Louis XIV

The story of the King’s Teeth

Louis XIV (1638–1715) was a monarch from the House of Bourbon and reigned as King of France and Navarre from 1643 until his death. He reached an advanced age for those times. His state of health is well documented over several decades.

In literature, the Sun King is often associated with allegedly improper dental treatment resulting in a mouth-antrum connection, caused by his personal physician Daquin.

Daquin is said to have extracted all of the king’s teeth without necessity, tearing out parts of the palate in the process. In addition, he is said to have burned out the resulting defect several times with a red-hot iron.

Portraits of Louis XIV can be found in numerous museums and art collections. The portraits show progressive tooth decay from 1678 onwards, with loss of lip fullness and corresponding negative changes in the facial profile. According to the literature, hardly any dental treatment was carried out before the monarch reached the age of 40. There is evidence of carious destruction and multiple dentogenic abscesses. By 1685, his teeth were so ruined that a series of extractions had to be performed in the upper jaw. This resulted in a mouth-antrum fistula with subsequent wound secretion from the maxillary sinus (which was unknown at the time). Assuming a septic process in a massive bone, the defect was burned out with a red-hot iron in accordance with the doctrine of the time. The fistula then closed incompletely but never healed completely. There is insufficient evidence for an iatrogenic lesion of the hard or soft palate. Ludwig’s dentist or personal surgeon carried out the treatment, not his family doctor, as is sometimes claimed.

Ludwig’s tooth decay must be viewed in the context of dental care and treatment at the time. The extractions performed were justified and were not prophylactic in nature. Oral antrum fistulas resulting from tooth extractions in the lateral upper jaw are not uncommon even today; the course of events in this case is, since there were no surgical techniques available at the time to close such fistulas. can be described as fateful. There is insufficient evidence in the literature to suggest that the dental treatment was improper. In particular, it seems unlikely that this can be attributed to his family physician Daquin. Like most educated physicians of his time, Daquin did not perform surgical procedures and therefore consulted specialists when necessary. The problematic course of Ludwig XIV’s dental treatment was, in summary, extremely unfortunate, but hardly avoidable.