It is a well-known fact that fashions make a comeback. This point is proved once again with the recent discovery that people used shiny stones to decorate their teeth as far back as 2,500 years ago.
A new study has found that the people of southern North America went to dentists who decorated their teeth with notches, grooves, and semiprecious stones more than 2,000 years ago, according to a news article on nationalgeographic.com.
Scientists came to this conclusion after analyzing thousands of teeth from collections in Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History, the article noted.
"The early dentists used a drill-like device with a hard stone such as obsidian, which is capable of puncturing bone," the article stated.
"It's possible some type of [herb-based] anesthetic was applied prior to drilling to blunt any pain," José Concepción Jiménez, an anthropologist at the institute, said in the article.
The ornamental stones were attached with an adhesive made out of natural resins, he added, and the ancient dentists likely had a "sophisticated knowledge of tooth anatomy."
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