"BARBER SURGEON~MEDIEVAL~ DENTISTRY" POSTER

BARBER SURGEON~MEDIEVAL~ DENTISTRY 500-1000 - During the Early Middle Ages in Europe medicine, surgery, and dentistry, are generally practiced by monks, the most educated people of the period. 1130-1163 - A series of Papal edicts prohibit monks from performing any type of surgery, bloodletting or tooth extraction. Barbers often assisted monks in their surgical ministry because they visited monasteries to shave the heads of monks and the tools of the barber trade—sharp knives and razors—were useful for surgery. After the edicts, barbers assume the monks’ surgical duties: bloodletting, lancing abscesses, extracting teeth, etc. 1210 - A Guild of Barbers is established in France. Barbers eventually evolve into two groups: surgeons who were educated and trained to perform complex surgical operations; and lay barbers, or barber-surgeons, who performed more routine hygienic services including shaving, bleeding and tooth extraction 1400's - A series of royal decrees in France prohibit lay barbers from practicing all surgical procedures except bleeding, cupping, leeching, and extracting teeth. 1530 - The Little Medicinal Book for All Kinds of Diseases and Infirmities of the Teeth (Artzney Buchlein), the first book devoted entirely to dentistry, is published in Germany. Written for barbers and surgeons who treat the mouth, it covers practical topics such as oral hygiene, tooth extraction, drilling teeth, and placement of gold fillings. The middle ages was a brutal time for the toothache sufferer, as the main treatments available were dubious toothache remedies and extraction. Dentistry was not a profession in itself, and often dental treatment such as extractions and tinctures were offered by barbers or barber-surgeons, and by the marketplace charlatan, the tooth drawer, and later the 'Operator for the Teeth'. Dental treatments comprised tinctures and styptics - extraction was a last and painful resort.