Pertinax Posted July 11, 2006 Report Share Posted July 11, 2006 Oh, I can't imagine. I know how sensitive my teeth are sometimes to heat and cold.... Did they at least use some anesthesia or something? Can't remember if it has already been said above: there was really no reliable anaesthetic. An analgesic helps instead, and the handiest analgesic for Roman doctors was opium. That's why poppies were a valuable resource. Cato (On Farming) recommends you to sow poppies where you had a bonfire. Cato is on the ball ,nice concentration of potash, nowadays farming methods (in Britain ) have reduced the viability and visibility of wild poppies, but if any farmland is disturbed for a while and left fallow without any use of pesticides/weedkillers the poppy appears. Likewise if a new roadway is cut across farmland and spoil heaps of soil are left aside, they sprout a colourful growth. I was thinking over the excruciating horror of the "lead tooth" , (and I will chat with the LEG II Medicus next week as well, see if he has some sources), it isnt in fact very much removed from modern pillar/tooth insertion. However in terms of "user comfort" I am a little less convinced, we know myrrh and clove were available to smear over a wounded gum , garlic would not be ridiculous either, but none would really help with pain only the risk of infection. Perhaps the solace of alcoholic intoxication would help? http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?&a...=si&img=915 These are the tools the medicus has,so unless Dentistry was a separate speciality these are what you would have had to work with ( in the field), along with the bone extractor pliers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost_Warrior Posted July 11, 2006 Report Share Posted July 11, 2006 Clove is actually a great pain reliever (my mom is a huge fan of clove oil for a toothache) however the results aren't very long lasting as far as I know, and something so bad as having a piece of hot lead jammed in your mouth probably would not get much lasting relief from clove. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pertinax Posted July 11, 2006 Report Share Posted July 11, 2006 Clove is actually a great pain reliever (my mom is a huge fan of clove oil for a toothache) however the results aren't very long lasting as far as I know, and something so bad as having a piece of hot lead jammed in your mouth probably would not get much lasting relief from clove. No indeed , I was thinking of the infection! Clove is still the standard for temporary packing fillings, im not aware that anything surpasses it in antimicrobial excellence. My other suggestions for plausible Roman usage would be cinnamon (if you were wealthy ) and frankincense.(AD?) as antiseptics (which would work for that purpose). Pliny alas requires us to chew the pitch of the juniper bush ( no "miracle of the juniper bush remarks please" ) because rotten teeth adhere to it and fall out , thus relieving toothache. Cruse (Roman Medicine) is adamant that the generality of found roman dentition is superior to modern teeth in the general lack of cariousness ( no sweeteners, and no mushy "white" products). Celsus certainly mentions the use of an iron cautery (ouch) cyprus and iris oil are suggested as poultice applications for painful teeth , the other herbs are, not surprisingly, henbane root in a vinegar and wine mix, or poppy head skins as a poultice, or mandragora. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost_Warrior Posted July 11, 2006 Report Share Posted July 11, 2006 I hadn't known that clove did anything for infection. Why was cinnamon more expensive than clove? Was clove more readily available? (cloves are more expensive here, and they taste alot better too!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pertinax Posted July 11, 2006 Report Share Posted July 11, 2006 I hadn't known that clove did anything for infection. Why was cinnamon more expensive than clove? Was clove more readily available? (cloves are more expensive here, and they taste alot better too!) How things change across time and space! I think AD is the real authority on the prestige of spices, as medicine and\or items of conspicuous consumption. ADs book Dangerous Tastes is excellent on this very topic (which i urge you to buy) http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0714127...ce&n=266239 Both were "fabulous" luxury goods, cinnamon in particular being a whiff of luxury incarnate. Nowadays ? cloves are cheap and plentiful , likewise cinnamon which I use in coffee with cardoman pods.Both are strongly antibacterial. Lets see if AD will give us a little of his vast knowledge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost_Warrior Posted July 11, 2006 Report Share Posted July 11, 2006 Cinnamon in coffee! Pertinax, you are a genius!!! I never thought of it! LOL. I'll have to try it in vanilla cappucino I'll look into that book when I'm putting an order into amazon next Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pertinax Posted July 11, 2006 Report Share Posted July 11, 2006 Cinnamon in coffee! Pertinax, you are a genius!!! I never thought of it! LOL. I'll have to try it in vanilla cappucino I'll look into that book when I'm putting an order into amazon next Flattery will get you everywhere! Try it in porridge as well, and both are better with a pinch of salt. If I recall Marcus Aurelius had a whole cinnamon tree in his personal effects, on campaign! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Primus Pilus Posted July 11, 2006 Report Share Posted July 11, 2006 If I recall Marcus Aurelius had a whole cinnamon tree in his personal effects, on campaign! The same Marcus Aurelius also strongly encourages the use of oppium in "Meditations". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pertinax Posted July 11, 2006 Report Share Posted July 11, 2006 If I recall Marcus Aurelius had a whole cinnamon tree in his personal effects, on campaign! The same Marcus Aurelius also strongly encourages the use of oppium in "Meditations". That must have been some Contubernium to chill in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Primus Pilus Posted July 11, 2006 Report Share Posted July 11, 2006 If I recall Marcus Aurelius had a whole cinnamon tree in his personal effects, on campaign! The same Marcus Aurelius also strongly encourages the use of oppium in "Meditations". That must have been some Contubernium to chill in. I don't recall where I read this (whether it was taken from Meditations or some other speculative source) but I have a vague recollection that the oppium was also enjoyed while mixed into the wine. I think the picture of Commodus' later lunacy begins to unfold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pertinax Posted July 11, 2006 Report Share Posted July 11, 2006 wine was a favoured medium for a lot of "medications". In Brittania horehound herb in wine was an attested Legionary cough syrup.Considerable numbers of finds at Pompeii show various herbs in a wine base,sounds a good way to medicate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost_Warrior Posted July 12, 2006 Report Share Posted July 12, 2006 My guess would be the wine killed the taste, (horehound is DEFINITELY an...aquired...taste) also the water they had probably wasn't all that good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Dalby Posted July 12, 2006 Report Share Posted July 12, 2006 I hadn't known that clove did anything for infection. Why was cinnamon more expensive than clove? Was clove more readily available? (cloves are more expensive here, and they taste alot better too!) http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0714127...ce&n=266239 Both were "fabulous" luxury goods, cinnamon in particular being a whiff of luxury incarnate. Nowadays ? cloves are cheap and plentiful , likewise cinnamon which I use in coffee with cardoman pods.Both are strongly antibacterial. Lets see if AD will give us a little of his vast knowledge All right, just a little ...! Both were fearsomely expensive to the average Roman, mainly because of supply and demand: they came from just one direction, thousands of miles away across stormy seas. Read Pliny on the trade in cinnamon (I quote him in the book mentioned above) and even if it isn't all quite true you still get an idea of why it cost so much. So much, in fact, that it wasn't used in food (so far as recipes tell us): it was just too valuable, and had to be left to the physicians, the perfume-makers (because men will pay a lot for women's perfumes, as Pliny also says) and the altars of the gods. Maybe, if cloves were less expensive, it's because they weren't used in perfumes ?? The cheapness of these spices now comes mainly from the rush to transplant them across the globe, in the 18th century mostly, which finally killed the monopolies (and made various local economies collapse). Columbus took a hand in this: he planted sugar cane in the Caribbean. Sugar is so cheap now that we don't think of it as a spice any more. wine was a favoured medium for a lot of "medications". Hence the still-surviving fashion for vermouth (i.e. wine medicated with wormwood). Wormwood is, and always was, a good vermifuge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pertinax Posted July 12, 2006 Report Share Posted July 12, 2006 Thank you for that learned interjection. :notworthy: And by chance we have this little chat about Thujone in Wormwood. http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?act=mo...=si&img=296 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pertinax Posted July 16, 2006 Report Share Posted July 16, 2006 Now I did say I would get hold of the re-created Roman dentistry "model" and here he is ,complete with the "hammered in " two pronged lead tooth (see earlier in thread) and if that doesnt make you feeel too good he also has some riveting bridge work in brass. By way of explanation I should say that this is the replication of work from two skull finds, at least the suffering was shared. THe gum would have been cauterised by hot iron first. http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?act=mo...=si&img=923 however things havent changed as far as "dentures " go have they? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.