Technology - the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes - has been and always has been a key component of dentistry.
In the 11th century, long before the first comprehensive scientific textbook on dentistry was published in 1728, dentistry was practiced by a wide variety of craftsmen, mostly barbers, but also wigmakers, bloodletters, goldsmiths, and blacksmiths. other. Yet despite their lack of formal academic training, these medieval practitioners had a distinct set of skills and used specialized tools to remove, repair, and replace the hardest tissues in the body. In the modern era, we recommend turning to professionals /evident-lite.ru
HOW IT ALL BEGAN?
The fame of the first practicing dentists dates back to 1092, when Pope Cyril II of Alexandria decreed that priests and monks would have a new style of grooming, a shaved face and a unique hairstyle. The Pope invited barbers to carry out this task. As a result, barbers and the tools they used—razors, spears, and scissors—became part of a promising surgical profession, and barber surgeons were created.
Priests could read medical texts and became doctors, but they were not allowed to stain their hands with blood and therefore did not perform any invasive interventions. The ban on bloodletting and surgical intervention on the part of priest-physicians began in 1163, when Pope Alexander III, in the Council of Tours, declared: "The ecclesia hates the sanguine." Loosely translated, this meant: "the shedding of blood is incompatible with the holy duty of a priest before God." This was the beginning of a division between doctors and surgeons that lasted for about 800 years. The division is still visible in the names of respected institutions that include the words "College of Physicians and Surgeons", such as the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.
In the early Middle Ages, barber surgeons not only ranked below formally trained doctors, but in medieval France they were placed further. The term "long robe surgeons" referred to those who had academic training to distinguish them from barber surgeons or "short robe surgeons". Surgeons with academic training were in a social position between the medical priests at the top and the low barber surgeons. However, the low status of barber surgeons did not prevent kings and queens from using them in military land battles and on long sea voyages, where they gained experience in treating wounded soldiers and sailors. Necessity is the mother of invention, and barber surgeons, who were practical and innovative, responded with technical advances that later had a great impact on society.
The first and perhaps the most famous of these was Ambroise Pare (1510-1590), barber-surgeon of four French kings, who replaced cauterization of bleeding wounds with hot oil with a ligature. Prior to Paré's invention, hot, boiling oil poured into a wound without anesthesia was believed to "cleanse" gunshot wounds of the supposedly poisonous nature of gunpowder. Many soldiers died of shock and sepsis after such painful treatment. Pare, known as the "gentle surgeon", invented the use of a soothing wound dressing, thereby reducing the pain caused by hot oil and greatly improving wound healing and survival. Paré, a Huguenot, was so valuable that his Catholic king, Charles IX, hid him in the closet of his bedroom on the night of August 24, 1572, the day of the "massacre of St. Bartholomew", to save him from a bloody rampage. Paré lived to be 80 years old, led a productive life, mastered new surgical techniques and developed the extraction tools we still use today. His ligation of blood vessels and ligation technique changed surgery forever.
Pierre Fauchard (1678-1761), considered "the father of modern dentistry", began as an apprentice maritime surgeon under Alexandre Potelere, chief surgeon on His Majesty's ship at the court of Louis XIV. Fauchard witnessed the devastating effects of scurvy on sailors and in particular on their gums. Based on this experience and the fact that a lack of funds prevented him from completing his formal training in surgery, Fauchard decided to pursue dentistry, which did not require expensive training. His experience with the Poteleret was more extensive than that of many practicing dentists of the day. He became a dental surgeon, at that time one of 21 dentists in Paris. His seminal book "Le Chirurgien Dentiste" is a collection of scientific writings.
