“We’ve — we’ve found the Queen!” the trembling voice bounced across the marble floor, to the crowd that had gathered, eager to hear any news of their missing ruler.
They shifted nervously as they awaited further instructions. There would be a lot of questions to answer, lots of gears had to start turning right now.
The Queen’s Rise and Fall
The Queen had taken power in a time when it was still considered untoward for a woman to be a ruler, but she never let that stop her. While acting as regent to her young stepson after the King’s death, she slowly consolidated the powers of the throne, solidified her country’s military machine, led more public works projects than any other ruler in her country’s history, save one, and did it all in a short 22 years.
Then, suddenly, nothing. And out of nowhere, her stepson, the brooding heir-apparent all those years, started a campaign to erase her name from history forever as his reign came in with fire and fury. A few unswayable souls continued to search for signs of the Queen, despite incredible odds. But today, today was a day to celebrate. She’d been found.
Hidden in Plain Sight
“It’s a miracle. It’s just astounding. She’s been right here all along!” exclaimed Dr. Hawass, still holding the smoking gun in his hand.
A single, solitary tooth had been discovered in a container clearly labeled with the name of the Queen. It was a eureka moment that caused him to try to match the tooth to the unknown woman’s body stored on the third floor of the Cairo Museum.
“You are no longer an unknown woman in storage. You are our long lost Queen Hatshepsut!” the good doctor exclaimed to the unassuming mummy. “All because of this one tooth. One tooth is all it took to restore you to your place in history after 3,500 years. Welcome back.”
The normally animated and charismatic Egyptologist was suddenly somber as he turned to address his team across the mummy.
“We must discover the cause of her undoing. It’s not enough that we found her, we have to finish this investigation. As you all know, she and her nurse were found in a desecrated tomb in the Valley of the Kings, but her name has been removed from nearly every place it was ever inscribed. Someone wanted her to disappear forever.”
Although almost half of Americans suffer from periodontal disease, you don’t have to lose your legacy because of dental problems.
“It seems pretty clear to me,” an intern interjected. “Her stepson had the most to gain by restoring himself to the monarchy. If he didn’t kill her himself, he had someone do it. Clear, open and shut case, right?”
“But, if that was the situation, wouldn’t he have tried it before twenty-two years went by?” another archeologist asked.
A Case of Foul Play?
A man stepped toward the group from the shadowed hall, wearing a long, white lab coat. “But what about the tooth?”
“What about it?” the intern asked.
“We’ve scanned the body, we know she was in her fifties at the time of her death, and that she had recently had a tooth extracted. This tooth. The tooth that helped us connect this mummy to the missing Queen Hatshepsut,” the man in the coat gestured to the tooth Dr. Hawass still held.
“Her molars are worn and she’s clearly got some pretty rotten teeth going on here. Dental hygiene wasn’t much more than sticks to chew and abrasive polish that wore away the enamel over time during the 18th Dynasty. It’s better than nothing, but, you know, not brushing for 40 years can take a pretty heavy toll.”
“What’s your theory, based on the evidence we have amassed?” Dr. Hawass asked the man in the lab coat with a spark of curiosity in his eye.
“It looks to me that the downfall of Hatshepsut was brought about by poor oral health and a dental abscess, frankly. See here and here on the scan, where the bone is thinner than it should be? That could be indicative of infection in the jaw. With modern medicine, it seems pretty amazing how such a tiny organism could take down the most powerful woman of her time, but I think that’s what we’re looking at. They hadn’t discovered antibiotics yet, after all.”
The group stared at the stranger in disbelief, an air of puzzlement surrounding them like a fog.
“Who are you? How do you know all of this?”
“I’m the Dentist,” he said, simply. The archaeologists looked at each other questioningly, then back to where the Dentist had been standing, but he had already disappeared.
Where Will Periodontal Disease Strike Next?
Although almost half of Americans suffer from periodontal disease, you don’t have to lose your legacy because of dental problems. Instead of a fall from grace, why not come in to our Franklin Lakes dental office and let the Dentists, Drs. Krieger and Hur, give your smile a polish and shine? Modern dentistry is full of simple and fast procedures that keep your oral health at its best!
Call us today at 201-560-0606 to schedule your appointment.
