Carson Clinic, The Denturist, Nanaimo, BC, Vancouver Island, Canada

January 2005:

History of Dentures:

For century's, the replacement of decaying or lost teeth have been produced. Carefully and skillfully designed dentures have been created since early 700 BC using ivory and bone.

Dentures were seldom considered in Medieval times and gaps between teeth were expected. Upper and lower plates did not fit properly and were held together by steel springs. Not like the dentures of today.

George Washington even suffered from unfit dentures and tooth loss. The main reason that the level of technology did not increase was the fact that suitable materials for false teeth were very scarce. These problems began to be resolved in the 1700’s. Queen Elizabeth I filled the holes in her mouth with cloth to improve her appearance in public.

When dentures were installed, they were hand-carved and tied in place with silk threads. People that wore full sets of dentures had to remove them before eating. Animal bone or ivory has been the most common denture material since ancient times.
Human teeth were also used. They were pulled from the deceased or sold by poor people from their own mouths. These teeth soon rotted or decayed.

Wealthy people had dentures made of silver, gold, mother of pearl, or agate. In 1774, Duchateau and Dubois de Chemant designed a full set of dentures that would not rot. They were made of porcelain. Giuseppangelo Fonzi created a single porcelain tooth held in place by a steel pin in 1808. Claudius Ash made an improved porcelain tooth in 1837. Porcelain dentures moved to the United States in the 1800’s.

They were marketed on a large scale.

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