Thursday, April 06, 2006

Ugh Stone age man used dentist drill

Stone age people in Pakistan were using dental drills made of flint 9,000 years ago, according to researchers.

Teeth from a Neolithic graveyard in Mehgarh in the country's Baluchistan province show clear signs of drilling.

Analysis of the teeth shows prehistoric dentists had a go at curing toothache with drills made from flint heads.

The team that carried out the work say close examination of the teeth shows the tool was "surprisingly effective" at removing rotting dental tissue.


Shouldn't be surprising, really, since people were also drilling into skulls. Probably using the same sort of ideas about releasing diseased matter/.