Leonardo da Vinci is considered one of the greatest “universal geniuses” highly regarded for his achievements in art or technology development. Somewhat less attention is paid to his anatomical studies, which he carried out over the course of 30 years. According to a survey by dental researchers in Krems, da Vinci correctly identified the maxillary sinus 150 years before it was officially discovered – as well as the connection between the shape of the teeth and the function of the teeth.
The anthropologist and director of the Center for Natural and Cultural History of Man, Kurt W. Alt from the Danube Private University (DPU) in Krems (Lower Austria), and the art historian and dentist went into the anatomical and physiological legacy of da Vinci (1452-1519). Iris Schuez in the “Journal of Anatomy”. In some drawings and notes, the polymath also dealt with the composition of the skull, and specifically with the jaw and tooth area. Five sketches made in 1489 show the anatomy of the teeth, the nervous and vascular system and the paranasal sinuses in great detail, as the two study authors write. A handwritten page with conclusions on the drawings dates from 1508.
In the Renaissance era, dentistry was not yet a separate scientific field. Da Vinci was heavily involved in recovering anatomical knowledge that had been lost since ancient times. Because his scientific approach was very innovative at the time, da Vinci’s notes remained difficult to understand for many of his contemporaries. According to the work, his examination of teeth could have had something to do with his generally broad scientific interest, but also with his artistic and aesthetic interest.
Two of the drawings deal, among other things, with the maxillary sinuses – and that 150 years before their “discovery” by the British anatomist Nathaniel Highmore, as Schuez and Alt state with reference to earlier analyses. Da Vinci’s notes would also show that he did not see teeth as “dead tissue” but as living structures. According to the authors, the drawings also contain the first correct indication of the composition of human dentition with four incisors, two canines, four premolars and six molars per jaw.
He later supplemented his description of the four different tooth types with an analysis of their function. He came to the correct conclusion that when the upper and lower jaws move, the strongest forces act in the rear part of the dentition and thus close to the point from which the chewing movement starts. From this he derived why the different types of teeth are developed and arranged in this way, what tasks they perform and what loads they are exposed to.
Although unpublished, da Vinci’s anatomical studies subsequently had a significant impact on artists and researchers, as Schuez and Alt point out. As in many other areas, the researcher was also “far ahead of his time” in the field of dentistry, as shown by the correct description of the tooth or dentition formula or the consideration of teeth as organic structures and not as dead material. But perhaps his greatest achievement in the medical field is his influence on the introduction of drawings that are as detailed as possible to convey anatomical knowledge. In the end, however, he shared the fate of many “universal geniuses”. Schuez and Alt state that his legacy was so extensive that future generations could not deal with the amount of information.
(S E R V I C E – https://doi.org/10.1111/joa.13561)