If a person had painful wisdom teeth problems 120 years ago, could anything be done?

Specifically what could an average person (a farmer in the midwest for example) do about it. I guess an extension of this question is when did dental care become available to the average American.

If a person had painful wisdom teeth problems 120 years ago, could anything be done?
Back in that day, they used Cocaine like it was a cure-all. Especially for dental problems because of its numbing properties and also because they didn't know about the damage it causes. That was temporary until they could find a certified doctor to perform "surgery" which back then only meant pulling the tooth. It wasn't until about the 1950's that modern tech was introduced.
Reply:There were dentists back in the 1880's. But treatment options were limited. A lot of teeth were just pulled. They'd use ether to knock the patient out and then they could give them morphine for pain. Or just go to the nearest general store and buy a bottle of Laudanum.
Reply:Well, if you watch Little House on the Prairie, it was available back then, and I do know it was available in the 1800s in all the books I like to read because they had dentists. I just got done reading a book taken place in 1845 and they had a dentist in it.
Reply:Well in those days they got liquored up and then pulled it out...There was nothing like now with the antibiotics an sterlization...Kinda awful... Can you just imagine..I would rather be killed I think I have had wisdon teeth pulled and still hurt...
Reply:Not sure, but one method could be like what they did to my father (only about 50 years ago). You know how as the wisdoms come in they crowd the other teeth? Well his front teeth (one on top and one on bottom) were starting to poke out so they just pulled those ones and his wisdom teeth grew in straight (thankfully). The space created was closed up by his wisdom teeth pushing the rest of them forward. You'd never know the difference today, he's got a great smile. He's 65 with all of his original teeth and one cavity, pretty amazing really. So I think someone back then could have probably done that easier than pulling the Wisdom teeth.
Reply:I guess doctors would pull their teeth out....


But my teacher also said today that doctors back in 1880's didnt wash their hands after they were done with a patient, so a patient would get the last patients condition (if it was contagious) gross!
Reply:-Fillings were invented in the early 1800's





-False teeth date back as far as 700 BC





-Carl Koller introduced Cocaine as an anesthetic in 1884.





-In 1846, Dr. William Morton, a Massachusetts dentist, was the first dentist to use anesthesia for tooth extraction.





-Hard to believe, but most Americans did not brush their teeth until Army soldiers brought their enforced habits of tooth brushing back home after World War II