Stone Age tooth filling consisted of wax clumps

Dental fillings 6,500 years ago consisted of wax clumps

21/09/2012

There were also fillings in the Stone Age. This is proven by a 6500-year-old tooth with a beeswax filling discovered by researchers in Slovenia. The oldest evidence of dentistry in Europe was probably used to relieve toothache. The exact time of dental treatment is no longer noticeable.

Historic tooth filling made of beeswax discovered in Slovenia
Even in the Neolithic period, there were fillings. This is confirmed by the discovery of a jawbone with a tooth filled with beeswax, as reported by Federico Bernardini from the International Center for Theoretical Physics in Trieste and his research team.

„This discovery is perhaps the oldest piece of evidence for prehistoric dentistry in Europe and the earliest known example of therapeutic-analgesic tooth filling, "says Bernardini, who finds the find in the Science Magazine „Unfortunately, the exact timing of the dental treatment can no longer be determined, and the scientists suspect that the beeswax was inserted into the tooth either shortly before or shortly after the death of the Neolithic man. „If the filling was used during human life, the intention was very likely to relieve it of the pain of exposed cervical necks or pain when chewing on a dental enamel-ruptured tooth“, write the scientists.

The researchers studied the find using different analysis methods such as micro-computed tomography, radiocarbon dating and infrared spectroscopy. Since there are hardly any such finds, the beeswax filling can help to gain a better insight into Stone Age dentistry, according to the science magazine.

Stone Age dental treatment with a drill
In the cemetery of Mehrgarh in Baluchistan in southwestern Pakistan, an international research team led by Roberto Macchiarelli from the French University of Poitiers discovered 9,000-year-old molars that bore holes. As the researchers reported in 2006 in the British magazine "Nature", so there had already been dental treatments with drills.

For what purpose the intervention with the drill had taken place, however, can only be surmised. Some of the teeth showed signs of tooth decay, suggesting a therapeutic purpose. After a long time, however, no proof of tooth filling was found, the researchers reported. Aesthetic reasons as the cause of the procedure can be excluded, however, since only the posterior molars were drilled. As Macchiarelli reported at the time, the treatment had been painful for the patient. (Ag)