In 1693 he joined the French Royal Navy at the age of 14, much to his family's distress, and came under the influence of Alexander Poteleret, a surgeon major, who had spent considerable time studying diseases of the teeth and mouth.

Eventually Major Poteleret inspired and encouraged him to read and carefully investigate the findings of his predecessors in the healing arts.

Despite the limitations of the primitive surgical instruments during the late 17th and early 18th century, Fauchard was considered a highly skilled surgeon by many of his colleagues at Angers University Hospital.

Fauchard made remarkable improvisations of dental instruments, often adapting tools from watch makers, jewelers and even barbers, that he thought could be used in dentistry.

For many months Fauchard gathered as many medical research books as he could, interviewed the many dentists he had met, and reviewed his personal diaries during his years at Angers to write his manual.

Fauchard sought further feedback from his peers over the next five years, and the manuscript had grown to 783 pages by the time it was published in 1728 in two volumes.

He said that "The most famous surgeons having abandoned this part of the art, or at least having paid little attention to it, have caused by this negligence, the rise of people who without theory or experience, have degraded it, and practiced haphazard, without principles or method.

The dentrifice Fauchard recommends is a mixture of coral, dragon's blood, burnt honey, seed pearls, cuttle fish bone, crayfish eyes, bol d'armerie, terre sigillee, terre hematite, canelle, calcined alum, completely reduced to a fine powder and mixed together.

Subjects in his book included Dental Education, Dental Anatomy, Caries, Pathology, Materia Medica and Therapeutics, Orthodontics, Surgery, Replanting and Transplanting, Reflex Nervous Diseases related to mouth diseases, Pyorrhea, Hemorrhages and Styptics, Operative and Prosthetic Dentistry.

[8] Pierre Fauchard engraved in his books many of his inventions of instruments made for oral surgery, such as the obturator and the now famous dentist's drill.

[8] One of the first physicians to denounce medical malpractice in dentistry, he alleged to a tribunal that many dentists in France did not have a degree or experience.

Robert Bunon [fr] (1702–1748), a dentist like Fauchard, spent many years of his life in enamel hypoplasia research.

[9] Etienne Bourdet (1722–1789), who is said to be one of France's best dentists after Fauchard, based his work mainly on dental prosthesis (a concept introduced by Pierre), he also improved the way the amalgams were made and was the first physician to do gingivectomy on his patients when required.

[9] The American 19th-century dentist Chapin A. Harris often quoted him and said that "considering the circumstances and limitations of his time, he will always be remembered as a pioneer and founder of modern dentistry.