Original edition of the first book specialized in odontological research.
Paris, 1743.
Bunon, Robert. Essay on tooth diseases, where methods are proposed for obtaining good formation from the youngest age and ensuring their preservation throughout life. With a letter discussing some opinions particular of the Author of theOrthopedics.
Paris, Briasson, Chaubert, et De Hansy, 1743.
In-12 of xii pp., 237 pp., (3). Full period marbled calf, cold border around the boards, spine with raised bands, ornamented, damage at the foot of the spine, gilt on the edges, red edges. Binding of the period.
166 x 93 mm.
Original edition of the first book specialized in odontological research.
Weinberger, Introduction to the History of Dentistry, pp. 313; 405; David, French Bibliography of Dental Art, p. 46; Garrison-Morton, No. 3672.1. Hirsch I, p. 768.
Robert Bunon (1702-1748) is considered along with Pierre Fauchard as one of the great French dental surgeons. He was especially the first to provide a scientific study of dental hypoplasia, observed among the patients he received at La Salpêtrière and the General Hospital.
The “Essay on tooth diseases” is considered the first book specialized in odontological research; Bunon synthesizes all his previous publications there.
Very early, he advocated the extraction of milk teeth to facilitate the arrangement of permanent teeth; he also opposed the absurd idea that pregnant women could not receive dental care (see “Dissertation on a very pernicious prejudice.”).
Protected by Jean-François Caperon, Louis XV’s dentist, Bunon was appointed dentist of Mesdames in 1747.
“One of the outstanding French dentists in the period following Fauchard’s Surgeon dentist (1728) was Robert Bunon, who was the first to perform specialized odontological research“. Garrison-Morton.
Dissatisfied with the incomplete coverage of dental problems that he found in the works of Fauchard and Gerauldy, Bunon addressed such issues as dental erosion, tooth development and the prophylaxis of dental caries and other maladies of the teeth in his Essay, the first of his important dental works. Three years later he published Experiences and demonstrations… to serve de support and as evidence à of the Essay … , in which he proved the assertions of his earlier Essay through a series of dental researches conducted on patients at La Salpêtrière and at the hospital of St. Côme-the first such ever performed. In this work he discussed for the first time the genesis of enamel hypoplasia (which he found was caused by various childhood diseases), as well as the prevention of tooth decay; he also included in it the first dental pharmacopeia. “(Hoffmann-Axthelm, History of Dentistry, pp. 207-9).
Very nice copy free from any foxing and preserved in its period binding, a very rare condition.
