The Myth Of Tooth Worms

People used to believe toothaches and other dental problems were caused by "tooth worms" that lived inside teeth and consumed them from the inside out. For centuries, medical texts and folk traditions described these imaginary worms as the direct cause of decay and pain. Healers tried to drive them out with smoke, herbs, or crude dental tools, thinking they were attacking a living parasite rather than diseased tissue. The idea persisted in different cultures until modern dentistry and microscopy finally revealed that bacteria and decay, not worms, destroy teeth.

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