The following images and descriptions are taken from dental students Rebecca Little and Lorna Hopps' fourth year elective project.

Use of henbane

Figure 1. Hyoscyamus niger (henbane) is a plant from the Solanaceae family which was used in England during the middle ages to create 'potions' due to its hallucinogenic effects. Here a man portrayed as a lord-like figure puts a healing hand on his subject who is humbly bowed over a smoking pot. The lord points a finger in a suggestive way of saying 'I can heal you' and sits on an elaborate chair. He was probably a physician/surgeon and would use henbane seeds to produce a worm-like ash to fool the patient into thinking the worm which had eaten his teeth had fallen out into the fire. The patient wears an anxious expression and the physician's lordly portrayal symbolises his position of importance.1,2

Figure 1: Use of henbane.
figure 1

From an illuminated medieval manuscript, artist unknown. Around 13th century. From Roger of Salerno's Practica Chirurgia. Reproduced with permission from The Master and Fellows of Trinity College Cambridge

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Out hunting for teeth (A Caza De Dientes)

Figure 2. A simple blacksmith leans over to extract a tooth from a flailing man whose limbs jerk out in pain and fear. The sculpture portrays the drama of the procedure from all sides. There are many intricate details in the sculpture – even including the nails of the patient. Since the sculpture is so detailed and realistic, it may be that the artist had seen this event take place and was recording the procedure. The positioning of the patient on the floor with his head between the dentist's knees was commonplace for an extraction and was not challenged until the late sixteenth century.1,3

Figure 2: The blacksmith dentist.
figure 2

Raimondo Pereda (1840–1915). Late 19th century. Spelter alloy sculpture. Reproduced with permission from the RCSEd

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