Ancient Babylonian and Sumerian physicians were also magicians, who often prescribed strange cures to their patients. If someone complained of their habit of grinding their teeth, the physician-magician would ask him to sleep with a human skull next to him and, from time to time, wake up and kiss the skull seven times per night. This, according to the physician, would cure the teeth-grinding because, according to them, every ailment was a result of demonic afflictions and kissing the skull would ward off the evil powers.