The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-06-18
ARTIFICIAL TEETH.
How They Are Made and What Be
comes of Them.
From the Boston Herald.

From the Boston Herald.
Hundreds of thousands of artificial teeth
are manufactured ana sold every year.
What becomes of them? 1t is like asking
what becomes of pins and other things
which are practically indestructibe.
1t is also worth while to consider how
artificial teeth are made. The story is told
in Nantucket of a sea captain who was
great whistler until he lost one of his
front teeth by accidental contact with a
Delaying pin For some time he bemOan-
ed his lost accomplishment until he found
that he could whistle very well with an
artificial tooth whitfield out of a piece or
wood. When a performance was desired
he would calmly carve out an incisor and
put 1t N position. Then the audience
would wait until the tooth was sweled
by the moisture of his mouth SO that it
would noI slip out
When plates were discovered and the ex-
pert dentist was able 10 supply a whO.e
mouthful of new teeth, the teeth them
selves We're carved out of ivory. But con-
slant grinding would wear away The iv-
DRY, and these elephant teeth were not sat
isfactory.
To-day all artificial teeth are made of
porcelain and will outlast a Alethuselah
Those which are known in the trade as
store teeth, being carried in stock by
the big dental supply houses are manu-
factured in enormous Quantities.
The porcelain material, which contains
various mineral proportions, is worked up
into moulds and fused by intense heat
in furnace. Each tooth is covered with
enamel ana has one or 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 eo.-
pense that cannot be overcome, and that
is The cost of the metal holding pin The
only metal which will stand the intense
heat of the porcelain furnace is platinum
and that costs at the rate of / cert a ON
simply for the raw material A great deal
OF money mas been spent in experiments
70 discover some substitute for platinum,
but nothing has yet been found.
While cheap grade Of store teeth"
can be bought for few cents apiece, they
are not nearly as satisfactory as the stan
dard commercial article which is used by
most dentists; A pig supply company will
carry hundreds of samples of teeth, all of
standard qualities, but differing greatly in
size, shape and color. In color alone from
twenty-five to 100 varieties may be pre-
scented.
In teeth that are made to order nothing
Is impossible, from the short white teeth
of normal youth to the long, discolered
ones of extreme age, and the prices range
with those of watches
And now for the answer to the cues.
ton, What becomes of false teeth?'
Sometimes they are lost, some times stolen
and sometimes left as a family legacy.
General, however, they are buried with
The owner and lie forever hidden in the
ground Secondhand teeth are valuable
only for the platinum wire that they con-
tam, and when they fall into the hands
of regular teethmakers they are smashed
UP 10 get the platinum out.
Yet teeth have been used over. A lady
went to a dentist with a set of tee
which had belonged to her mother, who
was dead. She said that she had always
admired those teeth when her mother
wore them. and now that her own were
gone she wanted the old set remOunted
for herself. Ii was done.