Page 280 - My FlipBook

246 HISTORY OF DENTAL SURGERY

Grecians, Etrurians anrl Romans furnislied an outline, and modern nations,
especially our own, have supplied what was lacking." (Gigrand.)
This branch of dentistry has made great achievements. Let us learn of
the past and then judge of the present.
Dental art—more or less—is coieval with the existence of man, but Egypt,
the most highly civilized nation of the ancient world, claims the art as a
cherished creation, and judging from the existing evidences and specimens of
dental art which have been discovered in connection with mummies found in
the tombs and catacombs of Egypt, we conclude that practitioners of that time
were fairly learned and proficient in dental prosthesis.
Sets of artificial teeth were found carved from wood to fit the roof of the
moiitli. while the teetli were of brass. In the museums can be seen lancets,
forceps, knives, proljes and scissors, also specimens of the mode of fastening
with gold bands, or ligatures of gold or silver wire, tying the substitute to its
neighboring natural tooth.
Belzoni says: "Gold work was understood, as a set of teeth carved from
ivory and attached to a gold jjlate was discovered."
"During life one of the mummies had lost an incisor, and the dentist carved
a tooth from ivory and fastened it in place with silk ligatures tied to the ad-
joining natural teeth. I also discovered bone and wooden teeth. Among the
frescoes found at Thebes and Memphis, is one portraying a dentist operating
on a patient."'
The ancient Hebrews did not have any large amount of mechanical inge-
nuity, and dentistry with them was in a state of semi-cultivation, but they
A
replaced natural teeth with false ones more than two thousand years ago.
law of the Talmud allowed the women "to go out on the Sabbath with their
false golden or silver teeth."
Some rabbis allowed their people "to wear the silver false teeth since these
appeared natural, but the use of golden false teeth on the Sabbath was prohib-
ited." Many teeth were made of wood, and later on from the ivory of the
elephant's tusk.
CHINA, JAPAN AND SIAM.

The insertion of artificial teeth was practiced in China for ages before it
was introduced in Europe ; teeth of bone or ivory were sawed and filed to the
j'roper form and fastened to natural teeth by a copper wire, or catgut ligature.
If two or more were required, they were made in one block and a hole was
drilled the whole length, through which a double string, or wire, was passed
which looped over the natural tooth at one end and was tied to a natural tooth