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		</div><p>Neanderthals were practising primitive dentistry 130,000 years ago with some using toothpicks, scientists have discovered.</p>
<p>A study of four teeth from one of the extinct humans revealed toothpick grooves and scratches, which suggest attempts to get rid of toothache.</p>
<p>Although the jawbone was missing, there was evidence that two of the teeth were not in their normal positions.</p>
<p><i>“The scratches indicate this individual was pushing something into his or her mouth to get at that twisted premolar,”</i> said lead researcher Professor David Frayer, from the University of Kansas, US.</p>
<p>The findings, from fossils found at Krapina in Croatia, add to growing evidence of intelligent tool use by Neanderthals, a human sub-species that co-existed with the ancestors of people living today.</p>
<p>Experts believe one reason Neanderthals died out around 40,000 years ago was because they could not compete with early modern humans for food and shelter.</p>
<p>The new research published in the Bulletin of the International Association for Paleodontology was conducted by scientists who carried out a microscopic examination of the teeth, all of which came from the left side of the mouth.</p>
<p>Six toothpick grooves and associated scratches and breaks in enamel were found among the two teeth that were out of position, and the two molars further behind them.</p>
<p>Prof Frayer said: <i>“As a package, this fits together as a dental problem that the Neanderthal was having and was trying to presumably treat itself, with the toothpick grooves, the breaks and also with the scratches on the premolar.</p>
<p>“It was an interesting connection or collection of phenomena that fit together in a way that we would expect a modern human to do.</p>
<p>“Everybody has had dental pain, and they know what it’s like to have a problem with an impacted tooth.”</i></p>
<p>How the marks were made is unknown, but scientists suspect the Neanderthal might have used pieces of bone or grass stems.</p>
<p><i>“They show us that Neanderthals were doing something inside their mouths to treat the dental irritation,”</i> Prof Frayer added.</p>
<p>“Or at least, this one was.”</p>
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