Cavemen Dentistry

Discovery Suggests Humans Understood Need To Treat Cavities 14,000 Years Ago.

The Telegraph (UK) (7/16, Squires) reports that Italian scientists have discovered “ancient humans were performing rudimentary dentistry on each other 14,000 years ago…5,000 years earlier than previously thought.” The researchers believe a molar from a “14,000-year-old skeleton of a prehistoric man found in the Dolomites” shows evidence of being infected and treated. Scientists said the findings “have important implications for our knowledge of the earliest forms of dentistry,” and suggest “that in the Upper Palaeolithic era, humans were aware of the damaging effects of cavity infections and of the necessity of treating them, using stone instruments to remove the infected material and to clean out the cavity.”