Evidence of prehistoric dentistry has been limited to a few cases, the
most ancient dating back to the Neolithic. Here we report a
6500-year-old human mandible from Slovenia whose left canine crown bears
the traces of a filling with beeswax. The use of different analytical
techniques, including synchrotron radiation computed micro-tomography
(micro-CT), Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating,
Infrared (IR) Spectroscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), has
shown that the exposed area of dentine resulting from occlusal wear and
the upper part of a vertical crack affecting enamel and dentin tissues
were filled with beeswax shortly before or after the individual’s death.
If the filling was done when the person was still alive, the
intervention was likely aimed to relieve tooth sensitivity derived from
either exposed dentine and/or the pain resulting from chewing on a
cracked tooth: this would provide the earliest known direct evidence of
therapeutic-palliative dental filling.
Image and abstract from a recent publication in the
Public Library of Science (PLOS); fulltext at the link.
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