If a general practitioner wanted to practice general medicine and surgery and one or more specialties he could do so. Advances in Dental Treatment Hippocrates made one simple recommendation often overlooked by both physicians and dentists. Regarding fracture of the lower jaw, Hippocrates discusses separately complete fractures, incomplete, and fractures of the symphysis. He also mentions that if the procedure is done properly, healing is rapid and the teeth occlude and function properly. Artificial fixed and removable bridges were fairly common among the wealthy classes of Rome.
Several writers refer to such appliances.
Romans apparently suffered from a high incidence of dental disease. Meanwhile by means of a sponge he must let the stream of hot water reach the affected part and apply externally, on the side corresponding with the pain, a cerate of cypress or of iris on which he must then place some wool and keep the head well covered up. If extraction did become necessary, he introduced the idea for decayed teeth of first filling the cavity with unraveled linen or with lead to prevent breaking the tooth during extraction. The idea of therapeutic filling to permanently restore the lost structure did not occur until many centuries later. In such cases he introduced a technique which has continued to the present day, perforating the pulp with a drill, known as trephining.