Islamic world

• Islamic World


  1. Rhazes

  2. Ali Abbas

  3. Albucasis

  4. Avicenna

  5. Prophet Muhammad
• Islamic World


  • Preservation and translation of works of classical writers into Arabic and Hebrew such as Aristotle, Galen, and Pliny
  • Translation of Greek works into Arabic was crucial during the Dark Ages
  • Start of anatomy and histology books
  • Persian dentist treating patients with utmost care
  • Koran values kindness
• Paradise of Wisdom


  • Firdaus al-bikma
  • Oldest surviving writings
  • Written by Ali ibn-Sahl Rabban at-Tabari in 850
  • Deals briefly with dentistry including origin of teeth, treatment for fetid breath, and recipes for dentifrices like toothpaste
• Rhazes


  • Wrote Compilation Kitab al-Hawi or Liber con-tinens
  • Wrote Kitab al-Mansuri dedicated to Persian sovereign al-Man-sur discussing dental anatomy in detail
  • Identified individual teeth and mode of action of the mandible including physiology of the teeth (Temporomandibular joint (TMJ))
  • Instilled various tinctures into ears to prevent toothache
  • Used red-hot cautery and fumigation to prevent toothache
  • Applied boiling oil to treat carious teeth
  • Used fillings made of alum and mastic
  • Used astringents to tighten loose teeth
• Ali Abbas


  • Wrote Complete Book of the Medical Art Kitab al-Maliki covering Arabic Medicine with a chapter on diseases of teeth
  • Relied on cautery with red-hot needles to prevent toothache
  • Advised extraction if cautery failed to relieve pain
• Albucasis


  • First important oral surgeon in the Islamic world
  • Wrote Kitab Al-Tasrif, an encyclopedia of medicine and surgery
  • Depicted an array of several hundred surgical instruments
  • Highlighted the importance of scaling teeth to prevent periodontal disease
  • Described manual and ultrasonic scaling
• Tooth cleaning process


  Lay the patient's head upon your lap and scrape the teeth and molars until all substances are removed and the dirty color of the teeth disappears
• Calculus - Hard substances attached to the teeth are not supposed to be there
• Positioning during tooth scaling

  Lay the patient’s head upon your lap, must be in a 12 o’clock position to scale the lower lingual
• Teeth with calcular deposits are usually found on

  • Lower lingual incisors/anteriors
  • Upper buckle of molars
• Reasons for calcular deposits build up


  • Parts that aren’t cleaned
  • Parts that are least used
• Importance of protecting adjacent structures when cauterizing with hot iron
• Adjacent structures to protect when cauterizing with hot iron


  • Adjacent teeth
  • Opposing teeth
  • Contralateral teeth
• Cauterizing teeth using a cannula


  1. Controls bleeding (e.g. surgery – cauterizing an artery)

  2. Excise/removing something from the oral cavity
• Methodology of tooth extraction

  1. Diagnosis: Which tooth is painful? Referred pain

  2. Gum Separation

  3. Luxation and expansion of bony socket

  4. Extraction/Tooth removal
• When the tooth is corroded and hollow, it is necessary to fill the cavity with lint to prevent breakage
• It is necessary to avoid causing injuries during tooth extraction
• Consequences of improper tooth extraction

  • Root being left in the socket
  • Taking away a piece of maxillary bone
• Recommended ligation for loose teeth depends on the size of the root
• Tooth extraction


  Root being left in the socket
• Factors determining whether to leave the root in the socket

  • Yes: pwedeng iwan if the root is too small to retrieve
  • No: if the tooth is still big, then tatanggalin
• Recommended ligation for loose teeth

  Replanting loose teeth that had fallen out and wiring them adjacent for stabilization
• Preservation of a fallen tooth


  If natanggal ang ngipin, submerge it in milk or put it under the tongue
• Replacement of missing teeth

  With artificial ones made of ox bone and ligated to sound teeth
• Epulis removal


  1. "with a hook or grasp [it] with a forceps and cut it at its root and let the pus or blood flow out."

  2. Styptic powders were then to be used to stanch the wound.

  3. if the growth returned after treatment it should be cauterized; then it would not return

  4. When epulis is excised, it must be excised to its root
• Prophet Muhammad: 'Introduced basic oral hygiene into the Arab world by incorporating it into the Muslim religion'
• Islam teaches


  The importance of cleanliness of the body as well as of the mind
• Ritual ablution (prayer)


  Compulsory obligation before prayers, includes rinsing the mouth three times, or fifteen times a day
• Reasons for using Siwak

  • when the teeth become yellowish
  • when the taste of the mouth changes
  • after arising from bed at any time
  • before prayer
  • before ablutions
• Components of Siwak


  • a twig of the Salvadora persica tree
  • Wood contains sodium bicarbonate and tannic acid as well as other astringents that have a beneficial effect upon the gums
• Use of toothpick


  To remove food debris
• Massaging the gums


  With a finger
• Preparation of bodies for burial

  By wrapping a clean piece of rough cloth around a forefinger and carefully cleaning the teeth of a corpse before interment