Neanderthal dentists used stone drills to treat cavities nearly 60,000 years ago, ancient molar suggests

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• Jax@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Holy fuck.

  Can you imagine some guy drilling holes into your teeth with nothing but elbow grease and a stone drill? Desperation will drive you to madness, I guess.

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• omgboom@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  So neanderthals had a more accessible healthcare system than we do gotcha

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  • platypode@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Friends and sharp rocks stay free, it’s just the nerd shit like medical training and anesthesia you’ve gotta pay for

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• JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I wonder what they then filled the cavity with.

  Reminder that Neanderthals had bigger brains than us on average. FWIW.

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  • HasturInYellow@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Pine resin can be made into a glue that hardens quite well. Easy enough to replace if needed. However I have no idea if they used that.

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    • JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Amber-style teeth sound pretty rad, honestly.

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• Hadriscus@jlai.lu ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  phew I kinda feel good about living in this modern age. The article doesn’t mention anesthesia but maybe neanderthals used it ? feels like drilling out a cavity with stone tools would benefit from anesthesia

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  • diabetic_porcupine@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Image

    One anesthesia pleaaaaseee!!!

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  • belated_frog_pants@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    It probably hurt so bad already that this felt like a last resort. People used to say bugs or gremlins or w/e caused tooth pain so Neander Von Thal might have been begging to have it popped

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  • bunkyprewster@startrek.website ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    We didn’t have any kind of local anesthesia until they figured out cocaine could do this near the end of the 1800s.

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    • luciole@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Medicinal plants to manage pain have been used since the dawn of time. Western medecine took a while to care about how patients feel though.

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    • Routhinator@startrek.website ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Cloves were about as close as you could get before that.

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  • LimpRimble@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    drilling out a cavity with stone tools would benefit from anesthesia

    Probably just used a larger stone.

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    • newton@feddit.online ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Ty, best one ive heard today🤣

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    • Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      “Nurse, prep patient.”

      “Yes, doctor.”

      hits patient in the head with a club to knock him out

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    • Hadriscus@jlai.lu ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      😂 In Earth’s Children, the main character occasionally uses anesthetic beverages to operate on others painlessly. I don’t know how documented that is. When I have some free time, I’ll look up anesthetic use during the neolithic upper paleolithic.

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