What Did Ancient Humans Do About a Toothache? 🦷

Fourteen thousand years ago, someone scraped a cavity with a flint blade. Nine thousand years ago, someone drilled a molar with a bow drill — and the patient survived. From Neanderthal toothpick grooves to the world's oldest dental filling, this video traces the entire history of toothache: why hunter-gatherers had better teeth than you, how farming destroyed them, and the three-thousand-year myth of the tooth worm. 🔔 Subscribe for more ancient human history:    / @deeppast-r3i   📺 Watch Next: • What Did Ancient Humans Actually Do All Day? • What Did Ancient Humans Do When Someone Died? • Did Ancient Humans Really Die at 30? ⏱️ Timestamps: 0:00 — Flint blade in a cave: the oldest dental surgery 1:00 — Why your last toothache would have been deadly 1:45 — The myth of terrible ancient teeth 2:30 — Taforalt cave: 51% cavity rate in hunter-gatherers 3:30 — Louise Humphrey's 2014 PNAS study: starch, not farming 4:30 — Neanderthal toothpick grooves: 100,000+ years of dental hygiene 5:30 — El Sidron: chamomile and yarrow in Neanderthal plaque (Karen Hardy 2012) 6:30 — Villabruna: flint scraping inside a cavity (Benazzi 2015) 7:30 — Riparo Fredian: the world's oldest dental filling 8:15 — Mehrgarh: eleven bow-drilled teeth (Macchiarelli, Nature 2006) 9:15 — How farming rotted our teeth: Abu Hureyra, Catalhoyuk, the Natufians 10:30 — Willow bark, clove oil, and the Ebers Papyrus 11:15 — The tooth worm myth: Mesopotamia to Fauchard (1728) 12:00 — The impulse that never stopped 📋 Topics Covered: • Hunter-gatherer dental health vs. modern teeth (1-5% vs. 60-90% cavity rates) • Taforalt / Grotte des Pigeons — 51% caries in pre-agricultural population • Louise Humphrey PNAS 2014 — starch-driven cavities before farming • Neanderthal toothpick grooves (Krapina, Atapuerca, multiple sites) • El Sidron Cave — chamomile and yarrow in Neanderthal dental calculus (Karen Hardy 2012) • Villabruna — flint scraping inside a cavity (Stefano Benazzi, Scientific Reports 2015) • Riparo Fredian — bitumen and plant fiber dental filling (~13,000 years ago) • Mehrgarh — eleven bow-drilled teeth (Roberto Macchiarelli, Nature 2006) • Agricultural transition and dental decline (Abu Hureyra, Catalhoyuk, Ain Ghazal) • Natufian dietary shift and real-time cavity increase • Ancient pain remedies: willow bark (salicin), clove (eugenol), Ebers Papyrus • Tooth worm myth — Mesopotamian Worm Incantation to Pierre Fauchard ⚠️ Disclaimer: This video is for educational and entertainment purposes. It is not dental or medical advice. #AncientHumans #Toothache #DentalHistory #HumanEvolution #Prehistory #Neanderthals #Anthropology #AncientMedicine #Paleolithic #HistoryOfDentistry