With the fall of Rome the Western world gradually sank into a mire of ignorance, superstition and intellectual passivity. Countries were split up into small, isolated city-states. Seeking protection against hostile forces people put themselves under the protection of the Church which became the only institution that exercised restraint upon the barbarian lords. Latin became the official language of cultural expression.
With Christian control of thought and learning came monastic medicine which was no longer based on rational principles.
The most important documentation of dental practices of the time was provided by Saint Hildegard, abbess of Bingen, in Germany (1099-1179). She wrote of the healing power of plants, meats, and minerals in her book Physica giving their German names. Her information on the teeth was Aristotelian for she ascribed toothache to the presence of decaying blood in the arteries that supply the teeth. She also mentioned the toothworm and advocated the smoke of burning aloe and myrrh to drive it out. She lists numerous remedies for toothache. Hildegard also believed in simple preventive measures, her only reference to oral surgery is lancing an abscess of the gum to facilitate the drainage of pus.
The Thirteenth and Sixteenth Centuries
The medical universities made no contributions to medical knowledge. During the 13th and 14th centuries the medical curriculum continued to be on the writings of the ancient Roman and Greek authors translated into rude Latin. The mythical toothworm was still blamed for toothache. Liquid prescriptions were applied as drops on an aching tooth to conquer the worm. Following the methods of the Arabic writers specialists applied acids taking care to shield the rest of the mouth from damage. One innovate method of protection was to build a small cofferdam of wax around a carious tooth before filling it with caustic liquid.
The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
The 18th century saw profound changes in the practice pf dentistry. Dentistry became an independent scientific discipline. In 1699 the French parliament passed a law that dental practitioners along with such other specialists as oculists and bonesetters had to be examined by a committee of surgeons before being allowed to practice in Paris.
On march 6, 1840 the first dental college in the world, the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, was chartered by the state of Maryland. Under the supervision of a board of visitors consisting of nine physicians, four ministers, and two dentists was a faculty of four. Two were dentists: Hayden, professor of dental physiology and pathology and the president of the College, and Harris, professor of practical dentistry and the dean. Two were physicians: professor of special pathology and therapeutics, and professor of anatomy and physiology.
Only five students were enrolled in the first class. The requirements for the newly designated D.D.S. degree were as high as, if no higher than those for the M.D. degree. The course of study lasted two years, the same amount of time required for medical degree, with instruction during four months of each year, The remainder of the time was spent receiving practical experience in a dental office. Only two members of the class graduated.
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It was Greene Vardiman Black who truly brought dentistry into the modern world and put it on the solid, scientific foundation it now occupies. He authored more than five hundred articles and several outstanding books which became recognized classics in the field. His Dental Anatomy appeared in 1890 and in a908 his great two volume Operative Dentistry was issued.
Dentistry
The Mouth
Of all organs of the human body the mouth is the most readily available for observing the past, present and future history of an individual. Something of the characteristics of a man can be determined by examining his mouth. The words that flow from it, the degree of repair, decay and attrition of the teeth, and the color, the texture, and the temperature of the oral soft tissues all reveal an individuals history and response to his conditions of life. In order to recognize these conditions one must know something of the form and function of oral structures. One must know the size and shape of the structures of the mouth and how they contribute to functions of chewing, swallowing, speech, facial harmony, and the general well-being of the human organism. One must know how these structures originate, grow, age, and respond to the human condition of health and disease. The value of knowledge concerning forms and functions of oral anatomy is to provide a basis for understanding the curious questions how can oral diseases be controlled and prevented.
Birth is the beginning of independent life. A great deal of growth and development takes place before birth.
But what is growth and what is development? Growth is simply an increase in size while development is the maturation of what has grown. growth implies the multiplication of cells, to get bigger, and development is the changing that the grown cells do to take on a special form and function. These changes to special form and function are maturation.
When an infant is first born he cannot see well, nor hear, walk, talk, smell, nor even grab something with his hands. He is an immature new being. But he eats well. This is necessary for his survival. Eating is a specialized, well-developed function. The mouth as compared to the rest of the body matures very early.
The mouth is the first organ of the newborn to perform voluntary and purposeful functions. the functions of sucking and swallowing are well matured before birth, they are the earliest independent acts of the young infant.
The infantile stage of life is the mouth period, that period of life when most sensations are received through the mouth. A person can feel better with his lips and tongue than he can with his fingers. This is true even for the adult. The tongue and lips contain a very large number of nerve endings enabling us to distinguish between hot and cold, rough and smooth, wet and dry. The mouth is the portal of pleasure and survival, eating and speaking. Frequently psychological problems manifesting themselves later in life find earlier expressions through actions of the mouth. Thumb and finger sucking habits, nervous tic-like movements of jaws and tongue, grinding of teeth, disorders of speech, and abnormalities in eating habits are examples of distorted oral functions. If these distorted oral functions become compulsive and persist into late childhood they are symptomatic of psychological problems.
