SEM-EDX Analysis of the Dental Plaque of the Knight Bayard (1473?-1524) Permits to Study his Diet Habits and Dental Cares

We have studied by SEM-EDX analysis the dental plaque of one of Bayard’s molar (1473?-1524), a famous French knight who lived at the end of the Middle Age period. Scanning electron microscopic studies permit us to establish that he ate leeks, asparagus, dried green garden peas and sorrel ; the cereal was mainly stocks of rye flour ; the meat was chicken, and the fish as herring and tench. The sugar came from chestnut tree honey. His drinking water was infested by very numerous diatoms. The established Bayard dental cares consisted of the abrasion of dental plaque, mainly, with various sorts of pumice stones.