False Teeth
01
False teeth are believed to have originated in the 5th century BC. Front teeth set with metal have been excavated from ancient Phoenician graves in the Mediterranean area. In Japan, the oldest false teeth discovered were made from the wood of the Japanese box tree and worn by a Buddhist priestess in the 1500s.
Full dentures are said to date to the 1700s when they were first announced by Pierre Fauchard, a Frenchman credited as the father of modern dentistry.
At the time, false teeth were made using a patient's own teeth, teeth from deer, or materials such as elephant tusk. Full dentures used metal springs and would sometimes fly out of the wearer's mouth if they slipped out of place. George Washington, America's first president, is said to have avoided public speaking and become a man of few words in later life because of the spring-type dentures he wore.
Dentures that use elastic rubber to adhere to the oral cavity were developed in the early 19th century.
The End is over 100 years old and, not surprisingly, wears full dentures. His dentures shoot out of his mouth when he dies, leaving one to assume they must be of the spring-type variety.