• Miller@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    I wonder if this is a good interpretation of the fossil because I can understand pulling it out but without knowing the science drilling into a painful and infected tooth is quite counter-intuitive.

    • h3ron@lemmy.zip
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      7 hours ago

      They’ve been around for ~150k years. That’s plenty for trial and error.

      • Miller@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        It is a lot of time and it is possible in trying to knock a bad tooth out with a rock they inadvertently gouged the infection out and the penny dropped.

    • NottaLottaOcelot@lemmy.ca
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      5 hours ago

      I’m wondering when fermentation became common practice, because I’m curious if they had anything to give their patient to forget the pain.