Dental Fillings - Dental Amalgam
Cavities are holes in our teeth created by the wear, tear, and decay of tooth enamel. Dental cavities have been repaired or filled with a variety of materials including: stone chips, turpentine resin, gum, and metals. Arculanus (Giovanni d' Arcoli) was the first person to recommend gold-leaf fillings in 1848.
History of the Debate about Mercury
"French dentists were the first to mix mercury with various other metals and plug the mixture into cavities in teeth. The first mixtures, developed in the early 1800s, had relatively little mercury in them and had to be heated to get the metals to bind. In 1819, a man named Bell in England developed an amalgam mix with much more mercury in it that bound the metals at room temperature. Taveau in France developed a similar mixture in 1826."
Dentist's Chair
In 1848, Waldo Hanchett patented the dental chair.
Dentist's Drill
On January 26, 1875, George Green patented the first electric dental drill.
False Teeth
False teeth date back as far as 700 BC. The Etruscans designed false teeth out of ivory and bone that were secured into the mouth by gold bridgework.
Novocain - Alfred Einhorn
There is historical evidence that the ancient
Chinese used acupuncture around 2700 BC to treat the pain associated with tooth decay. The first local anesthetic used in dentistry was Cocaine, introduced as an anesthetic by Carl Koller (1857-1944) in 1884. Researchers soon began working on a non-addictive substitute for Cocaine, and as a result German Chemist, Alfred Einkorn introduced Novocain in 1905. Alfred Einkorn was researching an easy-to-use and safe local anesthesia to use on soldiers during wartime. He refined the chemical procaine until it was more effective, and named the new product Novocain. Novocain never became popular for military use; however, it did become popular as an anesthetic among dentists. In 1846, Dr. William Morton, a Massachusetts dentist, was the first dentist to use anesthesia for tooth extraction.
