Neanderthal dentists used stone drills to treat cavities nearly 60,000 years ago, ancient molar suggests
https://phys.org/news/2026-05-neanderthal-dentists-stone-drills-cavities.htmlOpen linkView original on piefed.caSyndicated from the fediverse. Read and engage on the original instance.
View original on piefed.cahttps://phys.org/news/2026-05-neanderthal-dentists-stone-drills-cavities.htmlOpen linkView original on piefed.ca
22 replies
So neanderthals had a more accessible healthcare system than we do gotcha
Friends and sharp rocks stay free, it’s just the nerd shit like medical training and anesthesia you’ve gotta pay for
Holy fuck.
Can you imagine some guy drilling holes into your teeth with nothing but elbow grease and a stone drill? Desperation will drive you to madness, I guess.
phew I kinda feel good about living in this modern age. The article doesn't mention anesthesia but maybe neanderthals used it ? feels like drilling out a cavity with stone tools would benefit from anesthesia
Probably just used a larger stone.
"Nurse, prep patient."
"Yes, doctor."
hits patient in the head with a club to knock him out
Yokel anesthesia
😂 In Earth's Children, the main character occasionally uses anesthetic beverages to operate on others painlessly. I don't know how documented that is. When I have some free time, I'll look up anesthetic use during the
neolithicupper paleolithic.I suppose they could make wine, but anything stronger would require distilling. I’m not sure if they were capable of that? Though maybe there were other things they could smoke or ingest. Opium comes to mind, but not sure if that was available in the geographic regions you would find Neanderthals?
I don't think there is evidence of neanderthals making pottery. Unlikely that they would be able to make alcohol.
https://news.berkeley.edu/2025/09/17/in-the-wild-chimps-likely-ingest-the-equivalent-of-several-alcoholic-drinks-every-day/ Wouldn't necessarily need pottery.
That's true enough, but also not reliable. There are not perfectly rotten fruits lying around at all times and places to be used for tooth surgery.
There are if you start taking them with you because funny fruit makes you feel good.
ah, yes, alcohol. Why not ! I don't know where opium grows. In the books they use datura !
Ty, best one ive heard today🤣
We didn't have any kind of local anesthesia until they figured out cocaine could do this near the end of the 1800s.
Cloves were about as close as you could get before that.
One anesthesia pleaaaaseee!!!
I wonder what they then filled the cavity with.
Reminder that Neanderthals had bigger brains than us on average. FWIW.
Pine resin can be made into a glue that hardens quite well. Easy enough to replace if needed. However I have no idea if they used that.
Amber-style teeth sound pretty rad, honestly.
So, is this a Time Traveler, trying to use technology from the period of time they are supposed to belong in?