Kissing a donkey and spitting on a frog!

In the throes of agonising toothache, could you imagine kissing the teeth of a living donkey in an attempt to cure yourself? If you can't, that's understandable - but it's exactly what you would have done in the 14th century... and much more besides.

The cures for toothache in the past are difficult to believe and some of them are difficult to stomach. From spitting into the mouth of frog in the hope it would take on your pain for itself to sucking on the freshly extracted tooth of a dead man, past populations would try anything to alleviate the pain of cavities and gum disease.

Until the germ theory of disease was discovered in the late 19th century, how teeth became cavity ridden was a mystery. In 1890, WD Miller discovered that bacteria lived on the surface of the teeth and their acidic waste products could erode the enamel. Prior to this discovery, common lore attributed cavities to a tooth worm. The worm was a popular explanation for dental problems across the globe throughout the ages.  Ancient Babylonian priests are purported to have called upon the sun god Ra to summon the worm for them so that they could banish it with a curse and medieval Europeans would try to smoke the worms out by taking in the (poisonous) fumes of henbane.

Here be monsters: tooth worms and eternal suffering.

Animals, as with many folk cures, lose out in this situation, with common traditional cures for toothache in England including: wearing a necklace made of mole paws and noses, cutting spines off a dogfish or rubbing the afflicted teeth with the burnt brain of a hare or the horn of a hart. Apparently, hare brains rubbed into the gums were also used to aid the safe eruption of infants' teeth. Lovely.

Nineteenth century Americans would even bite snakes, including deadly rattlesnakes, in an attempt to get rid of their toothache. I'm pretty sure that the threat of getting bitten by a rattler would definitely take your mind off the tooth pain, so at least this one might have worked for a short time...




References:
The Teeth in Folklore (1968), Jeri Tanner
Folklore of the Teeh (1934), Leo Kanner
Of the Teeth  (1961), Byrd Howell Granger

Cow collagen and gum recession...

Gum recession can occur for a variety of reasons, but it is typically associated with poor dental hygiene, over-brushing or mouth based piercings rubbing on the gums. When the loss of gum becomes severe, it is sometimes possible to use gum grafts and surgery to regenerate the gum line, preventing damage to the tooth or tooth root and improving the aesthetic appearance of the dentition.

However, recent research may have dispensed with the need for such surgery. Researchers in Germany and Switzerland have trialled the use of bovine collagen (extracted from the fluid filled sac that surrounds the bovine heart) in humans, to repair the gums of fourteen patients. The collagen was implanted next to the tooth, held in place with surgical thread and left in place to allow the bodies own cells to repair the damage (Figure 1, below).

Figure 1: Showing (A) teeth before treatment, note the multiple recessions above the teeth, (B) shows the incisions created in the gum for (C) the insertion of the collagen and finally (D) demonstrates the healed dentition at six months after intervention. (After Schlee et al. Head & Face Medicine 2012 8:6)

The results have been promising, with the functional and aesthetic appearance of the gum-line improving in many of the patients after a period of six months - in 36 of the 62 recession lesions treated for example, full root coverage was achieved.

So, as odd as it might sound, cow collagen may be the answer to gum recession for people who are unable to have corrective periodontal surgery, if longer term studies prove its staying power. Which is very moo-ving, I think you'll agree.


(Sorry about that. It's the only cow based pun I could come up with.)


References:
Schlee et al. Bovine pericardium based non-cross linked collagen matrix for successful root coverage, a clinical study in humans in Head & Face Medicine 2012 8:6  doi:10.1186/1746-160X-8-6. 
Available at: http://www.head-face-med.com/content/8/1/6
Cow collagen heals gums. Available at http://www.nature.com/bdj/journal/v212/n6/full/sj.bdj.2012.238.html.