The Excruciating History of Dentistry: Toothsome Tales & Oral Oddities from Babylon to Braces
by James Wynbrandt
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An "entertaining history" of the practice of dentistry that will remind you how lucky you are to live in the modern era ( Publishers Weekly). For those on both sides of the dreaded dentist's chair, James Wynbrandt has written a witty, colorful, and richly informative history of the art and science of dentistry. To all of those dental patients whose whine rises in tandem with that of the drill, take note: You would do well to stifle your terror and instead offer thanks to Apollonia, the show more patron saint of toothache sufferers, that you face only fleeting discomfort rather than the disfiguring distress or slow agonizing death oft meted out by dental-care providers of the past. The transition from yesterday's ignorance, misapprehension, and superstition to the enlightened and nerve-deadened protocols of today has been a long, slow, and very painful process-as shown by such facts as: *Among the toothache remedies favored by Pierre Fauchard, the father of dentistry, was rinsing the mouth liberally with one's own urine. *George Washington never had wooden teeth. However, his chronic dental problems may have impacted the outcome of the American Revolution. *Soldiers in the Civil War needed at least two opposing front teeth to rip open powder envelopes. Some men had their front teeth extracted to avoid service. *Teeth were harvested from as many as fifty thousand corpses after the Battle of Waterloo, a huge crop later used for dentures and transplants that became known as "Waterloo Teeth." "You'll gain a great deal of dental knowledge, acquired quite painlessly." - The New York Times Book Review "Just the thing you need to get through your next oral probing." - Entertainment Weekly "A breezy romp... While sensitive dentists may wince at having their profession's rough-and-tumble past revealed, dental patients are more likely to feel relief at having been born in the modern era of dentistry. Both groups are in for a good laugh." - Kirkus Reviews show lessTags
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I had fun with this book. Everyone who saw me reading it said - How can you read that!! It freaked them out. I like to know the history of things, dentistry being one of them. I really wanted to know when the first root canal was done. I wanted to know when they finally started giving people anesthesia. I just wanted to know everything.
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9 Works 186 Members
James Wynbrandt is a New York-based author and award-winning aviation and business reporter
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- Reviews
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- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
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