The Great Ming Toothsmith

Chen Yue, a modern dentistry PhD, wakes up in the Ming Dynasty as a streetwise “tooth-patching craftsman.”

He has no noble title, but he brings with him the logic of modern medicine and a box of ingenious tools improved with homespun methods: salt, milk, honey, hog bristles, pine needles, and more. Every case he treats pries open the door to another seat of power: from answering the emperor’s call and saving his life, to humiliating officials at a banquet; from trial-producing toothbrushes in a workshop, to crushing the competition at an international dentists’ conference; from earning the loyalty of a fleet descended from Zheng He’s sailors through a daring sea rescue, to finally taking his place at court and using the “dental industry” to shake the corrupt eunuch faction to its core.

He is a “tooth-patching craftsman” whom everyone looks down on, yet he turns one laughable little technique after another into soft power capable of changing the fate of a nation.

Expect blood, pain, ingenious procedures, and palace intrigue, all unfolding side by side. Every challenge brings a fresh twist, and each victory wins him allies and resources while stirring up an even greater storm.

Want to see wild, homespun techniques defy the odds, satisfying face-slapping in the palace, and a Ming Dynasty dental industry thriving alongside diplomacy?

And what about the toothbrush that eventually goes on display alongside an Apollo astronaut’s electric toothbrush at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine Museum?