Titles of dentists in Ancient Egypt

Document Type : Original Research

Author

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Tourism and Hotels, Suez Canal University

Abstract

There are several medical specialties and subspecialties in the healthcare field, “dentists” was mentioned clearly among the medical specialists and the ancient Egyptians were pioneers in the development of odontology, Edwin Smith and Ebers Papyrus reported that dental disease was very common, and the ancient Egyptians also suffered from different problems like nowadays such as dental caries, mouth abscesses and ulcers, teeth extraction and jaw dislocation. They treated them in many professional ways and also performed dental surgeries, inlaying precious stones in the teeth for aesthetic purposes, furthermore, several teeth wired like those which were found in the 4th dynasty tombs at Giza, has suggested that an attempted to manufacture a dental bridge occurred.
Of about 150 medical personnel in ancient Egypt, only nine are recognized as dentists, unfortunately they were not better documented , and fall under the auspices of physician, only separated in hieroglyphic symbols: ibḥ (y) for dentist and swnw for physician. Between the dentists themselves some had the two titles and known as greatest of physicians and dentists and others are dentists only.
This research is an attempt to consider the people whose profession was dentists in ancient Egypt and the different titles they bear.

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