Page 118 - My FlipBook

88 HISTORY OF DENTAL SURGERY

made by my father, John Greenwood, in 1799, and they were made with
bone gums—I think of the elepliant's teeth or ivory, and made from moulds
of bee's-wax.
''My brother, Clark Greenwood, deceased, and myself did not use plaster
of paris until about 1820," he continued, "'and I think it was through my
own suggestion. AVe hardened them by (li]>])ing tlie plaster moulds into
boiled linseed oil and let them dry. Before that time white and yellow
hee's-wax was much in use for plate and bone work, even for half and
whole sets of teeth. I never had a set i-eturned to me on account of the tit.
I think I was the first in New York who set natural human teeth upon
lione gums and colored the gums to life, after those made for General
George Washington by my father in 1799."
Isaac John Greenwood claims to have used a steel burr in a lathe, his
own invention, in the year 18"^3, wliich a Scotchman, by the name of Mor-
gan, made for him in New York, and which he u.sed for excavating the
cavity for the gums to rest on, ''in piarts of, and whole sets of teeth."
He also claims to have been the first to discover and use wooden ])ivots
in l)iine or mineral teeth. He tells us that the first mineral tooth he ever
saw was brought to this country by Aaron Burr, who was a patient of his
father, and presented this to him. He relates:
''In the first years of my practice metallic pivots to teeth were used,
and screwed into the material of bone or human teeth (or sea-horse, sheep or
oxen), and cotton was wrapped around the metal pivots to keep them in the
sockets of the roots, which, when decomposed, would give an offensive odor;
and with me it was a great point to endeavor to find a remedy to prevent these
bad effects, and to keep the teeth sweet and clean as possible, which I soon
was enabled to remedy."
While operating in 18"?r), for an English gentleman who had called upon
him to fasten a single tooth, he discovered that the root had lieen bushed
with bass wood or soft maple, and this wooden plug had been perforated so as
to hold the gold pivot firmly in place. Finding that there was very little
odor arising from the root in this case, and finding that the wood liad an-
swered the purpose well, the idea of using wood entirely for a pivot oceur-
to liim, and he found that the sulistitution of straight grained (white
r('(l
part) hickory wood gave him perfect satisfaction. He obtained thoroughly
reasoned wood for this purpose at that time which lasted him until he dis-
continued practice in ISll. Of these he writes:
"They lasted so well that T was often forced, when they broke off from