The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-03-09

more metal pins in the back to hold it
to the plate.
In large lots these teeth can be made
very cheaply, but there is one item of
expense that cannot be overcome, and
that is the cost of the metal holding
the pin, The only metal which will
stand the intense heat of the porcelain
furnace is platinum, and that costs at
the rate of cent pin simply for the
raw material. A great deal of money
has been spent in experiments to dis
cover some substitute for platinum,
but nothing has yet been found.
While a cheap grade of, 'store teeth
can be bought for few cents apiece,
they are not nearly as satisfactory as
the standard commercial article which IS
used by most dentists. A big supply
company will carry hundreds of sam
pies of teeth, all Of standard qualities,
but differing greatly in size, shape and
color In color alone from twenty-five
to one hundred variations may be pre-
sented
But as there are people who are not
satisfied with ready-made clothing, so
there are people who are not satisfied
with ready-made teeth. False teeth
may look just as well or better than
real ones, but public speakers, singers
and other prominent people want their
own teeth reproduced in all their pc
culiarities of form and color, and fill
ings, If they have them. They want
teeth than cannot be told as false, and
they get them-not all at once, perhaps,
but one by one, as the originals give
out.
In teeth that are made to order moth
ing is impossible, from the short, white
teeth of normal youth to the long, dis
colored ones Of extreme age. and the
prices range with those of watches
The teeth are set in plates of rubber,
gold and aluminium, but the highest
achievement is considered to be plati-
mum plate upon which has been fused
a lining of tinted porcelain similar to
that used for gum work. Tinted p ates
have been made of the same material
as the teeth, but, as the porcelain
shrinks in the firing, the fitting or such
plates is uncertain.
And now for the answer to the ques-
ton. What becomes of false teeth?'
Sometimes they are lost, sometimes
stolen, and sometimes left as family
legacy. Generally, however, they are
buried with the owner and lie forever
hidden in the ground.
1t is occasionally suggested that there
is quite business in secondhand false
teeth, but if there is such a traffic it Is
not of large proportions. Secondhand
teeth, are valuable only for the plati-
mum wire that they contain. and when
they fall into the hands of regular
teeth makers they are smashed up to
get the platinum out.
Not long ago a man who found
double set of teeth went with them to
a dealer, thinking that he had prize.
The finder was surprised when the deal
err refused to make an offer, and said
that 10 cents a set was all that they
were worth to any one but the person
whose mouth they fitted.
The expensive teeth are not marlSeta
BILE and the marketable teeth are not
expensive That is the whole thing in a
nutshell.
Yet teeth have been used over. A lady
went to a dentist with a set of teeth
which had belonged to her mother, who
was dead She said that she had al
ways admired those teeth when her
mother wore them, and now that her
own were gone she wanted the old set
remounted for herself. 1t was DONE
From The Boston Herald.