I'm going off on a tangent here, but whenever I read about progress in dentistry I always get the feeling they are just sugarcoating medieval practices. In an era where mankind routinely flies people into space, the primary tools leveraged by orthodontists is still drilling and pulling teeth, and teeth replacement is still implemented as lodging metal spikes onto the jawbone. It sounds like the only progress that we had since the 17th century is clever ways to numb pain and how finer materials ended up replacing wood for dental prosthetics.