FACTORALY - E29 DENTISTS

Episode Date: March 14, 2024

Dentistry. Science? Craft? Artform? Torture? Or all of these? In this episode, we look at the history of dentistry, what dentists have invented, and lots more shiny stuff. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello. Hello. It's factorily again, isn't it, Simon? It certainly is factorily, Bruce. Well spotted. Thank you very much. I notice these things. For all of our listeners, if you haven't been here before, welcome. This is going to change your life. Almost certainly. By a minute amount. I'm Simon Wells. I'm Bruce Fielding. I had a bit of an issue with one of my teeth. Right. And I ended up having to go to the dentist, which is why this week...

We're talking about dentists. Yes, we are. We should actually give a warning. I know some people who feel incredibly uncomfortable just hearing the word dentist. Wow. So I'm just going to put a warning out. If you are a little bit dentophobic, which is a word dentophobia is the fear of the dentist um you might want to listen quietly at a distance you might just want to not listen

altogether you may not want to hear this won't take offense but if you do listen you're going to learn lots of interesting stuff about all sorts of things to do with your mouth indeed dentophobia by the way um approximately 53 percent of people in the UK suffer from dentophobia, compared to only 36% in the USA. So in this country, we have a much greater fear of visiting the dentist. Which is weird, because we have better teeth than the Americans, despite the fact that they always say, oh, British teeth are terrible. Right. Now, explain that to me, because I would think that the Americans have better teeth

than us. Well, the British Dental Association has done some research. Now, this is from memory, so I may be wrong. But I think it's something like we have fewer extractions, we have fewer fillings, and we go through fewer processes to make our teeth look as good as they do. I mean, Americans do a lot of work. They have a lot of extractions. Right. So there's a lot more effort goes into American teeth to look the way they do and it's not exactly natural. You end up with a smile that I always think looks slightly wrong.

That's interesting. So I'd always assumed the opposite. I sort of picture a classic American smile and everything is straight and white and shiny. And I think the Americans are doing it better than us. There's even an episode of The Simpsons, isn't there, where one of the kids goes to the dentist and the doctor presents him with the great book of British smiles. We can link to that in the show notes, which you'll find if you, where do they find the show notes, Simon? They'll find the show notes under the blog section of factorally.com. That's F-A-C-T-O-R-A-L-Y. How convenient that we've got the

word oral in there whilst we're talking about dentists. That's true. Do you know what? I hadn't even thought about that. Well done. Dentists have been around for a long time. Longer than you'd think. They have, haven't they? They've not always been called dentists, but people have been pulling teeth for quite a while, haven't they? What's the earliest example you found of this, Bruce? Well, I've discovered who the father of dentistry was, which was an Egyptian person, somebody called Hezireh. Okay.

H-E-S-I-R-E, Hezireh. In about 3000 BCE. So dentists have been around quite a long time. Right. I've found one even older than that. Don't have a name for him or her but i found someone at least working on teeth in some capacity or other yeah 7 000 bce wow in in the indus valley civilization in south asia uh-huh um so you know people have always had

teeth people have always had tooth problems therefore people have always had teeth. People have always had tooth problems. Yes. Therefore, people have always had to have their teeth seen to. If I remember, they used to use beeswax for fillings. Okay. I can sort of understand the fact that it's quite mouldable, isn't it? You can mould it to shape. And antiseptic, I think, as well, beeswax, isn't it?

Yeah. It doesn't have any germs in it. Yeah. In ancient Greece, both Hippocrates and Aristotle wrote about dentistry in passing, not claiming to be specialists, but they have both made mention of going to see a person to have your tooth whipped out. Yeah.

People have come up with all sorts of interesting and unusual cures for toothache over the years. Such as? Crushed mouse was a good Egyptian one. You crush a mouse. Yes. And the spirit of the mouse goes into your mouth and extracts the ache from your mouth. Oh, how sweet. Well, they thought that there was a thing called a tooth worm. Right.

That was the thing that was in your tooth that was causing you agony. Oh, I see. You could extract the tooth worm. So many different things. Put both stockings on one foot. Get rid of the tooth worm, apparently. Put a horseshoe nail into the lintel of your front door. This is a good one um you you chew up some bread and then you spit it out very near an ant hill so that the ants carry away

yeah you can complain to a pear tree but that's that's always a good one there are a lot of different ways of curing a toothache that's great i hadn't read any of those but i sort of looked at the fact that um there have always been people sort of selling herbal remedies and magic elixirs and things that can cure you of all sorts of ailments yes all all through the centuries there have been hawkers and quacks and so on selling these herbal remedies. And it's kind of no wonder because in an era before successful anesthesia, having your teeth out was not a pleasant experience. It wasn't. So you would invest in absolutely everything you could to stand even a chance of having it sorted without that.

All sorts of people were dentists. Right. Well, lots of people did more than one thing. So, for example, a carpenter would also be like an undertaker because they could make the coffins. Yeah. I guess that makes sense. But barbers and butchers both offered dental services. Yes.

So this is the concept of a profession called the barber surgeon. Ah. This has always fascinated me that we all think nowadays, you know, every single area of medicine has its own experts. You have a dentist. You have an optician. You have a chiropractor. You have a brain surgeon. You have someone for every single department. You didn't really used to, especially before medical qualifications came along.

You just sort of had people giving it a go. Yeah, I've got something sharp. I can dig that out for you. You used to have, up until as late as the mid-1700s, at least in this country, you had barber surgeons who, as the name suggests, they were barbers who also did surgery. Yes. What could possibly go wrong? And these guys were sort of responsible for the body as a whole. So they would patch up wounds.

They would do bloodletting. They would cut your hair, shave your beard, and whip out your teeth if necessary, with all sorts of nasty, crude, blunt implements. And eventually these things separated out, so the barber surgeons became barbers and the surgeons became surgeons. You know the red and white stripy twisting pole outside a barber's shop? What with the red, white and blue? It can be either.

It didn't used to be blue. I think they've added blue just to be patriotic. Okay. They used to just be red and white. Yeah. And that was actually started off by the fact that the barber surgeons would take their blood-soaked bandages and wrap them around a pole outside their shop

as an advert for the fact that this is what we do. So that's why barbers have red and white twisty poles outside their shops now. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. It's important to keep your teeth clean because that's the thing that causes the issues if they're not clean. Prevention is better than cure.

Well, exactly. So what you do is you go and you crush up a whole load of oyster shells. Sure. And you mix it with chalk and charcoal and pulverized brick and lemon juice and salt. Yep. Et voila, toothpaste. Toothpaste. Simple as.

Well, at least in the Middle Ages. And in fact, archaeologists have found a toothbrush dating from about late 1400s made of hog and horse hair. And they found a repository of dental paste, which they analysed and discovered that it was made of all this stuff. Right. Well, how disgusting. I know. I know. But, you know, I mean, the Romans thought wine was a mouthwash that was used for tooth whitening. Yes, that's true.

You used to get tooth powder as well. Yes. All of those crushed up items just, you know, before being turned into a paste. You could get a jar of tooth powder, you'd dip a brush in it, put some water on it, and it sort of turned into paste in your mouth. I remember doing this from memory. It was called euthymol. It's like a little flat disc of a tub and it contained powder.

And you'd wet the toothbrush first, the bristles, and then dip the bristles into the powder. And that was your toothpaste. Great. Didn't work, probably, but... Well, you know, what advancements get made, you learn things along the way. Yeah, but, you know, there's no reason why you should clean your own teeth, isn't there? Well, if you're Egyptian, you've got servants to do it for you.

Oh, I see. And, in fact, right up to date, Prince Now King Charles was noted once for having one of his valets put an inch of toothpaste on his brush ready for him to use in the morning. Wow. But an inch is a lot. I was just thinking that. Yeah, a centimeter is at most. Dentists recommend a pea-sized piece of toothpaste on your brush is quite sufficient. I like the way that you introduced him as Prince now King, Charles. It sort of sounds like... The King for all he knows is Prince.

Exactly, yeah, the artist put exactly that, exactly where I was thinking, yep. Now this is something I usually start off with, but I forgot, frankly, so I'm just going to throw it in here. The word dentist comes from the French dentiste, which comes from the earlier French dent, D-E-N-T, which means tooth. And that gives us dental. It gives us denture. It also gives us dandelion. Oh, yes. Because a dandelion is a complete misconstruion. It's not dandelion at all, it's dandelion, which means tooth of the lion. Yes. Purely because the jagged edges of the leaf of a dandelion look a bit like a tooth. Have you ever tried blowing into a lion's mouth to see what time it is. I haven't, and I don't intend to.

But thanks for the offer. You're most welcome. But teeth are also quite useful for identifying. I mean, they're a part of you. I mean, the tooth enamel is the hardest substance in your entire body. Is it really? Yeah. Wow.

It's harder than bone. It's harder than anything else that you can have in your body. Tooth enamel is the thing. They're a bit like fingerprints, you know? You can tell a lot from somebody's teeth. Or you can certainly identify somebody from, you know, dental. They talk about dental records, identified by dental records. Yeah.

And you can also tell how old people are by their teeth as well. Or by counting the rings on them. Well, kind of. But they worked out how old Tutankhamun was from his teeth. They worked out that he was 19. Oh. Just by looking at his teeth.

Really? That's clever, isn't it? Talking of sets of teeth, one of the most famous sets of teeth belonged to George Washington. Oh, his wooden gnashers. Well, they say

he had wooden gnashers. But... they say he had wooden gnashers. But? But did he? I don't know. I wasn't there. Well, that's the theory. But the practice, apparently, is that his teeth were made from either slave's teeth. Oh, no.

Yeah, sorry about this. Oh. Or ivory. OK. Or gold. Or the teeth of hippopotami. Well, I mean, ew to all of that except the gold. I know.

Dentists are very inventive people, generally. I don't know whether you've come across any of the inventions of dentists. They've come up with a variety of methods, haven't they? I just think about when I go to the dentist nowadays compared to when I was a kid, you know, the fact that you can X-ray your jaw, the fact that you can use UV light to make your fillings dry faster. And when you're sitting in a dentist's chair, do you find a huge surge of electricity pulsing through your body?

Generally not. No. If I ever did, I would assume I was in the wrong place. Well, you might be because the electric chair was invented by a dentist. Really? Yes. Not as a means of anaesthesia, surely? No, no, no.

As a method of ending somebody's life. Yes. But they've invented all sorts of interesting things. What else have they invented? Well, I've had a heart issue and I've got stents in my heart. Yeah. Invented by a dentist. Really?

Yeah. I'm trying to work on a pun. Stentist? Stentist. Could be. Could be. How about this one? This goes against the grain for everything that dentists stand for. Oh, I know where you're going. So a dentist invented candy floss candy that's a ridiculous fact isn't it i know

i had a brief look at um colgate oh right i was trying to look at um you know famous dentists famous people who have come up with wonderful dental related stuff. And instantly Colgate popped into my mind and I thought, oh, yeah, Colgate must have been a dental professional. He must have been a dentist who saw a need for a product and came up with one. No, not at all. William Colgate started off selling soap and perfume. Oh. In New York City in 1806. And he made various different products. He formed a soap-specific shop that eventually became Palm Olive. It wasn't until 1873 that they started producing toothpaste, long after William Colgate was gone.

So yes, it took almost 70 years for the company Colgate to start making toothpaste. How interesting. So it wasn't their original intention at all. The first commercial on commercial television in the UK was for Gibbs SR. Right. I don't know what that is. Gibbs SR is a toothpaste. Is it? Yes.

I mean, I should have guessed that from the context of the conversation, but I've never heard of it, so I didn't want to assume. I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll put the commercial, you know where. Oh, I know where.

On the podcast section of factorally.com. That's the one. So dentistry had traditionally always been the preserve of men. Even today, less than a third of dentists around the world are women. But the first recorded female dentist was someone called Emmeline Roberts-Jones, who practiced dentistry in 1855 in connecticut america ah and um she she was married to a dentist she was his assistant and her husband had always assumed and i quote that women's fingers were too frail and clumsy for dentistry

she decided to prove him wrong. She studied under him. She learned some of his skills. And she became a dentist. After her husband's death, she took over the dentistry business and ended up running one of the most lucrative dental practices in Connecticut. Wow.

She was an advisor on the Colombian Dental Congress. She wrote treatises on the art of dentistry. And after her death, she was inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame. Very good. Quite right. You love your Guinness Book of Records, don't you? I really do, yeah. I really do. So you must have come up with some Guinness records for this.

Now, this was actually quite tricky because we're specifically talking about dentists. Yes. If we had done an episode on teeth, it would be even bigger than it already is. There are an awful lot of records about teeth. The person who had three times as many teeth in their mouth as many other people. Oh, wow. The person with had three times as many teeth in their mouth as many other people.

Oh, wow. The person with the longest tooth ever extracted. Was he long in the tooth? He was very long in the teeth, yes. Lots and lots of teeth-related facts. I specifically wanted to find one about dentists. I couldn't. It was really disappointing.

Oh, well. Except for the most expensive dentist. Is it mine? it might well be um this is a chap called tom connelly who has his dental practice in hollywood so yeah understandable and he makes diamond dentures for people of course he does um where other people are satisfied to have a gold tooth in hollywood you have a diamond tooth and um he charges between seven hundred thousand and one million dollars for one single diamond tooth and he is on record as being the most expensive dentist so make sure you don't get hit in the face. Yeah, I hope so. Unless you have pretty good insurance. Yes.

There was another record about the highest number of people brushing their teeth simultaneously. Okay. This was in Odisha in India in 2019. I would have thought it would have been in America, but okay. This was achieved by the Indian Association of Public Health Dentistry. Yeah. And they teamed up with Colgate and a couple of other people in it sort of an awareness raising program to teach

people about dental hygiene yes they managed to gather 26,000 382 people to brush their teeth at the same time in like in time with each other to like a music track or something oh I really hope so it didn't specify it didn't specify wouldn't that be great can you imagine spitting the toothpaste all those people oh the logistics i hadn't thought of any of that yeah i found another statistic that said uh only about 55 percent of people at least in the uk actually go to the dentist regularly.

And I guess this is sort of part of the fear. Dentistry obviously has a history of discomfort. Yes. Nobody enjoys going to the dentist. No one really likes it. But, yeah, you know, anaesthesia didn't come into force until the mid-1700s, so all of those barber surgeons, you know, were doing horrible things without any kind of painkiller, except maybe a bottle of dirty gin or something, to numb the pain. So, obviously, it's got a bit of a reputation to it.

And even up until relatively recently, having the injection that makes your mouth feel numb, that in itself is not terribly pleasant. These days you get all sorts of lovely anesthetic gels to rub on your gum. So you can't even feel the needle that puts in the anesthetic. So it's much better. But it still sort of has that association with it. I remember really disliking the dentist as a child. I'm okay with it now. But that that and I guess the fact that here in the UK, we're very lucky to have the NHS. We have the privilege of being able to go to the doctor, go to the hospital without getting a massive great big bill.

So the idea of actually having to pay for the dentist feels like a bit of an outrage. And therefore it sort of puts you off going unless it's really necessary yes i don't have got anything else to say about dentists no so um that is the end of another episode of factorally we hope that you've enjoyed yourself yes thank you very much for coming oh we forgot tell people. What did we forget to tell people? Oh, we forgot to ask people nicely to subscribe and to share

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