In the Middle Ages, the barber-surgeon became the poor-man’s go to doctor. Someone to deal with the more mundane and dirty jobs. Jobs like bloodletting, pulling out teeth, dealing with minor ...

Even today, many people dread a trip to the dentist, but in the Middle Ages, it was far worse—no anesthesia, no advanced tools, and often a visit to the local barber-surgeon or even a blacksmith.

There were very few doctors in the Middle Ages. Training to be a doctor could take years of study and, at the time, there were very few universities. The main European universities in the Middle ...