Revised and enlarged edition of the first complete scientific description of dentistry. It contains a systematic description of dental anatomy, pathology, and therapy, together with detailed accounts of restorative and surgical procedures, dental instruments, and prosthetics. Pierre Fauchard (1678-1761), generally acclaimed the "Father of Dentistry", was a pioneer of dental surgery. His innovations, which include dental fillings, instruments, and prosthetics, laid the foundation for all subsequent dental practice. His encyclopaedic and scientific account of all that concerned dentistry in the 18th century is one of the most important works in the history of the field.
Le chirurgien dentiste was first published in 1728, with a second revised edition following in 1746. The present edition is the third. Much of the information in it was first published here because most dentists and dental surgeons at the time treated their knowledge and skills as secrets of trade, and had been very careful to guard them from publication. Fauchard, however, realised that this resulted in a lack of good textbooks on dentistry, and set out to write one, becoming the first to bring together all the theoretical and practical knowledge of dentistry available at the time. "The highest merit of Fauchard consists, still more than in his inventions and improvements, in his having most ably collected in a single work the whole doctrine of dental art, theoretical as well as practical, thus setting in full light the importance of the specialty, and giving it a solid scientific basis" (Guerini).
With a later ownership annotation in red ("Schuchardt") on the half-titles of both volumes. The edges and corners of the boards are scuffed, the spine ends are damaged. The front board of the first volume is detached from the book block, lacking the front free flyleaf, the leaves are somewhat foxed. Otherwise in good condition. Blake p. 144; Crowley 813; David 113; Garrison-Morton-Norman 3671 ("one of the greatest books in the history of the subject"); Hirsch/Hüb. II, 484; Poletti 72; Waller 10621; Weinberger 48; cf. En Français dans le Texte 142; Guerini, A history of dentistry, pp. 259-301; PMM 186.