Short answers, pulled from the story.
Dentistry, also known as dental medicine and oral medicine, is the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. It covers the study, diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases and conditions of the mouth, most commonly of the teeth and the oral mucosa. The practitioner is called a dentist.
The history of dentistry is older than the written history of humanity, with the earliest evidence dating back tens of thousands of years and rich evidence from 7000 BC onward. A tooth from Italy cleaned with flint tools is between 13,820 and 14,160 years old, and a May 2026 paper reported a tooth drilled by Neanderthals at least 49,000 years ago.
Pierre Fauchard, a French surgeon, is called the father of modern dentistry because he introduced dental fillings for cavities, pioneered dental prosthesis, and invented early dental braces. His 1728 book Le chirurgien dentiste, or The Surgeon Dentist, separated dentistry from the wider category of surgery.
The tooth worm was an ancient explanation for dental caries first described in a Sumerian text. The belief also appears in ancient India, Egypt, Japan, and China, and in the Homeric Hymns, and the surgeon Guy de Chauliac still promoted it as late as the 14th century AD.
John M. Harris started the world's first dental school in Bainbridge, Ohio, which opened on the 21st of February 1828. The first dental college, the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, opened in Maryland in 1840, and the United Kingdom's first dental schools opened in London in 1859.
Dental workers face noise from scaling tools that can cause hearing loss and tinnitus, plus chemical hazards. Elemental mercury makes up about 50% of conventional dental amalgam and can release toxic vapor, while methyl methacrylate and disinfectants like glutaraldehyde can cause asthma, dermatitis, and allergic reactions.