Introduction

The idea that dental caries and toothaches are caused by a tooth worm gnawing at the teeth goes back thousands of years. Historical sources from around the world, from ancient times through the early 1900s, associate the mythical worm with demons. Remedies against the tooth worm were often a mix of spiritual and physical undertakings. It was not until the eighteenth century that doctors began to reconsider this theory. Among the lay population, it lasted much longer.

ONLINE RESOURCES

• Anton van Leeuwenhoek and the tooth-worm

• Cryptic references in a Romanian folk-charm clarified by reference to a Babylonian antecedent

• Driving Out the Toothworm' in Today's China

• Imagination and Fantasy in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Time
  Parasitic Worms in Early Modern Science and Medicine, 1650-1810

• The Caries Phenomenon: A Timeline from Witchcraft and Superstition to Opinions of the 1500s to Today’s Science

• The tooth-worm: historical aspects of a popular medical belief

• The Worm in the Tooth

• Tooth Worm Incantation - The First Millennium BC - George Heath-Whyte

FURTHER READING

• Butani, Y., Weintraub, J.A. & Barker, J.C. Oral health-related cultural beliefs for four racial/ethnic groups: Assessment of the literature. BMC Oral Health 8, 26 (2008). https://doi-org.proxy.lib.umich.edu/10.1186/1472-6831-8-26

• Gerabek WE. The tooth-worm: historical aspects of a popular medical belief. Clin Oral Investig. 1999 Mar;3(1):1-6.
  doi: 10.1007/s007840050070. PMID: 10522185.

• Gorelick L, Gwinnett AJ. Life and death of the tooth worm theory or when I believe it, I will see it. N Y State Dent J. 1987 Aug-Sep;53(7):21-5. PMID: 3309743 

• Hsu TL, Ring ME. Driving out the 'toothworm' in today's China. Journal of the History of Dentistry. 1998 Nov;46(3):111-5. PMID: 10388453

• Khodadoust, K., Ardalan, M., Pourabbas, R., & Abdolrahimi, M. (2013). Dental and oral diseases in Medieval Persia, lessons from Hedayat Akhawayni. Journal of medical ethics and history of medicine, 6, 9.

• Mandel, I.D. Caries Through the Ages: A Worm's Eye View First Published August 1, 1983 Research Article Find in PubMed https://doi-org.proxy.lib.umich.edu/10.1177/00220345830620081601

• Meyerhoff, M. Arabic Tooth-Worm stories. Bulletin of the History of Medicine; Jan 1, 1945; 17, ProQuest pg. 203

• Ohry, A., and J. Tsafrir. "Running after quacks and mountebanks ..." Progress in Health Sciences, vol. 2, no. 1, June 2012, pp. 171+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A297427473/AONE?u=umuser&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=f85af17c. Accessed 4 June 2022.

• Oziegbe, EO, Schepartz, LA. “Is parity a cause of tooth loss? Perceptions of northern Nigerian Hausa women.” PLOS ONE, December 5, 2019.  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0226158 

• Imagination and Fantasy in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Time: Projections, Dreams, Monsters, and Illusions.Edited by: Albrecht Classen

• Volume 24 in the series Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture https://doi-org.proxy.lib.umich.edu/10.1515/9783110693669