The making of the dentiste, c. 1650-1760

"The early decades of the eighteenth century saw the appearance of a completely new type of surgical practitioner in France: the dentiste. The use of this title was of the utmost significance, indicating not just the making of a new practitioner but of an entirely new practice - the dentiste was, quite literally, making a name for himself. Appearing on the back of dramatic changes within surgery in general, the practice of the dentiste, although it focused only on the teeth, was nevertheless extensive. An innovative, wide-ranging field of operations was now on offer, the performance of which had only been hinted at by the surgeon of the seventeenth century."--BOOK JACKET. "This book places the making of the dentiste within social, political and technical contexts and re-contextualises the purely progressive stories told in conventional histories of dentistry. In doing so, it brings surgery back to its central role in this story, and reveals for the first time the origins of the dentiste in the French surgical profession."--BOOK JACKET.