A group of Italian researchers were of the view that they have come across a dental filling, which they consider to be the oldest dental filling. The findings of the same have been published in the online journal PLoS One.

Researcher Claudio Tuniz was of the view that the discovery of the dental filling was a sheer chance. He was of the view that the filling in a left canine crown is 6500-year-old. Tuniz narrated the entire experience as how he and team came to know about the dental filling.

He said the fossilized jawbone was kept in a museum, which is nearby Trieste. They took out the jawbone to test their other research. However, it was the time when they saw a filling in the tooth. When they examined it closely, they found that it was filling made of beeswax.

The study researchers were of the view that the filling could have been done near the time of person's death. They further affirmed that the use of beeswax would have been done to reduce the pain and sensitivity.

Co-researcher Federico Bernardini said, "This finding is perhaps the most ancient evidence of pre-historic dentistry in Europe and the earliest known direct example of therapeutic-palliative dental filling so far".