Pierre Fauchard was a French physician, credited as being the "father of modern dentistry".
28 Facts About Pierre Fauchard
2.
Pierre Fauchard is widely known for writing the first complete scientific description of dentistry, Le Chirurgien Dentiste, published in 1728.
3.
Pierre Fauchard said he wanted to disseminate the knowledge he learned at sea based on actual practice.
4.
Once Pierre Fauchard left the navy, he shortly settled down in Angers, where he practiced medicine at the University of Angers Hospital.
5.
Pierre Fauchard often described himself as a "Chirurgien Dentiste", a term very rare at the time as dentists in the 17th century generally extracted decayed teeth rather than treating them.
6.
Pierre Fauchard made remarkable improvisations of dental instruments, often adapting tools from watch makers, jewelers and even barbers, that he thought could be used in dentistry.
7.
Pierre Fauchard asserted that sugar derivate acids like tartaric acid were responsible for dental decay, and suggested that tumors surrounding the teeth, in the gums, could appear in the later stages of tooth decay.
8.
Pierre Fauchard was the pioneer of dental prosthesis, and he discovered many methods to replace lost teeth.
9.
Pierre Fauchard suggested that substitutes could be made from carved blocks of ivory or bone and those artificially-made dental pieces would be useful as the natural ones.
10.
Pierre Fauchard introduced dental braces, although they were initially made of gold, he discovered that the teeth position could be corrected as the teeth would follow the pattern of the wires.
11.
For many months Pierre Fauchard gathered as many medical research books as he could, interviewed the many dentists he had met, and reviewed his personal diaries during his years at Angers to write his manual.
12.
Pierre Fauchard sought further feedback from his peers over the next five years, and the manuscript had grown to 783 pages by the time it was published in 1728 in two volumes.
13.
Hence, Pierre Fauchard was rather unusual to be a surgeon who studied teeth at the time.
14.
Pierre Fauchard bemoaned how the medical community had largely ignored teeth.
15.
Pierre Fauchard believed that the main way people should keep their teeth clean is by washing their mouth every morning with water and rubbing the teeth with a wet sponge.
16.
Pierre Fauchard stated that some ethanol mixed with the water would be a sufficient cleaning solution.
17.
Pierre Fauchard stated that toothbrushes ought to use sponge instead of cloth or linen because cloth was too rough and would often wear down the teeth.
18.
Pierre Fauchard noted that common dentrifice ingredients such as brick, porcelain, pumic stone, calcined talc, calcined aluminum do more harm than good.
19.
The dentrifice Pierre Fauchard recommends is a mixture of coral, dragon's blood, burnt honey, seed pearls, cuttle fish bone, crayfish eyes, bol d'armerie, terre sigillee, terre hematite, canelle, calcined alum, completely reduced to a fine powder and mixed together.
20.
Pierre Fauchard engraved in his books many of his inventions of instruments made for oral surgery, such as the obturator and the now famous dentist's drill.
21.
The drill Pierre Fauchard developed was manual and powered by a catgut twisted around a cylinder.
22.
Pierre Fauchard suggested in his book that oil of cloves and cinnamon be used for pulpitis.
23.
Pierre Fauchard recommended that human urine be used in the treatment of early stages of caries.
24.
Pierre Fauchard advised his students and friends of the highly injurious techniques used by charlatans and to avoid them.
25.
Pierre Fauchard warned his medical readers that nitric acid and sulfuric acid on teeth to remove tartar used by charlatans were potentially dangerous and explained how to identify their false dental fillings.
26.
Pierre Fauchard was designated as Maitre Chirurgien-Dentiste, or master in dental surgery, in his burial record.
27.
Pierre Fauchard's work influenced many young medical minds in the age of enlightenment in France, Robert Bunon, a dentist like Pierre Fauchard, spent many years of his life in enamel hypoplasia research.
28.
Pierre Fauchard was featured on a stamp in France to commemorate the 200th anniversary of his death in 1961.