How long have we had anesthesia?

The early tribes in Mexico and Peru used narcotic substances in the treatment of different disorders, including dental diseases. In China, where medicine began in about 2800 BC, medical men invented acupuncture. They used special very thin needles for that purpose. These needles were also used to relieve dental pain. But still, painless extraction wasn't available until the 1830s. In the beginning, teeth were removed with a well-placed chisel and a hard swing of a mallet. Thousands of years later, during peaks of the great Greek and Roman civilizations, physicians practiced a form of anesthetic to give some relief to patients during surgical treatment.

In the 1790s, a British chemist began to experiment with the use of nitrous oxide as a pain-inhibitor and noted that its most famous side effect, laughing. So the gas was nicknamed “laughing gas”. One of the persons who contributed to the discovery of anaesthesia was a dentist Horace Wells. In 1844 he arranged a demonstration on the effects of nitrous oxide. Intrigued with the possibilities of this gas, he administrated some to himself and asked a colleague to extract one of his teeth. The operation was entirely painless. Consequently, Doctor Wells employed nitrous oxide in his dental practice.

On September 30th, 1846 an American dentist William Morton successfully performed the first tooth extraction under ether. He had made extensive prior experiments on animals and on himself. The first dental extraction under anesthetic (ether) in Great Britain was performed by Dr Robinson on December 19th, 1846. The operation lasted only four minutes and the patient felt no pain.

In 1863 the gas was combined with oxygen. Just prior to the 1900s, cocaine was used, but once its addictive qualities were identified, the search began for a suitable alternative. Many of the alternatives were forms of synthetic cocaine until 1905 when a German chemist discovered procaine, which he named Novocain. The anesthetic proved extremely popular with dental professionals. It was the beginning of the epoch of “painless dentistry."

 

Speaking

 

1. Summarize the information (working in pairs or groups) on different dentistry specialties and complete the chart:

 

Specialists	Required level of education	Requirements of licensing	Duties	Social status, perspectives
Dental therapist
Dental hygienist
Dental assistant
Dental technician

 

2. Discuss the opportunities of getting these specialties and your personal preferences.

Summarize the information on the advances of dentistry, using the chart. What period was the turning point in the development of dentistry (from your point of view)? Prove it.

Advances in dentistry	Ancient time	Middle Ages	The18th century and later
Rules and tools of hygiene
Treatment of teeth
Using false teeth
Dental operations

Unit III. Anatomy of the skull and the oral cavity

 

Lead-in

We begin a new section devoted to the consideration of anatomy of the skull and the oral cavity. The anatomy terms compose your essential vocabulary and should be memorized. Knowledge of the basic terminology will be of great value since not a single aspect of dentistry can be studied or discussed without these terms.

 

Reading1.

 

1. Pronounce and memorize the following terms:

 

cervical шейный parietal теменной

cranial черепной sphenoid клиновидный

ethmoid решётчатый temporal височный

facial лицевой vertebra (pl.-ae) позвонок

frontal лобный

occipital затылочный

 

2. Learn the following words:

 

cartilage хрящ consist of состоять (из)

olfactory обонятельный move двигаться

band пучок separate отделять

ligament связка compose составлять

temple висок firmly крепко

oral cavity ротовая полость spongy губчатый, пористый

root корень (зуба) fibrous волокнистый

joint сустав muscular мышечный

tendon сухожилие interior нижний

periosteum надкостница calcium кальций

marrow костный мозг phosphorus фосфор

 

3. Read and translate the following word combinations:

1. cavity: oral cavity, cranial cavity, small cavities, large cavities, the cavity of the nose, cavity of the skull, pulp cavity, tooth cavity, cavity of decay;

2. bone: bones of the trunk, cranial bones, facial bones, frontal bone, parietal bone, ethmoid bone, cheek bone, crazy bone, cribriform bone, ear bone, lower jaw, nasal bone, orbital bone, spongy bone;

3. vertebra: vertebrae, vertebra is a small bone, true vertebra; to be connected by vertebrae;

4. temple: temples, temporal, to form the temples, temporal part;

5. marrow: bone marrow, red bone marrow, spinal marrow, yellow bone marrow.