A man pulls another’s tooth in a room filled with a variety of medicines. 1872. F.G. Weller/Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG/Getty Images
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A field dentist at work during World War I. 1915.Wellcome Library, London
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At an outpatient dental clinic in India, a dentist extracts a tooth while the assistant holds the patient’s hands. 1957.KEYSTONE-FRANCE/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images
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U.S. Coast Guard personnel provide medical and dental care to the Alaskan natives in the isolated village of Stebbins, pulling a tooth for one of the native women. 1950.Hulton Archive/Getty Images
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A young child with rotten teeth at Friern Hospital in London. 1890.Wellcome Library, London
A Persian dentist extracts a tooth from a squatting patient. Date unspecified.Wellcome Library, London
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Woman who had numerous teeth removed from the right side of her mouth to treat an infection, but it spread to her gums. 1912.Internet Archive Book Images/Flickr
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Copy of Roman dental bridge found in Teano, Southern Italy. These makeshift dentures were made with other people’s teeth. Science Museum, London
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Image from a textbook showing dental treatment of a girl with hereditary syphilis. 1910.Internet Archive Book Images/Flickr
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A dentist extracts a tooth from a patient on stage. 1817. Wellcome Library, London
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“Dental work looks painful.” 1905.Kirn Vintage Stock/Corbis/ Getty Images
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A U.S. Army dentist extracts a tooth during the Spanish-American War. 1898.Public Domain
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Teeth of a man suffering from lamellar cataracts. 1898.St Bartholomew’s Hospital Archives & Museum, Wellcome Images
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A Chinese dentist in his makeshift office extracting a tooth. 1890.Bettmann/Getty Images
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A dentist pulls a man’s tooth with a string while making him recoil from a hot coal. 1810.National Library of Medicine
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A World War I dentist performs a tooth extraction.Michael Kassube/Wikimedia Commons
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A tooth-drawer with “lightness of hand” extracts a tooth from a protesting patient, amidst the chaos of his practice. Date unspecified.Henry William/Wellcome Library, London
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A tradesman sells secondhand dentures to those who cannot afford a visit to the dentist at Waterlooplein marketplace in Amsterdam. 1955.Vagn Hansen/BIPs/Getty Images
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U.S. Dentist Corp personnel working on patients. Date unspecified.U.S. Signal Corp
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Engraving of a comic work depicting a dentist. Circa 12th century.PHAS/UIG/Getty Images
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The teeth of a 12-year-old boy with hereditary syphilis. 1912.Wikimedia Commons
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Steel engraving showing a tooth extraction in progress. Date unspecified.Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Comic photograph of Army officers cleaning their friend’s teeth. Circa World War II. Wellcome Library, London
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A Turkish dentist extracts a tooth. Circa late 19th century.Michael Nicholson/Corbis/Getty Images
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A man with long fangs has a tooth extracted by a dentist who is standing behind the patient. Date unspecified.National Library of Medicine
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An African dentist performs an operation on a patient that he is restraining with a wooden stick. Date unspecified.Wellcome Library, London
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31 Creepy Pictures From The Early History Of Dentistry
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While going to the dentist is something that many people dread, our fears must be nothing compared to what people in the past had to contend with. The history of dentistry indeed reveals some downright terrifying practices.
For centuries, dentistry was the work of skilled laborers, not highly-trained doctors. In medieval Europe, for example, many dental procedures were carried out by barber-surgeons, medical practitioners who shaved monk’s heads and used their expertise with a blade to make a profit out of surgical procedures as well. The mortality rate of these procedures was, expectedly, high.
While the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution changed the history of dentistry by elevating it to a more learned profession, dental tools and practices of this era still remain largely terrifying today.
For one, because anesthetic was rare, people frequently had their teeth pulled with no pain-killers. Furthermore, many dentists would pull out teeth for any toothache-related issue, even if the infection causing the pain had already spread to the gums.
And as the history of dentistry moved into the 20th century and things started looking more like they do today, the tools and procedures grew no less disturbing — and fascinating. See for yourself in the photos above.
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