The discovery of a 6,500-year-old fractured canine filled with beeswax could provide the oldest evidence of prehistoric dentistry in the form of a therapeutic-palliative dental filling.

Analysis of a Neolithic mandible from Slovenia by Bernardini et al.1 prompted the finding of a seemingly repaired cracked canine, filled with beeswax. A full X-ray and micro-CT confirmed that the beeswax exactly fills the shallow cavity and crack in the tooth, though it cannot be confirmed whether this was done whilst the man was alive or post mortem as part of a burial practice. Beeswax is known to have been used as a binding agent in both Chinese and Egyptian antiquity, though archaeological reports of tooth injuries and restoration are scarce.

As other teeth in the mandible showed similar dental wear and exposed dentine but without any indication of beeswax application, it can be presumed that this was not part of any burial custom and instead the canine alone was filled with beeswax to reduce particular pain inflicted upon the individual. If this hypothesis is correct, then this find is the earliest evidence of dental therapy to date.