ABSTRACT
By the middle of the seventeenth century in France, sufferers from toothache could follow one of four typical courses of action. First, they could endure the pain, in the hope that it would eventually disappear of its own accord; or they could purchase a bottle containing the promise of a cure, perhaps persuaded of its efficacy by the street trader’s harangue. If the pain was too severe, or if they had no wish to wait for such a cure to take effect, they could seek a tooth-drawer to perform an extraction; or, finally, they could enlist the services of a surgeon to deal with the offending tooth.
