Teeth and dentistry

Nearly everybody had cavities and few people had toothbrushes.  Although people understood sugar added to cavities, a few dentists and most people still believed in tooth worms.  Exposed nerves were cauterized with a red-hot wire, and then the cavity was filled with either lead, pitch, beeswax, or for the very rich, gold (Picard, 155).

Extraction
The photo to the right looks like a house key, right?  It's a dental key.  Used to remove diseased teeth, the claw was placed around the top of the tooth and the key was turned, just like when you open a lock.  The tooth had to hurt pretty badly to begin with, since this way of twisting and pulling out the tooth was extremely painful, and all the pictures show people being held down while this was done.  Can you imagine having a tooth broken off while the barber or quack was doing this?  And can you believe they used these until the 20th century? (Wellcome Library, London).

Transplantation
Wealthy people were able to buy healthy teeth, which were sold by poor people, including children, as seen below in an etching from 1787 (Wellcome Library). The transplantation of teeth was most successful if the tooth was taken straight from one mouth and transplanted into another.  Since only front teeth could be transplanted (they have a simpler root structure), and they had to fit well, sometimes several donors had their incisors pulled before one was the right size to fit into the gum hole of the receiver.  It was held in there by silver wire or silk thread and hopefully would "take" (Picard, 155).

You can see the child in the middle getting his tooth pulled, while the wealthy recipient on the right is having her mouth examined.  Children who have already been paid for their now missing teeth are leaving by the door.

Dentures

"From the 18th century, ivory dentures became popular, and were often carved from hippotomus, elephant, or walrus tusks.  The dentures were kept in the mouth with springs fixed on either side of the denture.  The springs could become entangled in the mouth and cause problems, but unlike earlier versions they enabled the writer to eat and speak.

"However, ivory deteriorated more quickly than real teeth and so some dentures were made with human teeth, set into an ivory base.  These became known as Waterloo teeth as some were scavenged from dead soldiers on the battlefields; others were taken from graves." ("Waterloo Teeth" by British Dental Association, in "Superhuman" summer special exhibition, Wellcome Museum, London, viewed 14 October 2012.)
 

These teeth are hippotomus ivory with human anteriors -- hippotomus tusk was less likely to stain and therefore more popular.  These teeth would have begun to decay after 1-2 years of use.  Porcelain dentures weren't developed and refined until the very end of the 18th century by the Parisian dentist Nicholas Dubois de Chemant, who then brought them to sell in London.  They were more hygenic (translation: less bad breath) but harder to keep in one's mouth. (Wellcome Museum, regular display.)