Italian researchers have found a dental tool that led them to conclude that the first operation for toothache was performed 14,000 years ago. They were analyzing the skeleton of a caveman found in Italy's Dolomite Mountains in 1988. This report published in Scientific Reports journal.
"The discovery showed the creative and technological ability that was present before the Neolithic (New Stone Age)," said Marco Peresani, from the University of Ferrara.
"The discovery shows that the man from the end of the Paleolithic, or early Stone Age, period was aware of the damaging nature of an infected cavity and of the need to intervene with microlithic tools to remove the infection," Research coordinator Stefano Benazzi, from the University of Bologna, said.
The microlith was used to pick the infected tissue from inside the tooth, he added.
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