John I. Ingle, Leif K. Bakland, Edward E. Beveridge, Dudley H. Glick, and Anthony E. Hoskinson
“Because I’ll have you know, Sancho, that a mouth without teeth is like a mill without its stone, and you must value a tooth more than a diamond.” – Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote
The newspaper headline read, “Ancient Root Canal Filling Found.” Datelined Jerusalem, the article went on to state that “a green tooth containing the oldest known root canal filling was discovered in the skull of a Nabatean warrior who was buried in a mass grave 2,200 years ago.” Joseph Zias, curator of the State of Israel Department of Antiquities, later reported on this historic archeologic finding in the Journal of the American Dental Association.1 The tooth in question—a maxillary right lateral incisor—dated from the Hellenistic period (200 BC). Radiographic examination of the ancient skull “disclosed a 2.5 mm bronze wire that had been implanted in the root canal—the earliest known archeologic example of a tooth filled with a metal object” (Figure 1-1). Professor Zias went on to explain the probable reason for the primitive “endodontics”: “The accepted cause of tooth disease in the Mediterranean—a worm burrowing inside the tooth— may give a clue as to why this tooth was filled with a metal wire. It is possible that the wire was implanted into the tooth canal to close the passage and prevent ‘toothworms’ from burrowing into the tooth and causing further dental pain.” The first mention of the “toothworm” theory is found in the Anastasia Papyrus of the thirteenth century BC.1 Somewhat earlier in China, the ancient Chinese subscribed to the “toothworm” theory of dental caries as well. According to Tsai-Fang, “The oracle bone inscription, excavated from the ruins of the Ying Dynasty (fourteenth century BC), clearly shows a character meaning ‘caries.’”2 Since the cause of tooth decay was
Figure 1-1 Oldest known root canal filling. Radiograph of skeletal
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