尼安德特人钻牙治疗龋齿

A 59,000-year-old Neanderthal tooth found in a Siberian cave shows signs of deliberate drilling to treat a cavity, pushing back the earliest evidence of dentistry by about 45,000 years. The lower second molar features tell-tale marks of experienced stone-tool boring down to the pulp. While the procedure would have been excruciating, it probably led to pain relief in the individual, who went on to chew with the tooth, possibly for years, says Kseniya Kolobova at the Russian Academy of Sciences. The molar was found in the Altai mountains of south- western Siberia, Russia. It had a large concavity comprising three partially overlapping dips into the entire pulp chamber. …