Author Topic: Animal Teeth, Wood, and Porcelain: How the First Dentures Were Made  (Read 756 times)

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rangerrebew

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Animal Teeth, Wood, and Porcelain: How the First Dentures Were Made
Janet Burns
Today 9:00amFiled to: Teeth


The human body is resilient, but not every part is replaceable internally. As a result, people are always on the lookout for better methods of transplant and prosthesis, which we’ve harnessed as medical tools since ancient times, particularly in our mouths.

After thousands of years of attempts, dental science has recently managed to replace human teeth with lasting, authentic-looking implants (if still expensively), but for hundreds of years before that, sophisticated dentures were king.

According to historian Scott Swank, who curates the National Museum of Dentistry, numerous examples of dental restoration may be found even earlier in history, but they don’t quite qualify as actual dentures. For example, ancient Egyptians developed bridgework to substitute missing teeth, using gold wire affixed to neighboring teeth to hold one or two false teeth in place—usually ones carved from hippopotamus ivory, or donated by another human.

https://gizmodo.com/animal-teeth-wood-and-porcelain-how-the-first-dentur-1831338161
« Last Edit: January 04, 2019, 04:39:34 pm by rangerrebew »