a sieve; one then mixes equal parts of these ingredients and with this mixture one rubs the teeth and the interior of the mouth; afterward one rubs them again with greasy wool[52] and one washes the mouth with water. One soaks the dirty wool in honey and with it one rubs the teeth and the gums, inside and outside. One pounds dill and anise-seeds, two oboles of myrrh;[53] one immerses these substances in half a cotyle[54] of pure white wine; one then rinses the mouth with it, holding it in the mouth for some time; this is to be done frequently, and the mouth to be rinsed with the said preparation fasting and after each meal. It is an excellent thing to take small quantities of food of a very sustaining nature. The medicament described above cleans the teeth and gives them a sweet smell. It is known under the name of Indian medicament.”
In the book De affectionibus there is a passage where it is said that inflammation of the gums is produced by accumulations of pituita, and that, in like cases, masticatories are of use, as these remedies favor the secretion of saliva, and thus tend to dissipate the engorgement caused by pituita.
Still more important, however, is the following passage of the same book:[55]
“In cases of toothache, if the tooth is decayed and loose it must be extracted. If it is neither decayed nor loose, but still painful, it is necessary to desiccate it by cauterizing. Masticatories also do good, as the pain derives from pituita insinuating itself under the roots of the teeth. Teeth are eroded and become decayed partly by pituita, and partly by food, when they are by nature weak and badly fixed in the gums.”
Hippocrates, therefore, considers affections of the teeth to depend in part on natural dispositions, that is, on congenital weakness of the dental system, in part on accumulations of pituita, and the corroding action of the same. If a painful tooth were not loose, it was not to be extracted; but one was to have recourse to cauterization and to masticatories, intended the one and the other to dissipate the accumulation of pituita, believed by him to be the cause of toothache.
It is easily to be understood that as only loose teeth were to be extracted, Hippocrates considered the extraction of teeth a very easy operation, notwithstanding that the instruments then in use cannot have been other than very imperfect; and this is clearly to be seen from a passage in the book entitled De medico, where, after having spoken of the articles and instruments that ought to be kept in a doctor’s office (officina medici), he adds:
“These are the instruments necessary to the doctor’s operating room and in the handling of which the disciple should be exercised; as to the pincers for pulling out teeth, anyone can handle them, because evidently the manner in which they are to be used is simple.”[56]
Very ancient dental forceps and two other dental (?) instruments existing in the Archæological Museum of Athens.