Page 74 - My FlipBook

74 FIRST PERIOD—ANTIQUITY

by a series of four rings, embracing the upper canine on the right and the
three neighboring incisors. It was destined to support a single inserted
tooth, the middle incisor on the right; this has disappeared, while the
pivot by which it was fixed to the ring is still there, as well as the three
natural teeth that afforded support to the appliance.

Fig. 20

Etruscan appliance intended to avoid the bad effects of convergence, or, perhaps, to support
a purely ornamental artificial substitute. (Museum of Conte Bruschi at Corneto.)
The other appliance (Fig. 2o),is formed by two rings; the one surrounds
the left upper canine, the other the left middle incisor. Between these
two rings there is not the usual ring crossed by a pivot, but simply a
j^ small horizontal bar of gold soldered to the two rings. I suppose that
the person not liking to wear false teeth (one meets with this repugnance

~~ "
. Fig. 21

Dental appliance still adhering to the jaw, discovered in an Etruscan necropolis near
Orvieto, and now in the possession of the Ghent University.

also at the present day), the dentist has limited himself to putting a
horizontal bar of gold between the two teeth on either side of the missing
one, in order to maintain them in their normal position and so avoid the
bad effects of converirence.
Another ancient dental appliance discovered in an I^truscan necropolis
near Orvieto is now in the possession of the Ghent University, to which