Not long ago I did a posting here about material progress, as illuminated by a book about the past which described a time before many of our modern comforts had been devised. A commenter commented, as at least one commenter always will during discussions of this sort: dentistry!
He was right of course. And it so happens that I have been reading another work of history, by Charles Spencer, this time about the Battle of Blenheim, in which the primitive dentistry of earlier times gets a particularly memorable mention.
The Battle of Blenheim was fought in 1704 between a coalition of allies under the command of the Duke of Marlborough and various French armies of Louis XIV. Louis XIV is of course the villain of the story, who gets his just comeuppance at Blenheim. However, it turns out that finding all his grand plans of European conquest thwarted by a supreme commander of genius, who, in the words of Sir Edward Creasy, “never fought a battle that he did not win, and never besieged a place that he did not take”, was not Louis XIV’s only bit of bad luck. We learn, from an early paragraph in Blenheim (pp. 20-21 of my paperback edition), that Louis had another huge misfortune to contend with towards the end of his life:
In the autumn of 1685, Louis developed an agonising and persistent toothache, and his doctors decided to extract the offending molar. However, they were ignorant of the importance of post-operative hygiene, and infection set in: the king’s gums, jawbone and sinuses became dangerously inflamed. A committee of nervous physicians concluded that drastic measures were called for. Louis underwent a truly terrible ordeal: they removed all the teeth from the top layer of his mouth, then punctured his palate and broke his jaw. This was all completed without anaesthetic, the king being fully awake throughout this procedure. The most powerful man in Western Europe was helpless before the primitive medical knowledge of his time. At least the wounds were kept clean on this occasion – cauterised with red-hot coals.
I almost feel sorry for the man. But having got this sad story out of the way, Spencer then goes on to describe what Louis XIV’s soldiers did to the people of the United Dutch Provinces – genocide, basically, to all of them that they could get their murdering hands on – and any sympathy you may feel for this abominable man immediately disappears.
But the point about dentistry remains. The average citizen of an average country now enjoys vastly less painful and more knowedgeable dental care than even the grandest of kings had to endure in earlier times.
Never knock progress.
Amen.
Ha! The poor bastard
couldn’t find an NHS Dentist either then!
What ever science can do, socialism can undo:
In a Dentist Shortage, British (Ouch) Do It Themselves By Sarah Lyall, The New York Times, May 7, 2006
Robert Schwartz, very well put.
I’ve read that people used to carry flower petals or a slice of lemon about, and hold it in front of their mouth when they spoke. To avoid offending (read: gagging) others.
Also, bathing more than a few times a year was considered unhealthy.
Insert this into the dating ritual, and it makes one wonder why we’re not extinct.
CFM
Nice motto, Robert Schwartz.
I can’t resist giving this old address again about an ex-socialist land :
http://www.jetlagtravel.com/molvania/index.html
“Molvania, a land untouched by modern dentistry.”
This is really a strange thing to know. Anyways, I found it really sad for the man in the story.
Thank-you, Brian! Neal Stephenson described Louis XIV’s dental ordeal in his book Quicksilver. Like so many events in that book, I found myself asking, “did that *really* happen?” I couldn’t find anything about it on the net until now.
I strikes me that (from what I’ve read, at least) people seemed to be more accustomed to, and make less of a fuss about pain and death back then. These days a barely measurable change in cancer-risk has people in uproar and panic.
Many people today still put up with unbelievable levels of pain and misery because doctors are unable to cure their illnesses. For many their only alternative to constant debilitating pain is to take drugs which have unpleasant side effects. Yes there are pain killers but the cost of using them, in the long term, is often to lose any ability to function normally.
Most peoples uproar/panic at news stories seems to be as result of the way in which the MSM sensationalise every bit of news and report facts so obscurely – when they report them at all. Combine this with a general lack of ability to comprehend – I believe through poor education – and any little threat causes panic and an excuse for some statist to add yet more unnecessary legislation.
Perhaps passing a citizen test for basic comprehension should be a requisite for voting? Then the politicians would have to raise the level of their rhetoric and include some meaningful substance if they wanted our votes.
Interestingly enough, the best dentistry is what you eat. A Cleveland dentist named Dr. Price visited “primitive” people all around the world in the early 20th century and found their teeth were straight and white.
– Josh
I knew a man in my youth we all callled Old Man Crawford, who was the patriarch of the Crawford clan in Charleston, the next town over from the one I grew up in upstate New York. His Grandchildren were friends of mine and my brothers. Anyway, he had bad teeth and went to a dentist who told him he needed dentures, but first needed his remaining teeth pulled. When given the estimate for the cost of pulling his teeth, he stormed out of the office and went home, stopping to buy a bottle of Canadian Club Whiskey on the way home. His Grandsons all swore that they found him at 5:00PM sitting on a hay bale in his barn, surrounded by an empty bootle of Canadian club, various teeth and a bloody pair of plyers on the ground and a bloody towel clamped in his mouth.
I do know that he thereafter could be seen sporting new dentures shortly after the alledged self dentistry.
My great-grandfather was a blacksmith, and there being no dentist around people came to him to have teeth pulled. No anaesthetic, of course.
Pulled so many that he ordered a pair of dentists’ pliers. My dad still has them.
I remember (I think it was last year) hearing Charles Spencer on Radio 4’s “Start the Week”.
The other guests were the normal leftists one gets on B.B.C. shows – they sneared at the Duke of Marlborough (he was made a Duke and kin to this toff Charles Spencer – so he must have been a nonenity).
Even Andrew Marr (ex editor of the leftist “Independent” and B.B.C. man – although he also writes for the Daily Telegraph) seemed a bit embarrassed by their words).
Actually the leftists were (I assume without knowing it) on the correct side for them.
Louis XIV and his side kick Colbert were the arch statists of their age.
All aspect of the economy (i.e. of the civil interactions of human beings) should be under as much state control as they could manage – that was their position.
It was not just about war (although, yes, Louis gave destruction and death to as much of Europe as he could – especially in various parts of Germany), they truly believed that statism was the way to happiness of the people.
Just as the leftists on “Start the Week” believed this (and they also the type who believe in using terror for the greater long term good).
Ah! Dentistry. One of my pastimes, as a patient. I told my dentist I’d put her in my will, because once I kick the bucket her practice and her income will drop off. LOL I like being of English descent (first gen immigrant child of first gen immigrant parents)…except for the bad teeth part.
So I enjoy my root canals and dental implants and vain procedures like bleaching. I’m a great patient; I fall asleep in the chair. I’m a pretty relaxed creature.
But…I had an aunt who died of diphtheria! My grandma had many sisters who died of TB too young, IIRC. I think we forget sometimes the amazing progress in just one generation, or one century. People used to die of infections, now they die of lifestyle consequences or just plain wearing out.
Sanitation, germ theory, handwashing
Public health–fortification to eliminate rickets and spina bifida
Vaccination
Artificial contraception
Now, if the point of your post is to demonstrate modern dentistry as a luxury of a well developed and prosperous society, take it one step further…
cosmetic surgery! breast implants, liposuction, botox, hair implants, electrolysis, vaginal rejuvenation, eye lifts, tummy tucks, stomach stapling, etc.
and…ED treatments! Now we care about the penile functioning of old men and are even willing to have Medicaid and Medicare pay for their recreational sex!
What would Louis XIV’s reaction be to that? What would my great grandparents reaction be to that?
Sometimes I have conversations with my Dad about the changes he’s seen in his lifetime. Pretty amazing.
Of course, one must be willing to seek dental care. Many po’ folks in my area have FREE dental care on Medicaid and don’t seek it! They’d rather have black rotted and missing teeth and gum disease than see a dentist, even one who practices sedation dentistry. Idiots.
Josh, it’s related to how much starch is in one’s diet, I believe.