Question: The late A. Fikri Yavuz wrote in his ‘ilm-i hâl book that Imâm-i Sarahsî had given the fatwâ to have a tooth crowned. Taking into account the fact that Imâm-i Sarahsî died in A.D.1090, did this dental technique use to be applied in those times?
ANSWER
There was not such a technique in those times. A loosen tooth or any tooth used to be fastened one another with a silver or gold wire. To translate this process as crowning is a fatal mistake. What worsens this fatal mistake is to remain silent despite knowing the actual fact. It is declared in a hadîth-i sharîf:
(When lies are written (in the name of truth), acts of worship are contaminated with customs, and my Ashâb (alaihim-ur-ridwân) are censured, those who know the truth must explain it to others. May those, who do not tell the truth although they know it and are able to tell it, be accursed in the view of Allah.) [Daylamî]

In the book Tam Protezler (Total Prostheses) by Prof. Dr. Gazanfer Zembilci, the following is written about the historical development of dental repair: “The introduction of prostheses dates back to the 18th century. In that century what prevails mostly seems to be the application of crowns and bridge prostheses. Fauchard, the founder of the modern dentistry, died in 1761. The first artificial tooth was made in Paris in 1825.”

As is seen, Hadrat Imâm-i Sarahsî had lived about seven centuries earlier than the foundation of modern dentistry, and he used the word “tadbîb.” Tadbîb means “fastening soundly with a wire or band.” For example, in Bazzâziyya, it is written: “It is permissible to apply tadbîb on the cover of a volume of the Qur’ân al-karîm, but the gold and the silver on it must not be touched.” If the meaning of this word were to cover the entire surface of something, it would not be permissible to hold the Mushaf at all. Therefore, it means placing a metal band around something. What is meant by “it is permissible to apply tadbîb of gold on a loose tooth” in fiqh books is to fasten a loose tooth with a gold wire or band. There is not such a statement as “to have the teeth crowned.”

Mistranslating two hadîth-i sharîfs quoted from the book Nasbur-râya, they say that it is permissible to have a tooth crowned. One of the Sahâba says, “When my tooth was broken in the War of Uhud, the Prophet of Allah (‘alaihissalâm) commanded me to get a gold tooth in place of my broken tooth,” and “Hadrat ‘Uthmân had tadbîb of gold applied on his loose teeth.” The confusion stems from the mistranslation of the word “tadbîb” as “having a tooth crowned” and from conceiving of getting a gold tooth as “crowning.”