It’s amazing how the jade is part of almost everything we do today. Who could imagine that it would also be a branch of Health? Yes, incredibly, jade, for many years, was used in dentistry. The Maya and their interest in all things that could be improved, were among the first to include the large jade stone and inlaid in the teeth.
The Mayans gave rise to the first dental discoveries; and although they did not have a clue about what they did and what it was called, they made great contributions to the development of dental health. This magnificent story began towards the sides of Yucatan, Mexico, where various customs and traditions of civilization were not consuming sugars and brushing teeth after food intakes. Perhaps because of this, it was that we consider sugar as the worst enemy of our teeth, washing them after every meal.
Although they have great care with their teeth and made huge strides to dentistry, they were not saved from tooth decay in such a remote time. Of course, the various bacteria that live in our mouth, should also be removed to prevent bad things like this. Even if they had a soft diet, lots of carbs gave rise to increased caries-causing bacteria.
The Mayans were very curious people and their creativity began to give many ideas that began to practice with their teeth; among these, was give the shape of saw to the teeth with stones, that gradually were hurting them, abruptly, the outer layer of your teeth.
They are famous for being the first to make inlays with precious stones in the teeth, without any medical reason. For them, these inlays were performed purely for cosmetic purposes; it was also believed that these practices were religious and a technological breakthrough for its time, noticing in each of the teeth that archaeologists tried in their studies.
Thanks to this inlaid could provide information about their ideologies, religions and hierarchies, to those historians with a profound interest in this civilization. These ouches of jade were conducted in a fairly aggressive manner and could be seen with just see the edges of the anterior teeth and proximal surfaces of the posterior ones.
All this was done under old beliefs about the soul and breath. It was reduced to people of high rank. The inlaid were a great discovery for dental research of this century. Would you dare to wear a jade inlay like this?