9,000-Year-Old Dental Drill Is Found

[Kadie]

9,000-Year-Old Dental Drill Is Found
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer

Wednesday, April 5, 2006


(04-05) 10:05 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --

Proving prehistoric man's ingenuity and ability to withstand and inflict excruciating pain, researchers have found that dental drilling dates back 9,000 years.

Primitive dentists drilled nearly perfect holes into live but undoubtedly unhappy patients between 5500 B.C. and 7000 B.C., an article in Thursday's journal Nature reports. Researchers carbon-dated at least nine skulls with 11 drill holes found in a Pakistan graveyard.

That means dentistry is at least 4,000 years older than first thought — and far older than the useful invention of anesthesia. ;(

This was no mere tooth tinkering. The drilled teeth found in the graveyard were hard-to-reach molars. And in at least one instance, the ancient dentist managed to drill a hole in the inside back end of a tooth, boring out toward the front of the mouth.

The holes went as deep as one-seventh of an inch (3.5 millimeters).

"The holes were so perfect, so nice," said study co-author David Frayer, an anthropology professor at the University of Kansas. "I showed the pictures to my dentist and he thought they were amazing holes."

more...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2006/04/05/national/a100537D51.DTL

:wow:

[xchrom]

1. humans were always so eagar to drill holes

weren't they?

:evilgrin:

[riona]

2. and they filled these holes with....?

:shrug:

[Kadie]

3. may have used an asphalt-like substance ...

snip...
Macchiarelli pointed to one unfortunate patient who had a tooth drilled twice. Another patient had three teeth drilled. Four drilled teeth showed signs of cavities. No sign of fillings were found, but there could have been an asphalt-like substance inside, he said....

[jmowreader]

4. They may not have used anything

Perhaps the intent was just to get the decayed tissue out of the tooth; filling may have come later.

They also had limestone mortar back then. That would have worked for a while, packing a little limestone in the tooth. It wouldn't have been any worse than those fucking plastic veneers they like to put on the faces of your incisors.

[riona]

5. i have this sudden urge to floss and brush

:scared:

[Deja Q]

6. How do they know it's for dentists?

It may have been used for sex play... or brain surgery! Or both!!

It may be old, but how do they reeeeeeeeally know it's for teeth?

[LuCifer]

7. DAMN!

I'd rather just let them rot out and gum my midnight snack instead of have Ungor the Caveman Dentist drill my teeth WITHOUT some knockout drugs!!!!!!!!!!!! Fuku that!