At the new Pardiñas Medical and Dental Clinic, we have reserved a very special space: a small museum at street level, which tells who we are and where we come from. It’s not your typical decorative room, but a historical tour that combines medicine, dentistry, the history of A Coruña, Galicia, and the Calle Real itself from prehistory to 21st-century digital dentistry.
This journey begins 5,000 BC with the first record on dentistry, Sumerian writings that described toothache as a “tooth worm”, and goes up to the opening of the new clinic in 2025.
The itinerary combines explanatory panels, graphics and original pieces carefully displayed. The visitor can follow a timeline that begins at the early medical and dental practices of ancient societies, continues through the Roman and medieval periods, stopping at the major scientific milestones of the 19th and 20th centuries and talks about the history of the current building from the 18th century where our clinic is located.
Some of the key milestonesthis tour includes:
- Medical and dental milestones: The Royal Philanthropic Expedition of the Vaccine, which departed from A Coruña in 1803; the first use of general anesthesia in surgery in 1846; the introduction of the commercial toothpaste in 1873; the discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928; and the first osseointegrated dental implant in 1965.
- Ancient history of Galicia and A Coruña: The construction of the Tower of Hercules in the 1st century AD during the time of Emperor Trajan, the first official mention of Crunia (A Coruña) as a city in 1208, the assault by Francis Drake in 1589 and the design of the Galician flag in 1845.
- History of the Pardiñas Clinic building: The construction of the current building at Calle Real 66 in 1885; the opening of the Garcybarra Printing House on the ground floor in 1902; and the opening of the “Porven” stationery shop in 1957, which occupied the premises until 2015.
The idea is that anyone, even without training, can…reported, can understand how the methods of diagnosing, preventing, and treating diseases of the mouth and body have evolved, linked to its historical and cultural context of the city and of Galicia.
One of the most exciting parts of the museum are the pieces found during the construction of the clinic. Among the highlights are fragments of 16th-century pottery, unearthed during excavations and now displayed as part of the historical narrative. These ceramic pieces are not merely “ancient objects”: they are proof that centuries ago, people lived, worked, ate, and traded in this very spot. They connect us to the everyday history of A Coruña and transform a visit to the dentist into an opportunity to delve into the city’s past.
The expository discourse is completed with references to the History of dentistry in Galicia, the first dental offices, the evolution of materials and anesthetics, and the role that have been played by families of healthcare professionals in the construction of a more humane and more scientific medicine.
The very history of Pardiñas family and the clinic is part of this timeline, from when Dr. José Pardiñas and Dr. Carmen López finished their medical studies, began their work as dentists, and opened the Pardiñas López Clinic at its current location, until the apertura de la renovada Clínica Pardiñas en 2025.
The following are also shown certifications, awards and recognitions which the Clinic has achieved in recent years and which has become a benchmark in dental communication and scientific disseminationthanks to Dentalk! YouTube channel, which already has over a million subscribers.
This context is enriched with references to culture that accompanied these milestones, such as the publication of “La Dama Joven” by Emilia Pardo Bazán in 1873, the Live Aid concerts in 1985, the release of albums such as Kill ’em All from Metallica Appetite for Destruction of Guns & Roses, and key moments for the city such as the “Centenariazo” of R.C. Deportivo in 2002.
Additionally, the museum is exhibiting the work “Giant Skull of Simón’s Head” (2025, 90 cm in height, 120 cm anteroposterior, 80 cm latero-lateral). It is a piece that fuses art, technology, and biography to explore the materiality of the human being in the digital age.
The project begins with the three-dimensional scanning of Simón’s head, whose face was recorded using high-precision technology. The scanner captured millions of points that form an exact digital map of the skull, translating its anatomical structure into three-dimensional data.
Based on this record, a digital modeling process was carried out that allowed the form to be scaled up to monumental dimensions. This act of enlargement transforms an intimate, biological element into a public and symbolic object: an architecture of the self.
Additive manufacturing, carried out with translucent resin and superimposed layers, materializes the information contained in the scan. The result is a luminous skull, a presence halfway between body and data, between biology and machine.
At its increased scale, Simón’s head becomes a mirror of an era that amplifies identity, memory, and knowledge through technology. The project invites reflection on the relationship between being and its digital representation, on how scanning can also become a form of portraiture, a new way of thinking about existence.
The scan is not limited to the visible bones of the head, but goes much further, immersing us in the deepest structures of our being, intuiting the anatomy of the most intricate areas of Simón’s head.
This way, the museum not only displays pieces, but alsotells stories: of patients, of professionals, of advances and of social changes.
Our goal is that every person who walks through the clinic door not only comes to have their oral health checked, but also discover that beneath your feet lie layers of history, and that the way we understand health today is the result of many centuries of learning, mistakes, and progress.
A small museum in the middle of the city that reminds us that science and culture can also be experienced in a healthcare environment, in a close and everyday way.
