• daannii@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Idk I watched some documentary about human history. one thing I recall was that they talked about how people used to die a lot from dental issues. They had old like 5000 year old skulls and was pointing out how some teenager likely died from a bad molar due to the damage on the jaw.

    They thing I remember mostly is that they said that modern dentistry had done more to extend human life span than general modern medicine. Because of teeth being so close to the brain, blood infections and abscesses could potentially get through the sinuses and kill people.

    Wish I could remember the source material better.

    It’s possible it was from the PBS series “becoming human”.

    That’s my best guess. But yeah. Dental stuff. Dangerous.

    • Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      The upper teeth are solidly in the “danger triangle” of the face. If those get infected, there’s basically just a highway to the brain.

      Without dentistry, getting a cavity could easily lead to an infection, and without antibiotics, that could easily kill you.

      People don’t really realize how lucky we are with modern medicine. People used to die from all sorts of things we consider trivial today

    • stevestevesteve@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      It’s such a fuckin crime that dentistry IS considered somehow separate from general modern medicine. Are teeth not part of our body?

      • daannii@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        Idk I think it was just some archeologist. I have a DVD of the series becoming human. You can’t find it online anymore. I’ll have to give it a fresh watch and see if it’s from it.