Liam Shaw in LRB:
The pain of toothache arrives long after the damage has been done. The process begins when bacteria in the mouth turn sugars from our food into acid, which etches the tooth’s enamel, allowing the bacteria to penetrate further. Only when they hit the nerve bundles at the tooth’s pulpy core does the sufferer become aware – all too painfully aware – of their predicament. Dental pain comes in pulsing waves, seemingly synchronised with every beat of the heart. Once bacteria have penetrated into the tooth, they release gases that swell the pulp, compounding the pain. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy cites toothache as one of two examples of natural evil (the other is hurricanes).
Many ancient cultures blamed tooth worms. The Roman physician Scribonius recommended fumigation with smoke from poisonous henbane seeds placed on hot coals. Any worms that succumbed to the treatment were to be spat out. In his history of teeth, Bite, the zoologist Bill Schutt tells us that the fumes would at least have dulled the patient’s pain by giving them a noxious high. Belief in tooth worms persisted across the centuries. A carved ivory tooth from 18th-century France opens to reveal a battle being waged within: club-wielding humans fighting a demonic worm on top of a pile of skulls.
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