Byzantine

• Historical figures in Byzantine dentistry

  • Oribasius
  • Aetius of Amida
  • Alexander of Tralles
  • Paul of Aegina
• Byzantine Empire is also known as the Eastern Roman Empire
• The Byzantine Empire was a continuation of the Roman Empire
• The Byzantine Empire was centered in Constantinople
• The Byzantine Empire pioneered the concept of the hospital
• The Byzantine Empire focused on the poor and homeless in their hospitals
• The Byzantine Empire developed Christian institutions for the poor and homeless
• The Byzantine Empire provided the initial impulse to create hospices and expand them into specialized medical centers
• Philanthropy


  The Byzantine Empire provided an initial impulse to create hospices and expand them into specialized medical centers
• Oribasius was a physician to Emperor Julian the Apostate
• Oribasius authored a monumental compendium of seventy volumes entitled Collectiones medicae
• Aetius of Amida was a principal medical encyclopedist and physician to Emperor Justinian I
• Aetius of Amida's compilation, the Tetrabiblios, contained detailed descriptions of diseases and treatment of the mouth and teeth
• Alexander of Tralles authored twelve books on medicine and described the procedure for tooth extractions
• Paul of Aegina, the father of medical books, discussed teething and described extractions in detail
• Paul of Aegina made a sharp distinction between an inflammatory parulis and a tumorous epulis
• Paul of Aegina described the method of dealing with each type of growth in the mouth
• Epulis

  1. Non-infectious lesion

  2. Can be benign or malignant
• Histopathology


  Done to make sure a lesion isn't cancerous
• Teething and extractions

  1. Repeating Celsus's advice to fill a carious tooth with linen thread before proceeding to minimize the danger of fracturing the crown

  2. Extracting teeth that are very carious

  3. Using a file to reduce the height of a tooth that projected above the level of its neighbors
• Scaling teeth

  Removing incrustations of tartar with chisels or other instruments
• Warnings about foods

  • Foods that might cause vomiting
  • Foods that might leave a sticky residue upon the teeth
• Vomiting

  Cause erosions in the teeth due to the acids from the stomach
• Most important time to clean teeth

  After the last meal of the day
• Illustration in a ninth-century Byzantine copy: 'Shows the recommended method of reducing a dislocation of the lower jaw. Biblio-teca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence'
• Era of ignorance, superstition, and intellectual passivity in Western Europe
• Monastic medicine was traditional medieval European medicine, which was above all in the hands of monks and nuns
• Church persecuted those who sought to establish rational conceptions of nature's processes
• Cassiodorus devoted the last thirty-five years of his life to learning, preserving ancient Latin writings
• Bishop Isidore of Sevile compiled an encyclopedia of origins, including a survey of medical terms
• Venerable Bede wrote an ecclesiastical history with discussion of medical treatment common in his day
• Vindician believed toothache originates in the head and travels down to the tooth, ultimately ending at its root
• Surgeons were frequently put to death if a lord failed to survive their operation
• Origin of pain in the tooth


  It originates in the head and travels down to the tooth, ultimately ending at its root
• Remedies for toothache

  • Rinses with hot concoctions of plants like nightshade and wormwood
  • Poultices of various preparations applied to the jaw
  • Powders of burnt salt and pulverized bone
• Simple preventive measures for toothache

  Rinse with clear, cold water each morning upon arising and several times later in the day
• Remedy for tooth worm

  Smoke of burning aloe and myrrh to drive it out
• Lancing an abscess of the gum


  To facilitate the drainage of pus
• Saint Hildegard von Bingen


  • Most important documentation of dental practices of the time
  • Wrote of the healing power of plants, meats, and minerals in her book Physica
  • Ascribed toothache to the presence of decaying blood in the arteries supplying the teeth
  • Recommended rational approach
• Saint Hildegard von Bingen


  • Believed toothache was caused by decay in blood, something internal
  • Recommended remedies like rinses with hot concoctions, poultices, and lancing abscesses