A Brief History of Dentures

If you have missing teeth, there is a good chance that you chose to get dentures in Winnipeg to replace them and restore your smiling, speaking, and eating capabilities. At Greenwoods Dental, we use only the most advanced and high-technology materials and techniques to create dentures near you that our patients will love. However, denturists have not always been using the resin molds and materials that we use today.

The way that dentures work and what they are composed of has changed over thousands of years, and in this article, we explore the fascinating and long history of dentures.

Ancient Denturists

It may surprise you to find out that dentures and other dental devices have been around for thousands of years, with some of the earliest examples of these restorations appearing in 700 BCE in Italy. These early forms of dentures were very simple and contained a mixture of horse and human teeth. They were very fragile and typically didn’t last very long.

Although these dentures weren’t ideal, they were easy to create and were fairly popular among the higher classes and wealthy merchants in society. At a time when dental care was not very well understood, these devices were the best available solutions to missing teeth.

Dentures were not only a European feat, though, since the world’s earliest examples of artificial teeth were actually found in Mexico in 2500 BCE and were made from wolves teeth. False teeth also showed up in Japan in the 16th century and were composed of wood.

The Emergence of Modern Dentures

As dentistry, medicine, and science made leaps and bounds, people began experimenting with new and innovative methods for creating false teeth.

George Washington, who many believe had wooden teeth, really owned a pair of dentures made from a mixture of hippopotamus ivory, human teeth, and donkey teeth. The first pair of truly modern dentures were fabricated in 1770 by Alexis Duchâteau, who was the first individual to consider porcelain in the manufacturing process.

Although these were innovative, they were not the best quality and easily broke, which is why Duchâteau decided to team up with Nicholas Dubois De Chêmant, who helped create a more durable structure and release the first set of porcelain dentures to exist.

Over the last couple of centuries, denturists and engineers have experimented with many materials for dentures, including celluloid, vulcanite, and bakelite, before finally determining that acrylic resin works best, which is what we still use today.

Part of being a dentist near you means continuous research and learning in the dentistry field. So while dentures may be made from acrylic resin now, perhaps, in the future, a dentist will find a better option for even more comfortable and realistic dentures.

Visit Greenwoods Dental

Dentures are a key part of our history and a tradition that goes back thousands of years. Our team of dedicated dental professionals at Greenwoods Dental is happy to carry on this tradition and provide our patients with dentures so that they can once again speak, chew, and smile with ease. If you would like to learn more about dentures and how they can benefit you, please contact us today to book a consultation with our compassionate and experienced dentist in Winnipeg.