Did you know that dentists and barbers were originally one profession? It’s true. Way back during the middle ages barbers were the ones to do dental work. Many of them worked in monasteries helping monks perform medical and dental procedures like bloodletting, draining abscesses and pulling teeth.
Want to know how I know that?
Tuesday I spent a grand total of 5 hours in the dentist chair praying (ok well not really praying) that lightening would strike the dentist dead while she plundered my mouth with a wide variety of tools that nearly had me clawing my way out of the chair.
I’ve had numerous surgeries in the last 12 years that have in one way or another been related to my female anatomy. The result of these surgeries and medications has been the breaking down of my teeth.
For the last two years I’ve smiled very little and in talking to other people I’ve tried not to open my mouth wide enough for people to see my teeth. Finally after much financial finagling I’m finally in the position to have some new pearly whites.
Anyhow on Tuesday as I was being prepared the nurse and I chit chatted a bit and she decided it was a good time for a history lesson. She started telling me about the origins of dentistry and I do love a good history lesson.
So after having 6 of my teeth filed and prepped for crowns, my face swollen like a basketball and my new temporaries (gotta wait for those crown to be made) sore as hell I went in search of the history of dentistry.
If you happen to be interested you can check out a time line of the history of dentistry at the ADA but be forewarned, you may not want to see the dentist again after reading it.
image courtesy of Miguel Perez
Raunchy Taters 