Neanderthals Went to the Dentist

Neanderthal dentists used stone drills to treat cavities nearly 60,000 years ago, ancient molar suggests.

Neanderthals had the know-how to identify a tooth infection and the motor skills to drill out the damage, according to a study published May 13, 2026, in the open-access journal PLOS One by Alisa Zubova of Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences (Kunstkamera), St. Petersburg, and colleagues.

Evidence of prehistoric dental know-how

Archaeological discoveries have shown that Neanderthals used toothpicks to remove food from their teeth and might also have used medicinal plants, but the extent of their medical capabilities is unclear. In this study, Zubova and colleagues describe a Neanderthal tooth which received physical alterations to treat infection.

This tooth is a single molar from Chagyrskaya Cave in Russia, around 59,000 years old. In the center of the tooth is a deep hole extending into the pulp cavity. The researchers conducted experiments on three modern human teeth to demonstrate that a hole of the same shape and same patterns of microscopic grooves can be created by drilling into the tooth with a stone point similar to tools that have been found within Chagyrskaya Cave.

The hole in this damaged molar, as well as toothpick grooves along the side of the tooth, is an example of a caries lesion in the same population, which is rare among Neanderthals.

This procedure would have hurt, but it would also have ultimately alleviated the pain of a tooth infection by removing the damaged part of the tooth. These modifications provide evidence that Neanderthals had the capacity to identify the source of pain, to determine how to treat it, to apply the manual dexterity needed for an efficient operation, and to endure painful treatment to alleviate future discomfort. This is the first time such behavior has been demonstrated outside of Homo sapiens, and it is the oldest example of such behavior by more than 40,000 years.

- Author: Robert Egan, Public Library of Science