Tormented by toothache and struck down by a severe fever: Exiled Napoleon spent his final years living in agony on the island of St Helena, a medical report from 203 years ago has revealed
In an era before effective analgesia and before the widespread use of or understanding of the nature of infections and antibiotics, we shouldn’t be too surprised. Impacted and infected wisdom teeth are fairly common today, even with modern oral hygiene products, good diets and living conditions . I’ve suffered and have had them removed myself. It was pretty traumatic even with Novocaine and sedatives, so Napoleon has my deepest sympathy. But if a stretch though to blame it on his incarceration as this article hints towards. I would imagine that with Napoleon’s diet and habits it could have occurred anywhere. The treatment given was the pretty standard one for the time, competently and successfully administered and not so different from today even. As he made a full recovery almost 3 1/2 years before his death it doesn’t seem to be a great contributing factor either. Nice to know I’ve got something in common though, as I also forgot to ask for mine back as well. Can’t see anyone making £11k for them though!
In an era before effective analgesia and before the widespread use of or understanding of the nature of infections and antibiotics, we shouldn’t be too surprised. Impacted and infected wisdom teeth are fairly common today, even with modern oral hygiene products, good diets and living conditions . I’ve suffered and have had them removed myself. It was pretty traumatic even with Novocaine and sedatives, so Napoleon has my deepest sympathy. But if a stretch though to blame it on his incarceration as this article hints towards. I would imagine that with Napoleon’s diet and habits it could have occurred anywhere. The treatment given was the pretty standard one for the time, competently and successfully administered and not so different from today even. As he made a full recovery almost 3 1/2 years before his death it doesn’t seem to be a great contributing factor either. Nice to know I’ve got something in common though, as I also forgot to ask for mine back as well. Can’t see anyone making £11k for them though!