Torture with a toothache sometimes makes the sufferer literally climb the wall
In the 19th century, there were cases when, after months of excruciating toothache, patients found their teeth exploding with a bang in their mouths. The force of the explosion was sometimes such that one woman could barely stay on her feet. BBC Future has been exposed to dark mysteries in dental history.
In the 19th century, a Pennsylvania dentist named William Henry Atkinson encountered symptoms best described by the term "nightmare."
In an article published in January 1861 in Dental Cosmos, the first professional publication for American dentists, Atkinson documented a kind of exploding tooth epidemic.
He noted this phenomenon in three patients. The first was the Reverend D. A. of Springfield, Pennsylvania, whose share of this grievous and unpleasant trial fell in 1817:
The large right canine began to ache, and the intensity of the pain increased to such an extent that the patient literally went berserk. Experiencing terrible suffering, he rushed from side to side in fruitless attempts to get at least some respite; once he banged his head on the ground like a mad animal, another time he thrust it under the corner of the fence, and then rushed to the spring and dipped his head into the cold water to the very top.
This behavior is not very befitting a cleric, but it can give you some idea of how much pain he was in.
Promotional video:
The epidemic continues
In those days, when affordable and effective dentistry did not yet exist, toothache could become sheer torture.
So, during the judicial investigation, conducted in the English county of Sussex in 1862, the story of how a man committed suicide after continuous five months of suffering from toothache became public.
Perhaps the metals of the first fillings reacted to the release of hydrogen, which exploded in the mouths of patients.
"During this time, those around him saw him crying day after day for many hours in a row," - said in the materials of the investigation.
The story of the unfortunate priest had a happier ending:
All efforts were unsuccessful. And then the next day at nine o'clock in the morning, when, as if in delirium, wandered back and forth, suddenly there was a loud crack, sharp as a pistol shot. His tooth exploded, shattering into pieces, giving him immediate relief. At that moment, he turned to his wife and said, “All my pain is gone.” He went to bed and slept soundly all that day and most of the next night. After that, his behavior became rational and expedient.
Thirteen years after this sad incident, something similar happened to a patient named Mrs. Leticia D. who lived just a few miles from Springfield.
For a long time she suffered from a toothache, "which went away as soon as the tooth exploded, after which relief immediately came."
The last of the three recorded cases of this dental disaster occurred in 1855. Mrs. Anna P. A. said that one of her canine teeth split in half from edge to edge:
An unexpected sharp crack - and instant relief. As in the rest of the cases, this happened with the left large canine. She, the mother of beautiful girls, is alive and well.
As unusual as these stories are, they are not unique.
The editors of the British Dental Journal recently republished a lively correspondence from the magazine's archives that first saw the light of day in 1965.
It describes in detail the cases of exploding teeth that took place in history.
The editors included in this list a case recorded in 1871 by another American dentist, Jay Phelps Hibler.
He was treating a young girl whose toothache was impressively gone after her large molar "exploded with a crash and with such force that she could hardly stand on her feet."
The explosion was so loud that she became deaf after that for several days.
Sugar and caries
Although five or six cases of tooth explosions were reported in the 19th century, such phenomena have not been reported since the 1920s.
Hugh Devlin, professor of therapeutic dentistry at the University of Manchester School of Dentistry, says that while bad teeth are often destroyed, he has never heard of them exploding.
The caption under the snapshot of the 1926 dentist's office read: "It won't hurt."
He recalled how, in the 1960s, polar explorers talked about having suddenly split teeth, but at that time it was believed to be the result of extreme frost.
He believes, however, that the real cause of the problem was tooth decay (tooth decay) caused by a diet high in sugar.
So, what led to such dramatic cases as sudden tooth explosions?
In 1860, Atkinson, in his article, proposed two possible explanations. The first version said that a certain substance, which he called a substance of "unlimited temperature", accumulates in the tooth and causes a sharp increase in pressure in the dental pulp.
This hypothesis can be ruled out immediately because it is based on an outdated scientific theory.
For many years, it was believed that heat consists of a kind of liquid, called "thermal", which had the property of self-repulsion.
While this would be a plausible reason for the increase in pressure, we now know that such a fluid does not exist.
Atkinson's second idea, at first glance, seems more credible.
He suggested that the process of rotting inside the tooth may be triggered by the accumulation of gas, which eventually causes the tooth to crack.
Could this serve as an explanation for the riddle?
Devlin is skeptical: “The likelihood that enough gas can accumulate in a tooth to destroy it by an explosion is extremely small - the teeth are very strong. Dentists of the 19th century did not understand the cause of tooth decay - they believed that it appeared from the inside of a tooth. Only in the last century did we begin to understand that tooth decay is caused by the human diet and bacteria that accumulate on the surface of the teeth."
However, the answer can be found by paying attention to the chemicals that were used for filling in the old days.
Is it all about chemistry?
Before the advent of mercury amalgam to dentistry in the 1830s, many different metals were used to fill teeth, including lead, tin, silver, and various alloys.
Andrea Sella, professor of inorganic chemistry at University College London, points out that if two different metals were used for the filling, it could lead to the formation of an electrochemical cell.
Without understanding the cause of the explosion of teeth, we cannot be sure that in the future this trouble will not befall another patient.
In fact, the patient's mouth was turned into a low-voltage battery.
“As a result of the proximity of various metals in the mouth, the electrolysis process could suddenly begin there. I prefer the explanation according to which, in case of poor-quality filling, part of the cavity of the hollow remains unsealed, which can lead to the accumulation of hydrogen inside the tooth."
An already weakened tooth may well have exploded as a result of the increase in this pressure.
And hydrogen could explode due to ignition if the patient smoked at that moment, or an iron seal could cause a spark in the mouth.
Sella admits that this scenario is somewhat contrived: "Still, a jet of flame could hardly have escaped from the mouth of a Victorian gentleman."
Unfortunately, there is no evidence that any of those patients actually had fillings.
Thus, either the explosions were caused by some unknown process, or the patients exaggerated the symptoms, which were much more commonplace.
At least for now, it seems that the mystery of exploding teeth will remain an unsolved mystery.