Neanderthal Dentistry

By Dr. Robert Kelly, For The Mountain Times

Whenever I get down about bad news or the state of the world it’s always nice to have a healthy dose of perspective. As bad news filters through our news feed daily now it is easy to get lost in a doom loop of pessimism. Sometimes though to break out of it, a quirky news article makes you stop and think “are things really that bad?”

This happened to me recently with a NY Times article titled “Neanderthal Dentistry, and the Scientist Glad Not to Have Experienced it.”

Russian archeologists found a 59,000 Neanderthal molar in a Siberian cave that had a deep hole in it. Based on the hollowed out form of the tooth they were able to determine that the hole was from a stone drill made out of jasper, a tough quartz found in an area of the cave, used for tools found in the area.

They discovered that this molar had in fact had a Stone Age root canal procedure done to it. Scientists then realized that the earliest evidence of prehistoric dentistry was now 59,000 years ago! What is also a marvel here is that these Neanderthals would have had to understand the anatomy of a tooth to diagnose the problem and the source of the pain, then be able to scrape down to the pulp of the tooth where the nerve is. This would have required some sophisticated dental dexterity.  

What is also probably going through your mind right now is not only that prehistoric ancestors of ours were doing invasive dental work, but that they were doing it without modern medicine or anesthesia. Scientists are all but certain that this root canal was done without any anesthesia; it would have taken a very brave, strong person to undergo such a procedure! Ouch. What is also apparent is that this molar tooth showed signs of wear after the drilling took place which means the patient survived the procedure and kept using the molar for the rest of their life.  

This article also had an interesting interview attached with the archeologists and scientists involved that provide some interesting facts about life back then and what Neanderthal teeth problems were like. I can elaborate more next month on those findings but for now I will keep you in suspense with the question…did Neanderthals have more problems like cavities than we do?  

In closing, you may use this article to cheer you up today when you read or see something sad or depressing in the news. Puts life in perspective. Thank your lucky stars you are not a Neanderthal with a toothache.