If you have a sweet tooth for rare books, then this selection of dental textbooks dating back to 1778 will appeal (unless you are squeamish or have a toothache right now). Personally, I love the selection – some grisly diagrams, archaic methods and harrowing-sounding procedures – these are the kind of old books I love to thumb through. I feel like dentists should keep these in their waiting rooms to remind modern patients how good they have it.

Drills, decay, fillings, braces, dentures – it’s all here in the books that shaped dentistry.