The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1874-07-01
Artificial Teeth.

The mechanical dentist, says
writer in Our Own Fireside, must
be genuine workman. When he
is about to make bone or ivory
teeth he cuts a tusk into pieces,
and shapes each piece by an elabo
rate series of mechanical processes.
Sometimes for a customer who has
plenty of guineas to spare he will
make whole set, upper or lower,
as the case may be, out Of one piece.
He saws his block of ivory roughly
to the size, and then, with infinite
patience, files and graves it into
shape. He has model of the
patients gum, and works at that
model with exactness. The teeth
are not separate pieces, they are
cut into apparent rather than real
separation, like the teeth of comb.
An artistic workman will take care
that the teeth shall present some of
that irregularity which our natural
grinders always exhibit; q learner
falls into the mistake of making
them too good. Ivory, however,
with all it's excellence, becomes dis
colored; and hence the chief motive
for making teeth of certain mineral
or vegetable compositions. There
is, in fact. a sort of triangular duel
always going on among the ivory
dentists, mineral dentists, and
vegetable dentists, each class fight
ing stoutly against both of the
others. Whether your dentist
really makes the teeth which he in
serts in your Uranium is q question
he does not deem it necessary tc
answer. In truth, he very rarely
does anything of the kind. There
are certain dealers who sell sets o.
teeth, half sets, twos Or threes
singles or doubles, front or back
top or bottom, finished or unGnish
ed, as well as all the apparatus ant
tools required for the dentists art
And some of these dealers are them
selves supplied by manufacturer
who conduct operations on a con
siderable scale. There is one firm
in the metropolis at the head of tn
trade who built a really beautiful
factory a few years ago, replet
with steam engines, tool maxim,
shops, and all the appliances for ,
we'll organized staff of two hundre,
operatives. How many ineisor
and CANNES, pre-molars and tru
molars, such an establishment ca,
turn out in a year we will leav
Crocker to calculate. Our Amer
can cousins, it appears, are not a
oil behind us in this art; while the
are, perhaps, still more ready tha
ourselves to apply steam power t
it's developement. A recent com
putation makes the number of art
fetal teeth fabricated in the Unite
States as high as three million
annually-symbols according t
some folks notions of three mi
lion attacks of toothache. In on
of the largest and most complet
factories where mineral teeth al
made, the chief ingredients con
prise felspar, silica, and clay; thos
of subsidiary character are sundr
metallic oxides, to produce thos
tints of discoloration which al
necessary to make tie imitation
good one. The felspar, silica, an
clay are ground to an impalpab
powder under water, then dried al
made into a paste The teeth o.
cast in brass molds, varied III 81;
and shape to suit the requirement
of the mouth. A special kind
paste, to form the enamel, is fir
put into the mould with sms
steel spatula; the platinum rive
by which the teeth are to be fas
ened are adjusted in position; al
. then the paste forming the body
{ the tooth is introduced until Il
. mold is filed up. Next ems
; powerful pressure and dryin
I When removed from the mold {
! ! tooth goes througha process call
. biscuiting analogous to a partic