Pierre Fauchard

Pierre Fauchard was a prominent French physician and today we know him as the father of modern dentistry.

Fauchard was born into a modest home in Saint-Denis-de-Gastines. In 1693, at the age of 15, he entered the French Royal Navy, despite protests from his family, and contacted Alexander Poteleret, a high-ranking surgeon who had studied dental disease and mouth.

It was Poteleret himself who inspired and motivated Fauchard to take an interest in health and leave a legacy of the knowledge they acquired.

Fauchard is well-known thanks to his book "The Surgeon Dentist", here describes the anatomy and basic oral functions, signs, and symptoms of pathology, operating methods to extract and repair teeth, among other topics. His book is said to have been the first to deliver a complete scientific description of dentistry.

I like Fauchard's work because he was the first dental doctor to start treating decayed teeth instead of just extracting them. He was very skillful and ingenious in his work since he even adapted instruments from barbers and watchmakers to be able to use them as dental instruments. In addition, he not only dedicated himself to looking for methods to alleviate the complaints of his patients, but he also took care to write all the new knowledge he obtained, so that he could leave it as a legacy to the next professionals and grow this knowledge.