"Waterloo Teeth"- The Birth of Dentistry

Remember hearing about these many years ago, but it's good to revisit the story since tomorrow is the bicentenary.
"In 1815, dentistry as we know it today was in its infancy - and the mouths of the rich were rotten. So they took teeth for their dentures from the bodies of tens of thousands of dead soldiers on the battlefield at Waterloo.
In the late 18th and early 19th Centuries "everyone was dabbling in dentistry", says Rachel Bairsto, curator of British Dental Association's museum in central London. From ivory turners to jewellers, chemists, wigmakers and even blacksmiths.
Among the wealthy, sugar consumption was on the rise and early attempts at teeth-whitening - with acidic solutions - wore away enamel.
Teeth were being pulled. The demand for false teeth was growing. Business was booming.

There is evidence from the years before the Battle of Waterloo, says Bairsto, that early dentists did place human teeth in dentures.
Cartoons from the period show teeth of the poorest in society being yanked out. They were live donors for the benefit of more wealthy dental patients.
At this stage, the dentures' base plate was ivory, with human teeth attached. Another option was to have ivory "teeth" as well.
In the 1780s, says Bairsto, an ivory denture with human teeth could cost over £100. Without human teeth it was cheaper, but still financially out of reach for most people.
Despite the huge cost - because the dentures were likely to have been put into unhealthy mouths - they probably would not have lasted very long.
And so human teeth, set in a denture, were more desirable. But the number of live donors was finite, and grave robbers could offer only limited supplies.
The prospect of thousands of British, French and Prussian teeth - sitting in the mouths of recently-killed soldiers on the battlefield at Waterloo - was an attractive one for looters.
There were lots of bodies in one place and above ground - says Rachel Bairsto. The teeth would have been pulled out with pliers by surviving troops and locals - but also by scavengers who had travelled from Britain.
They would have been shaped and sorted - says Bairsto - to make it look like each set of upper and lower front teeth had come from a single body.
The sets would have been sold to early dental technicians who would boil them, chop off the ends, and then shape them on to ivory dentures.
Rachel Bairsto says fewer molars would have been taken from the battlefield - because they would have been trickier to pull out and would require a lot more shaping.
The term "Waterloo teeth" is known now, but Bairsto says she has struggled to find proof that they were known as such at the time. Perhaps people had no idea that their fresh set of dentures contained the teeth of fallen soldiers, she adds."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-33085031

 

Have heard this too...without the inner mouth being cast, what hope have they of these dentures sitting right...? Buckleys chance of that...My denture only has to be a mm out and i know all about it...Luv ma dentures tho! Better than my old real ones...
Was a practice up until about the middle of last century for the bride and groom to have all their teeth pulled and as a wedding present a new set of dentures given as wedding gifts! Even worse, they werent given them until their wedding day...Ask your grandmother about this im sure she'll remember...

 

Creepy indeed and quite some infections ahead.....