Page 56 - RADC 2023

A brief
history of
dental care
in the
British Army
Brigadier (Ret’d) N M Young
Introduction
At the base of the laurel wreath on the regimental crest of the Royal Army Dental Corps (RADC) is a motto ‘Ex Dentibus Ensis.’ This is translated as ‘From the Teeth, a Sword’ and refers to the Greek legend of a wandering prince called Cadmus, the son of the King of Phoenicia.
The mythical tale describes that at one point on his journey Cadmus was instructed to make sacrifice to the goddess Athena. Water was required for part of this sacrificial rite and so he sent some of his companions to a nearby spring, but this was guarded
by a dragon who attacked and killed them. Cadmus avenged their deaths by slaying the dragon and was then instructed by Athena to sow the dragon’s teeth in the ground. From these teeth sprang up a race of fierce armed men.
There is also a clear parallel with the legend of Jason and the Argonauts’ capture of the golden fleece, and from these ancient myths is derived the motto of the Royal Army Dental Corps that is an allegory for how
an effective fighting force may be enabled through strong teeth....
Origins of military dentistry
Medieval relief from dental pain was limited to extraction of broken or abscessed teeth and this was performed either by barber surgeons or itinerant tooth drawers. They would sometimes set up their stall as a fairground entertainment and charge the public gathering to watch the procedure. The instrument of choice was called a Pelican due to its claw-like resemblance to that bird’s beak. This claw was placed over the crown of an offending tooth to fully engage it and then the T-shaped bar to which the claw was attached at right-angles was rotated. This action sometimes delivered the whole tooth out of the patient’s jaw - and usually some of the alveolar bone and associated soft tissue as well.
In the seventeenth century infantry soldiers carried gunpowder for their muskets in bandoliers. These were individual wooden
tubes attached to a shoulder strap with each tube holding sufficient gunpowder
for one discharge of the weapon. The most effective method for removing the cap
of the bandolier during the heat of battle was to use either the front teeth or the canines to pull it off and hence allow rapid pouring of powder into the musket barrel
for another shot. In due course the wooden tube bandoliers were replaced with paper cartridges with each containing a lead ball and measure of gunpowder. The soldier had to bite off the tail of the cartridge before pouring the powder followed by the lead ball into the barrel of his weapon. One of
the reasons cited for the Indian Mutiny was that indigenous Indian troops refused to use these new rifle cartridges, believing them lubricated with grease containing a mixture of pig and cow fat and thus religiously impure for both Muslims and Hindu soldiers.
The importance of teeth to facilitate
loading of infantry weapons persisted well into the 19th century until the introduction of breech-loading rifles with metal cartridges in the 1860’s ended this military dental requirement.
During this period there was an increasing dental awareness in the general population with the evolution of dental surgeries, introduction of toothbrushes and various medicated tooth powders. Unfortunately, this development in treating the huge amount of unmet dental need in the general population was not shared by the senior military command of the day. It required persistent lobbying by frontline commanders who repeatedly highlighted the poor state
of their soldiers’ teeth and the morbidity that this generated before any meaningful introduction of dental care was introduced. Notable among these commanders was Christopher Harvey, Staff Surgeon to
the Royal Navy who in 1886 submitted a
54 RADC BULLETIN 2023
EDUCATION