Brace yourself for a tour through the most astonishing, jaw‑shaking episodes ever recorded in the annals of dentistry. These 10 jaw dropping tales range from presidential improvisations to prehistoric tooth‑drilling, and even to the grim business of harvesting human teeth. Whether you’re terrified of the drill or simply love a good medical oddity, this list will leave you both laughing and shuddering.

10 Jaw Dropping Dental Facts You Won’t Believe

10 Honest Abe’s Chloroform

President Abraham Lincoln suffered a harrowing bout of dental pain after a botched tooth extraction in 1841 that even snapped a fragment of his jawbone. Back then, anesthesia was virtually nonexistent, so the 16th president endured the agony in silence.

When a later, severe toothache resurfaced, Lincoln didn’t reach for a modern anesthetic. Instead, he fished a tiny bottle of chloroform from his pocket, inhaled the vapors, and slipped into unconsciousness, allowing a makeshift operation to proceed without his usual suffering.

Chloroform wasn’t widely recognized as an anesthetic at the time, which makes Lincoln’s knowledge of its soothing properties all the more mysterious. Today, presidents no longer need to improvise—Herbert Hoover even installed a dedicated dental suite beneath the White House for quick, professional care.

9 Burning Flesh And Arsenic

Long before modern drills, the Chinese were already tackling dental woes with a sophisticated network of 116 acupuncture points linked directly to the teeth, gums, and tongue. These points were stimulated to alleviate pain from extractions, decay, and infections as early as 2700 BC.

To boost the effect, practitioners employed moxibustion—burning a stick of dried mugwort on the skin. The heat was believed to not only numb the area but also to invigorate blood flow, balance life energy, and promote overall health.

By the second century AD, Chinese healers had begun applying arsenic compounds to decayed teeth. The toxic element killed the pulp, instantly relieving pain, albeit with a risky side‑effect profile that modern dentistry would deem unacceptable.

8 Painless Parker

Edgar Parker, later rechristened “Painless Parker,” turned tooth extraction into a traveling circus act. In the early 1900s, he crisscrossed America in a horse‑drawn wagon, accompanied by flamboyant showgirls, nurses, and a brass‑band bugler.

Each stop became a spectacle: crowds gathered to watch Parker’s theatrical antics while he yanked teeth, offered patrons whiskey, and administered a cocaine‑laden anesthetic called hydrocaine. His pièce de résistance was a massive necklace strung with 357 extracted teeth, which he claimed to have pulled in a single day.

The American Dental Association condemned his methods as a “menace to the dignity of the profession,” but Parker’s showmanship paid off. He legally changed his first name to “Painless” to dodge false‑advertising lawsuits and retired a wealthy man, pocketing roughly $3 million.

7 A Flourishing Practice

Alberto Nunez, a 32‑year‑old from Chicago, seemed to run a booming dental clinic—averaging about 30 patients each week and often requiring a full week’s wait for an appointment. On the surface, his practice looked like a thriving business.

The dark truth emerged when investigators discovered Nunez was not a licensed dentist and operated out of his own home. A covert operation, posing as a patient, revealed he performed root canals, surgeries, impressions, cleanings, and even braces without any formal training.

In 2012, Nunez faced a Class 4 felony for practicing dentistry without a license and a misdemeanor for possessing hypodermic syringes illegally. His fraudulent empire crumbled, serving as a stark reminder that not every smiling practitioner holds a valid credential.

6 Prehistoric Dentistry

Archaeologists have uncovered evidence that early humans were already experimenting with dental care more than 7,500 years ago. In what is now Pakistan, a jawbone shows deliberate drilling—a clear sign of primitive tooth work.

Even older, a Slovenian cave yielded a fossilized jaw with a beeswax “filling” used to seal a cracked enamel piece, easing the wearer’s pain. Similarly, ancient Egyptians, some 2,100 years ago, treated severe sinus infections caused by multiple dental abscesses by packing linen soaked in medicinal herbs into the cavities.

These early interventions suggest that the impulse to fix a painful tooth is as ancient as humanity itself, predating modern dentistry by millennia.

5 Glennon Engleman

Dr. Glennon Engleman was a respected dentist in St. Louis, but behind the white coat lay a ruthless murderer. Over two decades, he employed a grisly arsenal of methods—shootings, bludgeoning, car bombs, and even tossing a victim down a well packed with dynamite.

Police suspected Engleman early on, yet it took his third wife to finally bring him down. After a night of intimacy, Engleman bragged about his murderous exploits, hinting she might be next. Detectives convinced her to wear a wire, and her recorded confession sealed his fate.

In September 1980, Engleman was convicted for the bombing of Sophie Marie Barrera and sentenced to two life terms. Though suspected of 12 murders, he confessed to only five before dying in prison at age 71 in 1999.

4 Abrasive Medical Treatments

Contrary to the popular myth of wooden dentures, George Washington’s false teeth were crafted from hippopotamus ivory and now reside at the National Museum of Dentistry in Baltimore. At his inauguration, the future president possessed only a single tooth, underscoring his lifelong dental woes.

Washington’s health was a revolving door of maladies—smallpox, malaria, dengue fever, rheumatic complaints, and dysentery. His physicians treated him with mercurous chloride, a highly abrasive substance that eroded enamel and caused relentless toothaches.

The corrosive treatments led to chronic gum inflammation, frequent abscesses, and yearly extractions. Some historians even argue that persistent dental pain contributed to his decision to skip a second inaugural address.

3 Scavengers

When sugar consumption surged in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, people began bleaching their teeth with acidic solutions, which wore down enamel and sparked a booming demand for false teeth.

Poor individuals capitalized on this market by extracting their own crowns to sell to affluent clients. As living donors dwindled, opportunists turned to the battlefields of Waterloo in 1815, harvesting teeth from fallen soldiers to meet the denture demand.

These harvested teeth were boiled, cleaned, and set into ivory bases. The UK’s Anatomy Act of 1832, which regulated the use of human remains, eventually curbed the practice of using battlefield teeth for dentures.

2 Stress Can Kill

Recent dental literature reveals that dentists face a heightened risk of both physical and mental health issues—alcoholism, drug addiction, marital problems, and a suicide rate three times higher than other white‑collar workers.

Even more alarming, stress‑related cardiovascular disease tops the list of killers among dentists, with a 25 percent increase in high blood pressure and coronary disease compared to the general population.

The root causes include isolation from solo practice, fierce competition, and financial pressures, which together fuel burnout. The constant anxiety of treating fearful patients triggers physiological stress responses, accelerating heart disease and other ailments.

1 Dr. Hugo Blaschke And Hitler’s Remains

On April 30 1945, Adolf Hitler ended his life, and his charred remains were recovered three days later by Soviet forces. In 1973, a team of dental experts examined his jaw fragments, finally confirming his death.

The identification hinged on dental records kept by Hugo Blaschke, Hitler’s American‑trained dentist. These records revealed severe gum disease, multiple abscesses, and extensive decay—culminating in the notorious “terrible bad breath” attributed to the dictator.

Blaschke’s meticulous documentation provided the forensic evidence needed to settle lingering doubts about Hitler’s fate, illustrating how dentistry can play a pivotal role in historical investigations.

Have you ever wondered how people survived the relentless ache of a toothache before the age of gentle drills and painless fillings? The saga of 10 horrors dentistry reveals a brutal timeline where ancient cultures battled decay with crude tools, poisonous concoctions, and sheer willpower. From the sand‑filled loaves of early Egypt to the macabre practice of harvesting corpses for false teeth, this chronicle uncovers the grim, often gruesome, milestones that shaped the evolution of modern dental care.

10 Horrors Dentistry: A Brief Overview

10 Dentistry Is Born

It may seem odd that societies with sophisticated physicians often lacked dedicated tooth‑tenders, yet the earliest dental records surface from a civilization struggling with a gritty, grain‑heavy diet: ancient Egypt. Their staple breads, made without modern sanitation, frequently harbored sand, metal fragments, and other contaminants that ravaged enamel and gums, spawning a wave of painful oral maladies.

The Egyptian menu, dominated by cereals, offered little protection against decay. Impurities slipped into the dough, and the omnipresent sand further assaulted their mouths, creating a perfect storm of dental distress.

The first named practitioner appears around 2660 BC—Hesy‑Ra, also recorded as Hesyre—who served as chief dentist and physician to Pharaoh Djoser. Back then, “treatment” meant shoving honey, herbs, or even tentative gold into cavities, chipped teeth, or abscesses in a desperate bid to soothe agony. Whether gold truly served as a filling remains debated, but any intervention was undoubtedly excruciating.

9 Complexity Begins

Evidence from the early Egyptian period is sparse, leaving scholars to argue whether full‑blown oral surgery existed or if simple extractions were the norm. Nonetheless, archaeologists have uncovered three probable instances of prosthetic activity: gold‑wired teeth that may have served decorative or stabilising purposes, marking the first known use of metal in dentistry.

By roughly 2500 BC, the ancient dentists took a terrifying leap forward: drilling. Tiny, symmetrically placed holes on the exterior of a tooth suggest deliberate, hand‑powered drilling to release pus and relieve pressure from abscesses. Imagining such a procedure without anesthesia or antiseptics underscores the sheer horror of early oral care.

8 The Bow Drill

Without electricity or precision instruments, early dentists relied on the bow drill—a simple yet ingenious device resembling a stringed bow. A bronze spike was wrapped with a cord; moving the bow back and forth spun the spike like a tiny, frantic violin bow, allowing the practitioner to bore into a decayed tooth.

The process was anything but swift or comfortable. Even though Egyptians had access to fermented beverages as early as 4000 BC, a stiff drink barely dulled the agony of a manually powered drill grinding into a sensitive gum.

7 More Intricate Tools

As Egyptian medicine progressed, the need for finer, more precise instruments grew. By at least 2500 BC, archaeological finds reveal a full suite of dental tools—pliers, scalpels, and specialized implements—indicating a leap toward true oral surgery.

Armed with these devices, Egyptian practitioners could perform complex tasks: drilling out cavities, extracting severely damaged teeth, and even experimenting with prosthetics. Their surgical repertoire extended beyond the mouth to include early brain surgery and other invasive procedures, laying groundwork for the intricate dental practices we recognize today—though perhaps more tolerated than beloved.

6 The Etruscans

The Etruscans, flourishing in Italy from roughly 700 BC to 400 BC, earned a distinguished spot in dental history for their inventive techniques. Their legacy seeped into Roman culture, ensuring their contributions endured well beyond their own civilization.

By 700 BC, Etruscan artisans were crafting full‑mouth implants using animal teeth and gold fillings. They pioneered the heating and soldering of metals to seal exposed nerves and cavities, effectively creating early, albeit uncomfortable, dental prosthetics. They also fashioned cosmetics from animal teeth and bone, offering interchangeable solutions that persisted in use until the 1800s.

While their ingenuity is commendable, the notion of having one’s teeth soldered together without modern anesthesia makes even the bravest modern patient wince.

5 Ancient Greece

Despite their reputation for intellectual and artistic brilliance, the Greeks lagged behind in dental care. Their cultural emphasis on strength and beauty rendered tooth pain a badge of resilience; seeking professional extraction was seen as a sign of weakness and could tarnish one’s social standing.

The most they offered a sufferer was a herb‑soaked cloth thrust into the offending tooth to block food ingress. Lacking effective treatment, many Greeks succumbed to infections, often leaving the problem to the whims of the gods rather than the skill of a dentist.

4 Medieval Dentistry

Contrary to popular belief, the medieval era ushered in notable advances, particularly in preventative care—a true birth of dental hygiene. Though fluoride and commercial mouthwashes were absent, people began scrubbing teeth with cloths, improving both cleanliness and breath.

While sugar remained a luxury, the wealthy experimented with vinegar‑based mouthwashes to combat bacteria. In 1158, Hildegarde of Bingen advocated a simple regimen: sip cold water upon waking, let it soften the mucus coating the teeth, then swish it around to cleanse. She warned that warm water could weaken enamel, emphasizing the importance of temperature in oral health.

These medieval practices laid a foundation for systematic dental maintenance, heralding a shift toward conscious oral care that would evolve in the centuries to follow.

3 The Birth Of Tooth Whitening

Even in the Middle Ages, a gleaming smile mattered. Texts like the 11th‑century “De Ornatu Mulierum” detailed elaborate whitening recipes, reflecting an early obsession with dental aesthetics akin to today’s celebrity‑driven whitening boom.

The formula called for a blend of burnt marble, charred date pits, white natron, red tile, salt, and pumice, all ground into a powder and wrapped in damp wool within a fine linen cloth. This concoction was then rubbed vigorously on both the interior and exterior of the teeth.

After treatment, patients were instructed to rinse with good wine, dry thoroughly, and wipe with a fresh white cloth. Daily chewing of fennel, lovage, or parsley was recommended for fresh breath, bright gums, and a dazzling smile.

2 Toward The World Of Dentures

As global trade made sugar affordable, dental decay surged, prompting a new wave of prosthetic innovation. While the Etruscans had pioneered basic implants, the 14th and 15th centuries saw craftsmen shaping cow bone into tooth‑like forms, then fastening them with gold wire to replace lost dentition.

These early dentures were essentially “sewn” into the gums using gold wire. If a set became loose, the artisan would re‑secure it with fresh wire, a process that, while functional, would make any modern patient cringe.

1 Dentures From The Dead

When bone‑derived dentures proved costly, medieval practitioners turned to a grim but readily available resource: the teeth of the deceased. Corpses, plentiful in the era’s cemeteries, offered a convenient supply of ready‑made teeth.

Artisans would harvest teeth from several bodies, selecting those that best matched the patient’s bite, and assemble them into a functional set. This macabre recycling of human remains provided a painful yet effective solution for those desperate to regain chewing ability.

Author’s note: I specialize in exploring the darker, more unsettling corners of human history—where philosophy meets the macabre, and the horrifying becomes a lesson for the living.

Dentistry may feel like a sleek, modern branch of medicine today, but its roots are tangled in a bizarre, unregulated past where people concocted all sorts of odd and often downright repulsive remedies for tooth woes. From barbers doubling as surgeons to concoctions that would make your stomach turn, the field’s early days were a wild frontier. Here, we count down 10 disgusting facts that expose the grimy side of dental history.

10 Disgusting Facts Unveiled

10 Ancient Romans Used Urine As Mouthwash

Ancient Romans actually swished human and animal urine in their mouths as a form of mouthwash. The practice was so commonplace that public urination stations were set up, allowing anyone to contribute to the communal supply. Even the state got involved, imposing taxes on those who collected and sold the liquid gold of oral hygiene.

Believe it or not, the stinky rinse wasn’t entirely without merit. Urine contains ammonia, the very agent that powers today’s household cleaners, and it acted as a primitive whitening agent. One Roman, Egnatius, boasted such dazzlingly white teeth that he grinned at every opportunity, prompting poet Cattulus to pen a scathing ode urging him to curb his perpetual smiling.

Cattulus lamented that Egnatius smiled even in court when verdicts went against defendants, and at funerals while mourners wept. He declared that excessive smiling was itself a disease, urging the gleeful Roman to stop, noting that “there’s nothing more foolish than foolishly smiling.”

9 Dentures Were Made From Real Teeth

Modern dentures are crafted from synthetic materials, but centuries ago, artisans fashioned them from genuine human teeth. In 2016, archaeologists in Lucca, Italy, uncovered a five‑tooth denture assembled from the teeth of several individuals, wired together with an alloy of gold, silver, and copper.

Experts date the creation to somewhere between the 14th and 17th centuries. Similar human‑tooth dentures have appeared in Egyptian tombs, and records show that both the Etruscans and Romans experimented with the macabre practice.

By the 1400s, denture making had become a modest industry. The poor would sell their own teeth to those in need, while grave‑robbers pilfered the dead’s chompers for the same purpose.

The Battle of Waterloo in 1815 sparked a grim surge in demand. Soldiers, locals, and scavengers combed the battlefield, extracting teeth—except the stubborn molars—from fallen combatants. These “Waterloo teeth” were shipped to Britain and fetched a small fortune.

The term later broadened to describe any teeth harvested from battlefields, a practice that also appeared during the Crimean War and the American Civil War. Though popular, human‑tooth dentures often rotted and fit poorly, proving that the gruesome method was far from ideal.

8 Ancient Toothpaste

The earliest toothbrushes emerged between 3500 and 3000 BC, when Egyptians and Babylonians frayed the ends of twigs to scrub their teeth. Remarkably, toothpaste predates the brush by roughly two millennia; ancient Egyptians are believed to have concocted the first paste around 5000 BC.

Across the ancient world—Romans, Greeks, Chinese, and Indians—people fashioned their own tooth‑cleansing powders. Ingredients were wildly eclectic: burned eggshells, ash from ox hooves, volcanic pumice, and even charcoal, bark, and various flavorings. The Greeks and Romans also tossed in bone fragments and crushed oyster shells.

By the 1800s, toothpaste formulas included soap, later replaced in 1945 by modern surfactants like sodium lauryl sulfate, marking the evolution from gritty pastes to the smooth gels we know today.

7 Barbers Used To Be Dentists

Centuries ago, stepping into a barbershop could land you a haircut, a shave, and even a tooth extraction or minor surgery—all under one roof. Barbers doubled as surgeons because they owned the sharp tools required for cutting and pulling teeth.

Physicians of the era deemed surgery beneath their status, delegating it to barbers who proudly adopted the moniker “barber‑surgeon” to market their expanded skill set.

Despite handling extractions, barbers rarely embraced the preventive side of oral health. Dentistry, as a distinct discipline, didn’t truly emerge until the 1800s, when the three trades finally split into separate professions.

6 Nobody Brushed Their Teeth For Thousands Of Years

It may sound shocking, but ancient peoples maintained surprisingly healthy dentition without ever brushing. Their secret weapon was diet: natural, unprocessed foods free from modern chemicals and preservatives, packed with vitamins and minerals.

Fiber‑rich meals acted like nature’s dental floss, scrubbing away plaque and food particles, keeping cavities at bay for millennia before the toothbrush ever existed.

5 Fillings Possibly Caused Teeth To Explode

In 19th‑century Pennsylvania, a dentist recorded three baffling cases where teeth literally exploded. The first, in 1817, involved Reverend D.A., who endured excruciating pain until his tooth burst open like a firecracker, instantly relieving his agony.

Thirteen years later, Mrs. Letitia D. suffered a similar explosive incident after a severe ache, and Mrs. Anna P.A. experienced the same fate in 1855.

The most dramatic case arrived in 1871: an unnamed woman’s tooth detonated so loudly that she fell to the floor and was temporarily deaf.These reports continued sporadically until the 1920s, after which the phenomenon vanished.

Researchers suspect the culprit was the metallic alloy used for fillings—mixes of lead, silver, and tin that could form a tiny electrochemical cell inside the tooth, essentially a miniature battery.

Hydrogen gas, a by‑product of such reactions, may have accumulated, eventually igniting via a spark or a cigarette, causing the dramatic explosion. Some scholars, however, question this theory, noting a lack of definitive evidence that the victims even had fillings.

4 Black, Rotting Teeth Were Considered Fashionable In England

During Tudor England, sugar was a luxury reserved for the aristocracy, and its over‑indulgence led to rampant tooth decay among the elite. Even Queen Elizabeth I reportedly suffered from blackened, rotting teeth, requiring at least one extraction.

Contemporary accounts suggest her dental woes made her speech difficult, prompting a bishop to pull his own tooth to demonstrate that the pain could be endured.

Blackened teeth became a status symbol for the wealthy, a visible sign of indulgence. The lower classes began artificially blackening their own teeth, hoping to mimic the aristocracy’s “fashionable” decay.

3 Black Teeth Were Also Considered Fashionable In Japan

Across the globe, blackened teeth were also a mark of beauty. In Japan, the custom—known as Ohaguro—reached its zenith between the 8th and 12th centuries, especially among aristocrats who painted their faces white, making their natural yellowish teeth stand out.

Samurai and court ladies dyed their teeth black to signal loyalty and status. The dye, a bitter concoction, was consumed over several days, often spiced to mask its harsh taste.

The practice spread to the lower classes, who adopted it to appear affluent. It persisted until 1870, when government reforms outlawed the tradition in an effort to modernize the nation.

2 Dead Mice To Treat Toothaches

When toothaches struck ancient Egyptians, they turned to a grim remedy: the ground remains of dead mice. The powdered mouse was mixed with other ingredients and applied directly to the aching tooth.

Elizabethan England also revered the dead‑mouse concoction, using it to treat ailments ranging from whooping cough to smallpox, and even incorporating the critters into culinary experiments like pies.

1 The Dental Pelican

The “dental pelican,” a grotesque extraction device from the 1300s, earned its name because its claw resembled a pelican’s beak. Barbers employed it to yank out decayed teeth, often resulting in severe gum damage, bleeding, and disfigured jaws.

Patients were seated on low chairs, their heads tilted back and secured between the barber’s thighs. The pelican’s claw clamped onto the offending tooth, and the barber pulled with all his might.

Even the most careful operators could not prevent injuries; the device’s brutal force made it the only viable option for tooth removal at the time.

Thankfully, this barbaric apparatus has long vanished from modern dental practice, sparing us all from its terrifying grip.