>Date: Thu, 01 Jan 1998 20:15:25 -0700
>To: [log in to unmask]
>From: "Brian W. Kenny" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: His Tooth Was Toulouse
>
>
>
>Wednesday December 31 5:14 PM EST
>Iron Tooth Reveals Ancient Dentistry
>
>NEW YORK (Reuters) -- A false tooth found in a 1,900-year-old skull reveals
>that sophisticated dental techniques were already in place in Roman times.
>
>According to a report in the current issue of the journal Nature, an iron
>premolar tooth found in the skull of a man buried in France in the first or
>second century A.D. fits "perfectly" into its
>socket in the upper jaw, and "reflects the potential of early medicine,"
>write researchers at the University of Toulouse.
>
>The study authors, led by anthropologist Eric Crubczy, say the skull was
>unearthed in a Roman necropolis (ancient cemetery) located in the French
>town of Essonne.
>
>According to the investigators, the find is the only known example of an
>implanted false tooth from ancient times. The iron prosthesis replaced a
>premolar lost from the upper right jaw. The study authors say x-ray and
>electron microscope investigation have revealed that the tooth was probably
>modeled on the original, and created through "a hot-hammering and folding
>process."
>
>The anthropologists were impressed that "the alveolar (socket) wall and the
>(false tooth's) pseudo-root fit perfectly together." They believe this
>union was aided, in large part, by a natural
>phenomenon called osseointegration, whereby the prosthetic tooth and bone
>fuse together over a period of three to six months. The researchers point
>out that, "although iron is surely not the
>ideal metal for dental implants, its rugged surface must have provided
>satisfactory adhesion to the bone."
>
>The man, who was around 30 years old at the time of his death, probably had
>the tooth implanted about a year before he died. The experts say it was
>probably hammered into the jaw, under crude anesthesia, in much the same
>way a nail is pounded into a board.
>
>However rough his methods, they study authors say the Gallic dentist's
>handiwork provide his modern colleagues with "remarkable clues about
>medicine and anatomy in this rural community... (while supporting) the
>validity of the osseointegration principle." SOURCE: Nature, (1997;391:29)
>
>
 
Anita Cohen-Williams
Listowner of HISTARCH, SUB-ARCH, and SPANBORD
Co-listowner/manager of ANTHRO-L
Contributing Editor, Anthropology, Suite101 <http://www.suite101.com>
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