alt.hn

5/13/2026 at 6:31:10 PM

Neanderthals drilled cavities to treat a toothache 59,000 years ago

 https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/05/neanderthals-drilled-cavities-to-treat-a-toothache-59000-years-ago/

by Bender

5/14/2026 at 3:30:25 AM

Has anyone tried vacuum to treat cavities?

Hooking up a vacuum pump should cause the contents of the cavity to dry out after a few minutes and dessicate. In the process the boiling liquid pushes out foreign matter. And then some low viscosity resin can be used to displace where the water was.

Might stop drilling being necessary whilst still separating bacteria from their energy source.

Seems obvious, but can't find any papers of this being tried.

by londons_explore

5/14/2026 at 7:35:06 AM

Or even just fill the hole with a temp of some kind. Field repair. Appropriate for Antarctic scientists, transoceanic sailors, and people without a lot of money. Next step would be to automate it. Micromachinery.

by euroderf

5/14/2026 at 7:06:18 AM

Dry socket comes to mind. When you have your wisdom teeth out, you aren't even supposed to use straws for a while. I imagine the vacuum pump would be much stronger than the suction from using a straw.

by opan

5/13/2026 at 9:41:45 PM

As someone who has experienced serious tooth infection and internal pressure out of reach of dentistry, im not too surprised. It took everything I had even with tons of benzocaine to not go medieval on my face with my toolbox.

If I was living in the stone age I probably would of tried to bust the tooth out with a rock and stick if nobody else had any solutions.

by AngryData

5/14/2026 at 4:36:15 AM

> out of reach of dentistry

What about holistic (as in, whole-body) dentists?

by DANmode

5/13/2026 at 10:52:15 PM

Sure, but they didn't bust the tooth out with a rock and stick.

They drilled cavities. They did dentistry, with dentistry tools.

Neanderthals practiced dentistry 59,000 years ago.

Everything we know about Neanderthals seems to be just the tip of the iceberg given that. Not long ago, we thought Homo Sapiens were obviously more intelligent, it's in the name! (That, and obviously there's more of them in our DNA, so...)

We might need to rethink that.

by alterom

5/13/2026 at 9:06:08 PM

This is so awesome. This is just a dumb off the cuff thought but I do wonder how hardwired this is into us as a species. I have a crummy autoimmune disease and I can’t tell you how many times when I’m in bad pain my brain is like “cut it off” or something like that.

by Robdel12

5/14/2026 at 3:17:31 AM

Has anyone done DNA sequencing of a cell being attacked by the immune system in an autoimmune patient?

My hypothesis is the cell might be infected with some latent virus (maybe all the cells of that type are), and the immune response is 'correct'.

by londons_explore

5/14/2026 at 4:38:04 AM

Opportunistic infection from things like EBV

that only remain in sustained number in organs until you’re weakened,

rhymes with what you’re saying.

by DANmode

5/13/2026 at 9:14:06 PM

Maybe this is proof of time-travel.

by deafpolygon

5/14/2026 at 1:13:35 AM

NO. NO TIME TRAVEL. NO ALIENS.

Every fucking time we learn something cool about our ancestors someone attempts to undermine it with shit like this.

Neanderthals doing dentistry is way, way, way cooler and more interesting than your fucking woo.

Every single time.

by jamiek88

5/14/2026 at 3:26:57 AM

This is exactly the type of comment I'd expect from a time-traveling alien trying to cover its tracks.

Why did you create us? Why do you hide in the shadows?!

by alexanderdmitri

5/14/2026 at 1:19:27 AM

[dead]

by 4289076290867