 Dentistry in Brazil
500 years of Dentistry in Brazil
Our native indians already performed dental treatments when the Country was discovered even though it is not known since when these practices had been used. Documents dated from that period show that they had good teeth. Moving on through several periods of the history, the Brazilian Dentistry reaches, nowadays, around 145 thousand professionals, high technology and, much work ahead of us in the oral health.
Could we be a little jealous of the Brazilian inhabitants in the bygones 1500s? The letter of Pero Vaz de Caminha describes inhabitants with nice faces, which could mean healthy and beautiful teeth. Skulls found in Lagoa Santa (Minas Gerais) and in coastal areas of São Paulo and Paraná, along with observations of the first settlers, show that the Indians had good teeth, with very few cavities, but with accentuated wearing away caused by the chewing of hard food. The Kuikuro tribe, from north of Mato Grosso, used to restore dental cavities with warm jatobá tree resin, which cauterized the pulp and worked as a filling after it became hard.
Between 1534 and 1536, along with the creation of hereditary captaincies, the arrival of the settlers' expeditions and the establishment of the first inhabitants' agglomerations, masters of several professions also arrived in Brazil . They were craftsmen, among which there were barbers who used to extract teeth. The Portuguese statutes of the ‘ Físico-mor' (Great Physicist), dated of February 25 th , 1521 regulated the work of these professionals.
The dental practice in Brazil was finally regulated on November 9 th , 1629 by the Portuguese Régia Letter that mentioned the barbers for the first time. The Statutes of the Work of Surgeon-mor, of December 12 th , 1631 fixed a two thousand réis fine for those who extracted teeth without a license, granted by Dr. Antonio Francisco Milheiro, responsible for evaluating bleeders, who also extracted teeth, besides midwives and barbers. It required to prove over two years of learning in such positions.
The statutes sanction to the Minas Gerais' Substitute Surgeon of May 9 th , 1743 represents the origins of the Dentistry legislation. The candidates would pay a fee to take the exam and obtain the work permission. In order to improve the inspection at the Portuguese colonies, the Queen D Maria I signed on June 17 th , 1782, the creation of the Royal Administrative Council of ‘Protomedicate', which extinguished the positions of ‘Great Physicist' and ‘Surgeon-mor' and passed the responsibility of the concession of permits and licenses on to this administrative council composed of representatives, doctors and approved surgeons. The so called “Tiradentes” (tooth puller) were subjected to inspection from the Senate Chamber and from the Pious Organizations.
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