Yes, the Neanderthal man did go to the dentist!

“Nobody likes going to the dentist to have a hole drilled in their tooth,” notes the popular science magazine Scientific American. “But it could be worse: you could be a Neanderthal and perform such an operation on your decayed molar yourself. All with just a simple stone flake.”

Found in southwest Siberia, a tooth approximately 59,000 years old seems to indicate that Neanderthals were capable of treating their cavities – even if it was probably extremely painful. “On this second lower molar, probably infected, there are marks indicating drilling carried out in three stages with stone tools, to reach the dental pulp,” specifies the scientific journal New Scientist.

“Intelligent and Skilled Hominids”

The study of this Neanderthal tooth was published by a team from the Russian Academy of Sciences on the prestigious Plos One journal website. According to the Smithsonian Magazine, “the previously known dental operations were about 45,000 years more recent.” But above all, the work of these researchers “adds to the increasing number of studies suggesting that Neanderthals were intelligent and capable hominids.”

“Our discovery completely challenges the conventional ideas about the cognitive abilities of Neanderthals, by showing that they could reason causally about diseases,” confirms researcher Kseniya Kolobova, quoted in New Scientist.

According to her, the technique used to drill the tooth was not a random occurrence. “The person in charge of the operation knew where to drill, how far to go, and when to stop. Regardless of who held the tool, the intervention demonstrates a remarkable level of sophistication, both cognitively and motorically.”

The team from the Russian Academy of Sciences estimates that the individual to whom the analyzed tooth belonged survived the operation and was subsequently able to eat. However, they found no evidence indicating that the hole in the tooth had been filled with any substance.