RANT!!! My teeth...

[Lallans]

It was quick....but gruesome. How people tolerated , or even did this before modern medicine is a nightmare to think about!

I believe most people just let them rot and fall out?- or if the pain was unbearable they had them pulled by a qualified local barber. Of course they do find mummies of the Egyptian pharaohs with fillings but those folks were living gods with publicly funded dental coverage.

[Lallans]

I must admit that I'm going to be looking at some dental work in the near future, too. Seems all the men in my family (only men, no women) who are descendant from a particular individual (great-great-grandfather) lose all their top teeth. My lowers are in good shape, my uppers look like a prizefighters, about a third are broken or missing. I'm contemplating having them all pulled and an upper plate done.

I once lived in an area where the majority ethnic group routinely had all their teeth pulled around the age of 18 and lived with beatiful and virtually cost free dentures for the rest of their lives. Not sure that's not the best idea, but I was never really tempted either.

[NorCalPiper]

Oh the pain-Today I feel like I've been slammed with a hammer on the side of the face. Strange feeling to have an empty space now.....If I could just stop sticking my tongue where the tooth used to be!

[NewGuise]

It was quick....but gruesome. How people tolerated , or even did this before modern medicine is a nightmare to think about!

Should I as a medievalist start giving historical examples?

(No, you don't want to know...)

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Josh, I know this won't make you feel any better but it is fitting

Address To The Toothache

My curse upon your venom'd stang,
That shoots my tortur'd gums alang,
An' thro' my lug gies mony a twang,
Wi' gnawing vengeance,
Tearing my nerves wi' bitter pang,
Like racking engines!

When fevers burn, or argues freezes,
Rheumatics gnaw, or colics squeezes,
Our neibor's sympathy can ease us,
Wi' pitying moan;
But thee-thou hell o' a' diseases-
Aye mocks our groan.

Adown my beard the slavers trickle
I throw the wee stools o'er the mickle,
While round the fire the giglets keckle,
To see me loup,
While, raving mad, I wish a heckle
Were in their doup!

In a' the numerous human dools,
Ill hairsts, daft bargains, cutty stools,
Or worthy frien's rak'd i' the mools, -
Sad sight to see!
The tricks o' knaves, or fash o'fools,
Thou bear'st the gree!

Where'er that place be priests ca' hell,
Where a' the tones o' misery yell,
An' ranked plagues their numbers tell,
In dreadfu' raw,
Thou, Toothache, surely bear'st the bell,
Amang them a'!

O thou grim, mischief-making chiel,
That gars the notes o' discord squeel,
Till daft mankind aft dance a reel
In gore, a shoe-thick,
Gie a' the faes o' Scotland's weal
A townmond's toothache!

Nice one Glen--

[NorCalPiper]

YEah-That's choice!!! I think I've read it 40 times at this point!!!