Cavities ...[were] one of humankind's oldest miseries. Terrified of tooth extraction, people often suffered intense and chronic pain - and many of these people were history's major policymakers. It is surprising that history books omit the fact that, for instance, Louis XIV and Elizabeth I (to mention only two policy-shaping figures) often had to render major decisions while in intense dental agony. Louis, in 1685, signed the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (which had granted religious freedom), causing thousands to emigrate, while he was in the throes of a month-long tooth infection. It had developed into a raw, unhealing opening between the roof of his mouth and his sinuses.
Elizabeth, on the other hand, suffered chronically from deep, massive cavities but feared the misery of extraction. In December 1578, an unrelenting tooth pain kept her awake day and night for two weeks, necessitating drugs that were themselves heavily disorientating. ... Throughout the weeks of misery, she had continued to oversee legislation that affected the lives of millions of subjects.
... A volume of speculative history could be written on the effects of severe and protracted dental pain on policy-making.
- from the endlessly quotable Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things, Charles Panati, 212.
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