Historical Context Note:<\/h3>\n
The Health Sciences and Human Services Library Historical Collections\u2019 strives to provide broad access to our diverse collections both in person and digitally. Materials in our collections appear as they originally were published or created and may contain offensive or inappropriate language or images and may be offensive to users. The University of Maryland, Baltimore does not endorse the views expressed in these materials. Materials should be viewed in the context in which they were created.<\/em><\/p>\n Long before modern anesthesia,\u00a0advanced dental technology, or formal dental education,\u00a0tooth extractions and other\u00a0dental treatments were often\u00a0painful\u00a0affairs that inspired both anxiety and amusement. Historical artists captured these experiences through illustrations, caricatures, and\u00a0satirical\u00a0prints that reveal how dentistry was viewed by the public. Drawn from the UMB\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Dental Illustrations Collection<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in the Digital Archive, these images offer a\u00a0glimpse into the history of dental care while highlighting the humor, fears, and cultural\u00a0attitudes\u00a0surrounding oral health.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The dental practitioners depicted in many of these illustrations often bore little\u00a0resemblance to modern dentists. Prior to the professionalization of dentistry in the nineteenth century, few individuals\u00a0performing dental procedures\u00a0received\u00a0formal education or standardized training. Tooth extraction was\u00a0frequently\u00a0carried out by itinerant tooth pullers who traveled\u00a0from town to town, advertising their services in marketplaces and public squares. Others who offered dental treatment included barbers, blacksmiths, apothecaries, and self-proclaimed medical experts whose qualifications were often questionable.\u00a0Many would have been labeled \u201cquacks,\u201d a term used to describe individuals who claimed medical\u00a0expertise\u00a0without the knowledge or credentials\u00a0to support it.\u00a0For many of these practitioners, tooth pulling was as much a public spectacle as it was a dental service, with crowds gathering to watch demonstrations of speed, strength, and showmanship.\u00a0Turning the patient’s pain into a show itself.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In these depictions, dentistry is a less controlled\u00a0healthcare\u00a0practice and more a performance shaped by audience engagement. The presence of spectators is not incidental; it is central. Crowds gather not only out of curiosity, but because the procedure itself\u00a0became a\u00a0form\u00a0of entertainment, framed by exaggerated gestures and heightened emotion. The practitioner\u2019s role extends beyond treatment into showmanship, where credibility is performed as much as it is practiced. In this sense, the visual language of these works reflects a culture in which medical authority was still being negotiated in public view.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The illustrations\u00a0demonstrate\u00a0that dentistry was often viewed as more than a medical service. Whether presented by traveling tooth-pullers,\u00a0carnival\u00a0performers, or\u00a0satirical\u00a0artists, dental procedures became public spectacles that attracted curiosity, laughter, and sometimes\u00a0skepticism. The crowds depicted in these scenes remind us that dental treatment was once a highly visible part of public life. However, as artists continued to\u00a0portray dentists and their patients, many shifted their attention from public performance to humor and exaggerations, creating caricatures and cartoons.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What makes these illustrations especially interesting is how they borrow from theatrical traditions. The dental chair becomes a stage, and every gesture is amplified as if the scene were meant for an audience. Assistants hover like supporting actors, tools become props, and even the\u00a0simplest\u00a0extraction is treated like a climactic moment.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Despite their humor, these images are doing more than making jokes. They expose how dentistry was perceived: invasive, theatrical, and deeply personal. The mouth becomes both a site of vulnerability and spectacle, and caricature thrives in that\u00a0contradiction.<\/span><\/p>\n Across these images, the focus shifts sharply to the moment of removal, the body held\u00a0in place, the mouth open, and the tool taking center stage. In works like\u00a0<\/span>L\u2019arracheur\u00a0de dents\u00a03\u00a0\u00a0(Shown in this post),\u00a0<\/span><\/i>the extraction is not abstracted or softened, and the practitioner leans in with almost exaggerated concentration. The composition emphasizes force, leverage, and proximity, making the viewer acutely aware of the imbalance of control in the scene.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What\u2019s\u00a0especially striking is how often these scenes blur the line between documentation and drama. While they\u00a0appear to depict\u00a0real procedures, they are also composed\u00a0for\u00a0impact: the angle of the\u00a0patient\u2019s\u00a0head, the dramatized strain in the dentist\u2019s posture, and the surrounding\u00a0onlookers reacting in horror or curiosity. The extraction becomes a kind of public event rather than a private medical act, reinforcing how dentistry was historically performed in semi-public spaces like fairs, streets, or taverns.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Looking across these dental illustrations, what emerges is not a single story about dentistry, but a layered one. These images move fluidly between humor and horror, spectacle and documentation, public entertainment and private suffering. A tooth extraction was never just a medical procedure; it became a performance, a social event, and at times, a form of satire aimed at both practitioner and patient.<\/p>\n What makes these works so compelling today is not just their historical value, but their emotional range. They capture a time when dentistry existed at the edges of medicine and theater, where pain was openly visible and often shared by an audience. Even the most exaggerated comedic scenes carry an undercurrent of vulnerability, reminding us that the mouth, so central to speech, expression, and identity, was also a site of fear and loss.<\/p>\n In revisiting these illustrations, we\u2019re not just looking at the history of dental practice, we are also seeing how people once visualized pain, authority, and the body itself. And perhaps, that\u2018s why they still hold our attention; they sit in that uneasy space between fascination and discomfort, where art and medicine overlap most vividly.<\/p>\n History, in this case, becomes a kind of visual record that paints a picture of how medicine once was, even when it feels distant or no longer relevant to modern practice. These images offer a glimpse into a world where medical knowledge, public performance, and cultural imagination were deeply intertwined, reminding us just how far dentistry and medicine have evolved over time. \u00a0<\/p>\n The full Dentistry Illustrations Collection<\/a> can be found in the University of Maryland Baltimore’s HSHSL Digital Archive<\/a>. Questions about this collection can be directed to the Historical Collections Librarian, Tara Wink<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Long before modern anesthesia,\u00a0advanced dental technology, or formal dental education,\u00a0tooth extractions and other\u00a0dental treatments were often\u00a0painful\u00a0affairs that inspired both anxiety and amusement. Historical artists captured these experiences through illustrations, caricatures, and\u00a0satirical\u00a0prints that reveal how dentistry was viewed by the public. Drawn from the UMB\u2019s\u00a0Dental Illustrations Collection\u00a0in the Digital Archive, these images offer a\u00a0glimpse into the history of dental care while highlighting the humor, fears, and cultural\u00a0attitudes\u00a0surrounding oral health.\u00a0\u00a0 Continue reading Pulling Teeth: An Introduction<\/h3>\n
![\"Black-and-white](\"https:\/\/www2.hshsl.umaryland.edu\/hslupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dent_040.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDentistry as Public Spectacle<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www2.hshsl.umaryland.edu\/hslupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dent_020.jpg\")
<\/a>Before dentistry became a regulated profession practiced in private offices, tooth extraction was often a public event. Traveling practitioners and self-proclaimed specialists\u00a0attracted customers by performing procedures in marketplaces, taverns, and other busy gathering places.\u00a0Artists\u00a0frequently\u00a0portrayed these scenes as theatrical spectacles, emphasizing the crowds, dramatic gestures, and reactions of both patients and onlookers. These illustrations reveal how dental treatment occupied a unique space between healthcare, commerce, and entertainment.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Detailed](\"https:\/\/www2.hshsl.umaryland.edu\/hslupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dent_048.jpg\")
<\/a>Rather than isolating the act of extraction, these illustrations\u00a0situate it\u00a0within social life. The boundary between observer and\u00a0participant\u00a0blurs, as the spectacle invites reaction, laughter, discomfort, fascination, or skepticism. Dentistry, in this context, exists\u00a0within the same visual and cultured space as street performance and carnival tradition, where bodily vulnerability becomes part of a shared public experience.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nCaricature, Comedy, and the Theatrical Dentist\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www2.hshsl.umaryland.edu\/hslupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dent_015.jpg\")
<\/a>While early dental imagery often hovers between documentation and spectacle, caricature pushes things further, turning dental work into something overly performative. In these images, the dentist is\u00a0rarely\u00a0neutral. Instead, they become exaggerated figures of authority: looming, overly focused, and sometimes almost absurd in their intensity.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Watercolor](\"https:\/\/www2.hshsl.umaryland.edu\/hslupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dent_003.jpg\")
<\/a>Patients\u00a0in contrast, are\u00a0frequently\u00a0stripped of dignity in the name of humor. Open mouths, contorted bodies, and dramatic facial expressions transform routine procedures into visual punchlines. Pain is not hidden\u00a0here,\u00a0it is stylized. The result is a strange tension: suffering reframed as comedy.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Watercolor](\"https:\/\/www2.hshsl.umaryland.edu\/hslupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dent_004.jpg\")
<\/a>In many caricatures, dentistry is also tied to social commentary, reflecting broader anxieties about medical authority and trust. Meanwhile, patients are often exaggerated into\u00a0recognizable \u201ctypes,\u201d reinforcing class-based humor and stereotypes that\u00a0are\u00a0common in\u00a0satirical\u00a0print culture.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe Mechanics of Pain: Extractions Scenes and Dental Instruments<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www2.hshsl.umaryland.edu\/hslupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dent_079.jpg\")
<\/a>If earlier illustrations lean into\u00a0spectacle and satire, this section pulls us closer to the clinical sore of dentistry in pre-modern imagination: the act of extraction itself. Here, the dentist (barber-surgeon, or\u00a0traveling \u201ctooth-puller\u201d) is no longer just a comedic figure or carnival performer, but someone engaged in\u00a0a physically intimate and often brutal procedure.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www2.hshsl.umaryland.edu\/hslupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Dent_105_rescan.jpg\")
<\/a>The tools themselves become characters in their own right.<\/span>\u00a0Dental forceps, pelicans, and early extraction instruments are often\u00a0<\/span>rendered<\/span>\u00a0with careful attention, sometimes even more precisely than the human figures<\/span>\u00a0using them. This reflects both fascination and\u00a0<\/span>anxiety;<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>these\u00a0<\/span>implements are extensions of authority, but also of violence. In many illustrations, they are oversized or sharply\u00a0<\/span>silhouetted<\/span>, almost symbolic, as if to ensure the viewer understands their purpose even without medical context.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Black-and-white](\"https:\/\/www2.hshsl.umaryland.edu\/hslupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dent_092.jpg\")
<\/a>In this way, the illustrations\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0just record medical\u00a0practice;\u00a0they stage it.\u00a0Pain is not hidden but made central, almost instructional;\u00a0within these images\u00a0pain is purpose. The viewer is invited to\u00a0witness\u00a0both the necessity and the spectacle of extraction, suspended between education and unease.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBetween Medicine, Performance, and History<\/h3>\n
![\"Black-and-white](\"https:\/\/www2.hshsl.umaryland.edu\/hslupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dent_047.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n