Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: teeth

  • Bloodletting with leeches: More dangerous than meeting Dracula

    S. Sabrina Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan Since time immemorial physicians have treated patients by removing various amounts of blood from the circulatory system. For this purpose they used objects that could cut the skin, such as sharpened pieces of wood, stones, teeth of wild animals, or even the feathers of birds. These tools changed over time, and…

  • The promise of a perfect smile

    Liz JonesAberystwyth, Wales, UK My gran would pull a miniature silver blade from its mother-of-pearl handle and slice the apple into six pieces to share between the two of us. Eating it that way aided digestion, she would tell me. I was not sure what digestion was, or why it needed our aid, but I…