Saturday 22 September 2012

Oldest Dental Filling Is Found In A Stone Age Tooth

You may not want to try this at home. A simple wax cap that was applied to a broken tooth 6500 years ago is the oldest dental filling on record. It adds to evidence that Neolithic communities had a surprisingly sophisticated knowledge of dentistry.

The recipient of the treatment was most likely a 24 to 30-year-old man, living in what is now Slovenia. His fossilised jawbone was found early last century near the village of Lonche and filed away in a museum in nearby Trieste, Italy. The jawbone remained in the museum for 101 years without anybody noticing anything strange. That was until scientist happened to use the specimen to test new X-ray imaging equipment, and spotted some unusual material attached to a canine.

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