Modern dentistry affords patients access to top-quality dental care from highly erudite dentists, though this wasn’t always the case. As far as medical professions go, dentistry dates as far back as 7000 B.C. in the Indus Valley. While dentistry may have had its start around that time, it in no way resembled modern practice.
In 1210 when the word guild was still considered cool, a guild of barbers was established in France. These ‘barbers’ were separated into surgeons that carried out complex surgical operations, and barber-surgeons who performed routine practices, such as shaving, bleeding, and tooth extraction. The modern-day equivalents of these groups are dentists and dental assistants.
The year 1530 heralded the first book entirely dedicated to dentistry, The Little Medicinal Book for All Kinds of Diseases and Infirmities of the Teeth. The book was written by the German Artzney Buchlein, and details general dentistry topics such as oral hygiene, tooth extraction, drilling teeth, and placement of gold fillings for barbers and surgeons.
Come 1723 and modern dentistry was born. Pierre Fauchard’s informative treatise on his profession was the first comprehensive book the divulged a comprehensive system for practicing dentistry, including oral anatomy and function, as well as restorative techniques and denture construction.
Samuel Stockton became a household name in the dental world when he founded his commercial manufacturing company, White Dental. His company specialized in creating porcelain teeth and proceeded to dominate the dental supply market throughout the entire 19th century.
The 1880s put an end to toothpaste and tooth powder being produced and sold by individual dentists. It was during this decade that tube toothpaste began hitting the stores in a big way. Toothpaste as we know it quickly became a national product.
The 20th century saw practices and the use of certain technology standardized throughout the whole of the dentistry community. Root canal practices and dental bonding today are nothing like what they were in the past. Come by and check out what the latest in dentistry has to offer when you visit some of the best dentists in the Ashburn, Purcellville, VA area.