Dentistry only emerged as a sub-discipline of medical science around 1830 and ‘professionals’ practicing at that time were poorly trained if trained at all. Still, tooth filling dates to the early third millennium B.C., and a form of cosmetic false teeth were fashioned by the Etruscans around 970 B.C. Specialized scalpels, probes, forceps, lancets and other delicate tools have been designed specifically for dentistry and can be found as sets. During the middle ages a specialized tool for tooth extraction was called the ‘pelican’ because of the shape of its pinchers. The tooth key, invented in 1742, consists of a key operated claw attached to a wood or ivory handle. Dental burs linked to long thin hand-operated spring gears for grinding teeth and different types of pluggers for packing gold into fillings were patented during the mid-1800s. In 1790 George Washington’s dentist, John Greenwood devised the first powered dental drill, using a spinning wheel as the power source. A motorized dental drill was developed around 1860 and the high speed ‘painless’ drill much like our modern ones was invented in 1957. Pain is a relative thing.