Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-03-13

various minera proportions, is worked up
like a sort of dough or plaster, forced into
moulds and is covered with enamel, and
has one or more metal pins in the back
to hold it to tha plate.
In large lots these teeth can be made
very cheaply, but there is Il item of eX-
pense that cannot be overcome, and that
is the cost of the metal holding the pin.
The only metal which will stand the in
tense heat of the porcelain furnace is
platinum. and hat costs at the rate of a
cent a pin simply for the raw material.
A great deal of money has been spent in
experiments to discover some substitute
for platinum, but nothing has yet been
found.
While a cheap grade of "store teeth"
can be bought for a few cents apiece, they
are not nearly as satisfactory as he
standard commercial article which is
used by most dentists. A big supply COM
pany will carry hundreds of samples of
teeth, all Of standard qualities, but differ
ing greatly in size, shape and color. In
color alone from twenty-five to one hun
dred variations may be presented.
But as there are people who are not sat
fsfied with r~eady-made clothing, so there
are people who are not satisfied with
ready-made teeth. False teeth may look
just as we'll or better than real ones, but
public speakers, singers and other proml-
nent people want their own teeth repro
duced in all their peculiarities of form and
color, and filings, if they have them. They
want teeth that cannot be told as false,
and they get them-nOt all at once, per-
haps, but one by one, as the originals give
out.
In teeth that are made to order nothing
is impossible, from the short, white teeth
of normal youth to the long. discolored
ones Of extreme age, and the prices range
| with those of watches.
nNl,n fNotI, nr, n IN y1nfnc nt 11hha
gold and aluminium, but the highest
achievement is considered to be a plati-
mum plate upon which has been fused a
lining of tinted porcelain similar to that
used for gum work. Tinted plates have
been made of the same material as the
teeth. but. as the porcelain sh1inks in the
firing, the fitting Of such plates is uncer-
tain.
And now for the answer to the question,
What becomes of false teeth?' Some
times they are lost. sometimes stolen, and
sometimes left as a family legacy. Gen
orally, however. they are buried with the
owner, n lie forever hidden in the
ground.
1t is occasionally suggested that there
is quite a 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 platinum wire
that they contain, and when they fall into
the nanQS OIL regular teelH makers lHey
are smashed up to get the platinum out.
MOI long ago a man who found a double
set of teeth went with them to a dealer.
thinking that he had a prize. The finder
was surprised when the dealer refused to
make an offer, and said that 10 cents a
set was all they were worth to any one
but the person whose mouth they fitted.
The expensive teeth are not marketable,
and the marketable teeth are not eXpen-
sive. That is the whole thing in a nut
shell.
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 always admired those teeth Wher
her mother wore them, and now that her
own were gone she wanted the old set re-
mounted for herself. 1t was don