Renaissance Dental Hygiene

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A Blast from the Past: Dentistry and Surgery in the Renaissance
England in the 1500s was going through a great deal of change and growth as a country and as a society, this period of time was known as the Renaissance period. All aspects and areas of life were improving and flourishing during this period of time. One aspect of life that was changing and expanding were the Surgery and dentistry fields. Many people realized how important it was to learn about the human body through surgeons and to keep dental hygiene a top priority. The Renaissance period opened up a new way of studies and methods in both of these fields. During the Renaissance period England experienced a great advance in their medical and dentistry field however, there were many skills and knowledge that the people of this time did not know. Doctors needed to acquire specific types of qualifications to become certified in their field. Whether a citizen in England wanted to be a dentist or a surgeon the requirements were the same. The candidate must have first graduated at a university or college no further apprenticeship was required most however, worked under a qualified physician. In order to even get the education needed for a license citizens, men at this time, had to get into a college first to learn the skills needed. However, many …show more content…

The poor hygiene of the Renaissance era in england contributed to tooth loss and tooth decay. If teeth did not fall out on their own citizens of this time could go to the physicians, whose job was to extract the pesky teeth (Fondriest). Physicians of this time were synonymous with dentists today, the tools they used were very different back then however. Dentists of this time used forceps, a punch and a pelican (Parry). Surgeons used tools such as saws to do dissections on people. This was very unsanitary and many people became ill because of infection after having surgery

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