Modern dentistry is the result of a long process of technological change. Read on to learn more.
Modern dentistry is the result of a long process of technological change. Its technological progress is linked to the practice of medicine in general. Medicine is the inevitable result of humanity’s ability to make tools and,
likewise, to use tools to create and improve other, more complex tools.
As with any use of technology, the practice of medicine is at once a science, a craft, and an art. The word “technology” is derived from the Greek words “techne” (meaning both craft and art) and “logos” (in this context, reason). At some point, this tendency to technology and reason had to be turned on to the human body itself for the purposes of maintenance, in the form of preventative medicine, and repair, in the form of surgery. It is from this generalized practice that dentistry evolved.
A dentist utilizes tools and techniques that span from the most state-of-the-art use of technology, to practices that trace back to humanity’s first application of simple tools. Without metallurgy, the science of the properties of different metals, modern dentistry would be impossible. Metallurgy developed through experimentation, through which metallurgists discovered the properties of various metals, allowing them to shape them into useful tools that can survive indefinitely and be easily cleaned. Because of this, the tools of dentistry are often made of metal.
The use of a scraping tool for cleaning is the basic practice from which many other tools and techniques of dentistry derive. As anyone who has visited a dentist before knows, dental practitioners have a variety of scraping tools as their disposal.
From that form comes also the brush as a tool. A handheld tool with bristles can clean a variety of small detailed objects, but the object of the handheld brush we are most used to is our own set of teeth. The toothbrush is the cornerstone of dental care of the self, but it can also be used by a dentist in the process of caring for a patient’s teeth.
From basic tools come the techniques of brushing and scraping for maintenance and general health, but then there is the question of repairing damage. The tool that is probably the most feared in the dentist’s arsenal is the drill. A small drill can be used to penetrate and even shape the human tooth.
It is important to understand the anatomy of a tooth. A tooth consists of soft tissue and a nerve that has evolved over time to cover itself with calcium in a process known as calcification. Care and hygiene of the outside calcium layer is necessary and important, but often a tooth’s problem originates internally in the living tissue. Therefore, a drill is required to enter the tooth and allow the dentist to correct the problem. Once a tool has been drilled, the hole is patched up using whichever material the practitioner deems appropriate for the particular situation of the patient.
In summation, dentistry has taken the basics of human technology and developed them into a complex system of tools and techniques for maintaining oral health and hygiene. Because of techniques for tool making and use over centuries, the modern dental professional has an amazing array of possibilities when it comes to providing care to the human mouth.
