Dental torture

Dental torture is a form of torture involving the infliction of pain or damage to the mouth.

Dental Torture techniques typically include disembodying or damaging of any part of the mouth (i.e. gums, tongue, teeth, etc.) without anesthesia, and may involve the misuse of dental equipment. This could include using needles or other sharp and/or otherwise painful apparatus to intentionally damage the victim.

Dental torture tends to be greatly feared due to the intense pain it is capable of inflicting, as well as the non-regenerative nature of mature teeth. Damage resulting from dental torture can also make eating and drinking excruciatingly painful or difficult. Dental torture techniques can be numerous, depending on the creativity of the torturer. Inclusion of non-dental materials, such as nails, is sometimes used to increase the pain inflicted.

Dental torture is usually considered a crime, punishable by most if not all law enforcement agencies. Penalties for dental torture may range from fines, to jail time, or even execution depending on location and the severity of the torture.

Dental torture in media

• Actor Steve Martin plays sadistic dentist Orin Scrivello in the 1986 film Little Shop of Horrors.
• In the film Oldboy, the protagonist tortures someone by removing his teeth with a claw hammer.
• In the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex episode "Not Equal", the Major threatens a terrorist with dental torture by combat knife.
• The horror film The Dentist involved a dentist inflicting dental torture on his patients.
• In the 1976 film Marathon Man, Sir Laurence Olivier's character Christian Szell, an ex-Nazi, uses dental torture on Dustin Hoffman's character Babe while attempting to discover if Babe knows if Szell will be robbed when he retrieves diamonds that are stashed in a Manhattan safe deposit box. The movie's dental torture scene made Szell's repeated phrase, "Is it safe?" a quotable movie quote from the 70s (see AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes).