A History of Dentistry from the most Ancient Times until the end of the Eighteenth Century

by Vincenzo Guerini

The tenth chapter of the book of Scribonius Largus treats of the cure of odontalgia. The author begins by saying that it is the opinion of many that the only true remedy against toothache is the forceps. With all this, he adds, there are many medicaments, from which great benefit may be derived against these pains, without it always being necessary to have recourse to extraction. Even when a tooth is affected with caries, says the author, it is not always advisable to extract it; but it is much better, in many cases, to cut away the diseased part with a scalpel adapted for the purpose.

“Violent toothache may be calmed in various ways, viz., with mouth washes, masticatories, fumigations, or by the direct application of fitting medicaments. It is beneficial to rinse the mouth frequently with a decoction of parietaria or of cypress berries, or to apply to the tooth the root or the seeds of the hyoscyamus wrapped up in a cloth, and dipped from time to time in boiling water, or to chew the portulaca (purslane), or to keep for some time its juice in the mouth.”

“Suitable also against toothache are fumigations made with the seeds of the hyoscyamus scattered on burning charcoal; these must be followed by rinsings of the mouth with hot water; in this way sometimes, as it were, small worms are expelled.”[171]

This passage of Scribonius Largus has given rise to the idea that the dental caries depends upon the presence of small worms, which eat away the substance of the tooth. Such an explanation must have well succeeded in satisfying the popular fancy; and it is for this that such a prejudice, although fought against by Jacques Houllier in the sixteenth century, has continued even to our days.

With regard to this I would like to record the following fact: Not many years ago there lived in Aversa, a small town near Naples, Italy, a certain Don Angelo Fontanella, a violin player, who professed himself to be the possessor of an infallible remedy against toothache. When summoned by the sufferer, he carried with him, in a bundle, a tile, a large iron plate, a funnel, a small curved tube adjustable to the apex of the funnel, a piece of bees’ wax, and a small packet of onion seed. Having placed the tile on a table, the iron plate was put upon it, after it had been heated red hot. Then the operator let a piece of bees’ wax fall upon the red-hot iron, together with a certain quantity of the onion seed; then, having promptly covered the whole with the funnel and made the patient approach, he brought the apex of the said funnel close to the sick tooth, in such a way as to cause the prodigious, if somewhat stinking, fumes produced by the combustion of the wax with the onion seed to act upon it. In the case of a lower tooth, the above-mentioned curved tube was adapted to the funnel, so that the fumes might equally reach the tooth. The remedy, for the most part, had a favorable result, whether because the beneficial effect was due to the action of the hot vapor on the diseased tooth, or to the active principles resulting from the combustion of the wax and onion seed, or to both, or perhaps also, at least in certain cases, to the suggestion that was thus brought to bear upon the sufferer. It would not be at all worth while to discuss here such a point. The interesting part is that when the patient had declared that he no longer felt the pain, Don Angelo, with a self-satisfied smile, turned the funnel upside down, and showed on its internal surface a quantity of what he pretended to be worms, which he affirmed had come out of the carious tooth. Great was the astonishment of the patient and of the bystanders, none of whom raised the least doubt as to the nature and origin of these small bodies, no one having the faintest suspicion even that these, instead of coming from the tooth, might come from the onion seed!

According to Scribonius Largus, toothache might also be taken away by fumigations of burnt bitumen. He affirms also that great benefit may be derived against odontalgia by masticating the wild mint, or the root of the pyrethrum, or by covering the diseased tooth with a plaster composed of peucedanum juice, opopanax, incense, and stoneless raisins. But before making use of this last remedy, he advises that the tooth and the gums near it should be fomented with very hot oil, by means of a toothpick or ear-picker wrapped around, at one end, with some wool. If the pain does not entirely cease, or comes on again, it is well, says the author, to continue the fomentations with hot oil, above the plaster, until the pain ceases. To strengthen loose teeth, Scribonius advises frequent rinsings of the mouth with asses’ milk or with wine in which have been cooked the roots of the sorrel until the liquid has boiled down to one-third. Another remedy which he recommends against looseness of the teeth is composed of honey and alum mixed together in a mortar, in the proportion of two parts of the first to one of the second, and then cooked in an earthen vase, so as to render the mixture more homogeneous, and to give it more consistency. He also speaks of a third medicament, resulting from cooking strong vinegar, alum, and cedria[172] in a copper vessel until it has the consistency of honey. This remedy would serve not only to make loose teeth firm, but the author assures us also that whoever rubs the teeth with it, three times a month, will never be subject to dental pains.

Scribonius Largus gives the receipts for various dentifrice powders in use at that period. The skin of the radish dried in the sun, pounded to powder, and then passed through a sieve, would furnish a good dentifrice, suited to strengthen the teeth and to keep them healthy. Very white glass, similar to crystal, reduced to a very fine powder and mixed with spikenard, is also, according to Scribonius Largus, a valuable dentifrice.

Octavia, sister of Augustus, used a powder which our author highly commends, saying that it strengthens the teeth and makes them very beautiful.[173] To prepare it, one must take a sextary[174] of barley flour and knead it well to a paste with vinegar and honey mixed together, and must divide the mass into six balls, each of which must be mixed with half an ounce of salt; these balls must then be cooked in the oven until carbonized; and lastly pounded to powder, as much spikenard being added as is necessary to give it an agreeable perfume.

Scribonius Largus also lets us know the tooth powder made use of by Messalina, the wife of the Emperor Claudius; this was composed of calcined stag’s horn, mastic of Chios, and sal ammoniac, mixed in the proportion of an ounce of mastic and an ounce and a half of sal ammoniac to a sextary of the ashes of stag’s horn.

Servilius Damocrates, a Greek physician, who acquired great renown in Rome toward the middle of the first century, was the author of many valuable works, both in verse and prose, which, unfortunately, have been lost. His works are mentioned by Galen, who testifies to his great esteem for Damocrates, calling him an eminent physician, and quoting various passages from his works, and among others three poetical receipts for dentifrice powders. From these receipts it appears that Damocrates attached the greatest importance to the cleanliness of the teeth, and that he considered this the indispensable condition for avoiding disease of the teeth and gums.