False Teeth?

[Trinity]

I saw on the History Channel that them ancient EEEEEE-gyptians had false teeth held in with gold wire.

[Delmonico]

I sent a PM and the link to oscar, we'll get it right from the false teeth makers mouth. 

[Stump Water]

False Teeth

Replacements for decayed or lost teeth have been produced for millennia. The Etruscans made skillfully designed false teeth out of ivory and bone, secured by gold bridgework, as early as 700 b.c. Unfortunately, this level of sophistication for false teeth was not regained until the 1800s. During medieval times, the practice of dentistry was largely confined to tooth extraction; replacement was seldom considered. Gaps between teeth were expected, even among the rich and powerful. Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) filled the holes in her mouth with cloth to improve her appearance in public. When false teeth were installed, they were hand-carved and tied in place with silk threads. If not enough natural teeth remained, anchoring false ones was difficult. People who wore full sets of dentures had to remove them when they wanted to eat. Upper and lower plates fit poorly and were held together with steel springs; disconcertingly, the set of teeth could spring suddenly out of the wearer's mouth. Even George Washington (1732-1799) suffered terribly from tooth loss and ill-fitting dentures. The major obstacles to progress were finding suitable materials for false teeth, making accurate measurements of a patient's mouth, and getting the teeth to stay in place. These problems began to be solved during the 1700s. Since antiquity, the most common material for false teeth was animal bone or ivory, especially from elephants or hippopotami. Human teeth were also used, pulled from the dead or sold by poor people from their own mouths. These kinds of false teeth soon rotted, turning brown and rancid. Rich people preferred teeth of silver, gold, mother of pearl, or agate. In 1774 the French pharmacist Duchateau enlisted the help of the prominent dentist Dubois de Chemant to design hard-baked, rot-proof porcelain dentures. De Chemant patented his improved version of these "Mineral Paste Teeth" in 1789 and took them with him when he emigrated to England shortly afterward. The single porcelain tooth held in place by an imbedded platinum pin was invented in 1808 by the Italian dentist Giuseppangelo Fonzi. Inspired by his dislike of handling dead people's teeth, Claudius Ash of London, England, invented an improved porcelain tooth around 1837. Porcelain teeth came to the United States in 1817 via the French dentist A. A. Planteau. The famous artist Charles Peale (1741-1847) began baking mineral teeth in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1822. Commercial manufacture of porcelain teeth in the United States was begun, also in Philadelphia, around 1825 by Samuel Stockton. In 1844 Stockton's nephew founded the S. S. White Company, which greatly improved the design of artificial teeth and marketed them on a large scale. Fit and comfort, too, gradually improved. The German Philip Pfaff (1715-1767) introduced plaster of paris impressions of the patient's mouth in 1756. Daniel Evans of Philadelphia also devised a method of accurate mouth measurement in 1836. The real breakthrough came with Charles Goodyear's discovery of vulcanized rubber in 1839. This cheap, easy-to-work material could be molded to fit the mouth and made a good base to hold false teeth. Well-mounted dentures could now be made cheaply. The timing was fortuitous. Horace Wells (1815-1848) had just introduced painless tooth extraction using nitrous oxide. The number of people having teeth removed skyrocketed, creating a great demand for good, affordable dentures, which Goodyear's invention made possible. After 1870, another cheap base, celluloid, was tried in place of rubber, but it too had drawbacks.

Today dentures are primarily made of plastic or ceramic. However, research continues into new and better materials to make dentures longer lasting and more resistant to stain. One such material is cobalt chromium, which is a hard metal that does not rust or change shape. A more recent development in dentistry is the dental implant. Dental implants are constructed from biocompatible materials, such as titanium, which are not recognized by the body's immune system as foreign. Endosteal implant are placed into the bone to replace the root portion of a tooth. A subperiosteal implant--used when there is not enough bone left--fits in a framework fashion over the remaining bone. These implants are then used to support a natural looking artificial tooth, which is usually attached with a dental adhesive.

http://www.bookrags.com/sciences/sciencehistory/false-teeth-woi.html

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[litl rooster]

So when did Denture Creme get invented?

[Arcey]

So when did Denture Creme get invented?

When some marketin’ agent figured someone could sell re-labeled water soluble glue…..

[Chance]

Wow, great post there, Stump Water. I'da been happy with 700b.c. !

[oscar]

Del told me about this thread. I make false teeth for a living and sell em to dentists so they can over charge you for someone elses real hardwork. False teeth of all variety are made by hand exect some of the CAD CAM stuff out there but to date there is nothing as realistic as hand made.  Do you really want to know about toothy stuff? Man that's kinda funny people wanting to know about what I do. Yes there are some really sick people out there who will "TRY" to wear someone elses false teeth. This is 100% impossible, yes I guess they could be sort of close but in no way would they fit properly. And smell wheww that would be really a barfer, old folks dentures usually reak because they can't properly clean them.  Long story short. Don't try this, it's gross.

Yes Etruscans and their Gold strapped teeth and the Egyptians with their teeth n wire mixture.
They were the first to give this a try.

Good ol Paul Rever was the first American to have the first comercial dental lab in Boston Mass. They made teeth from Ivory, Gold, Silver tin solder, poor old George Washington had cotton balls in his cheeks when the paintings of him were made. He had a sunken in look on his cheeks from tooth loss. I also know some idiot stole either his upper or lower set of teeth from the Smithsonian. I have another story about that another day.     

[Blondetta]

     After years of paying thousands of dollars to fix my teeth, from a very bad accident I finally decided, I couldn't afford implants.  Yep, I do wear a full mouth of dentures and I can eat anything I want, including corn on the cob and I'm not in any pain anymore.  No wonders the  Dentists drive Porches, I paid for a least 1 Porche.
     At least I'm honest about it & my health improoved.  It's nice to be able to smile again and not be embarrased.     

[oscar]

That is very nice to hear. Too many times the dentist does not take the paid for time to really do a good job for us and we are left with being the "dental police" of sorts. I really appreciate a dentist who is willing to do a proceedure over if it is not correct, with out the whinning. They do charge a pretty penny and so I think they should go the extra mile to make it right. Once again there are too many times where this is not the case. Good luck to you and I hope you never have problems with your pearly whites.

[Blondetta]

Thanks, Oscar.
 
A friend, once told me that they used piano wire, for braces.  Is this true?  I wonder what tunes they would play.    

[Four-Eyed Buck]

How about the stories about radio reception?..................

[oscar]

I guess that would work. That steel is very hard and would last a long time. I have never heard of that till now.