Simulation in Dentistry and Dental Hygiene

Abstract

There is evidence of dental procedures being performed thousands of years ago but until quite recently most dental conditions were mostly managed by extraction. In the Sushuta Samhita, which was written more than 1500 years ago, surgical students were told to practice extracting teeth from the jaws of dead animals [1, pp. 71–73]. The Etruscans made dentures from gold and made crowns from human teeth [2]. In France in the early eighteenth century Pierre Fauchard (1678–1761) created the field of dental surgery [3]. Fauchard recognized the association between consumption of sugar and tooth decay and described a range of dental procedures in Le Chirurgien dentiste, ou Traité des dents (The dental surgeon or a Treatise of teeth) first published in 1728. In the book Fauchard’s explained how lost teeth could be replaced by dental prostheses constructed from ivory and bone. John Hunter’s The Natural History of Human Teeth published in 1771 became the ultimate reference for dental anatomy and his more Practical Treatise on the Diseases of the Teeth was published in 1778. In the Treatise Hunter wrote extensively on transplantation of teeth, then widely advocated as a substitute for dentures [4].