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BDA Dental Museum
Find out from this free museum how people have - or have not - looked after their teeth in the past.
The museum has over
30 000 objects and a huge number of images to tell the story of dentistry. The story starts in the days when blacksmith, jewellers, wigmakers and surgeons could all extract teeth - without any help from anaesthetics.
Before modern polymers were available, dentists used a variety of materials to repair or replace teeth, including: ivory, porcelain and a type of rubber called vulcanite.
The dead after battles, such as the battle of Waterloo, were one source of false teeth. The poor were also paid to donate teeth for transplant into the mouths of richer patients.
The museum's displays include dental equipment which began to look recognisably similar to what we see today from the end of the nineteenth century.
Submitted by: British Dental Museum, 22 January 2007
