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What is the history of Dentures?

November 25, 2013

Filed under: Family Dentistry — Tags: , , , , — hmdentistry @ 6:38 am

Dentures, also known as false teeth, are prosthetic devices constructed to replace missing teeth.  Conventional dentures are removable, however there are many different denture designs.  Some dentures include bonding or clasping onto teeth or dental implants.
Around 700BC, Etruscans in northern Italy made dentures out of human or other animal teeth. These deteriorated quickly, but being easy to produce, were popular until the mid-19th century.
The oldest useful complete denture appeared in Japan, and has been traced to the ganjyoji temple in Kii Province, Japan. It was a wooden denture made of Buxus microphylla, and used by Nakaoka Tei (–20 April 1538). This wooden denture had almost the same shape as modern dentures retained by suction. It also shaped to cover each condition of teeth loss. W
In London the first ‘Operators for the Teeth’ creating dentures were often professional goldsmiths, ivory turners or students of barber-surgeons.
The first porcelain dentures were made around 1770 by Alexis Duchâteau. In 1791, the first British patent was granted to Nicholas Dubois De Chemant, previous assistant to Duchateau, for “De Chemant’s Specification”, a composition for the purpose of making of artificial teeth either single double or in rows or in complete sets, and also springs for fastening or affixing the same in a more easy and effectual manner than any hitherto discovered which said teeth may be made of any shade or color, which they will retain for any length of time and will consequently more perfectly resemble the natural teeth. He began selling his wares in 1792, with most of his porcelain paste supplied by Wedgwood.
In London in 1820, Claudius Ash, a goldsmith by trade, began manufacturing high-quality porcelain dentures mounted on 18-carat gold plates. Later dentures were made of Vulcanite from the 1850s on, a form of hardened rubber into which porcelain teeth were set.  Starting in the 20th century, acrylic resin and other plastics were used.

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