White as Whales Bone

This work investigates the uncertainties surrounding the provision of dental treatment in early modern England from 1400 onwards, and examines European influences upon English practice, especially those of the Huguenot immigrants who were highly skilled and reputable. Despite the fluidity of healthcare provision in the earlier centuries, by 1750 dentistry was emerging as an occupation independent of medicine, in direct response to the development of consumerism, the increase in population and the rise of the middle classes.