The bee., 1906-04-26
OUR TEETH POPULAR
AMERICAN MADE GRINDERS
SENT ALL OVER WORLD.
Largest Plant Manufacturing Them
Is in adelphia-Interest-
ing Details of the
Business.

''If there is any gnashing Of teeth
going on at this present writing" re-
marked the facetious drummer, you
can be safe in betting the teeth are
American made"
Just as America has taken the COM
mercial lead in many otner articles
Of manufacture that no one dreamed
Uncle Sam would ever control, says
the New York Tribune, so gradually
teeth has forced all nations to como to
this country for their dental supplies,
until to-day it is no exaggeration to
say that at this moment millions of
Jaws in Europe and Asia and Africa
are masticating with the aid of the
product of United States tooth fac
tories To Philadelphia belongs the
honor of having the largest plant for
the manufacture of artificial teeth in
the world These teeth have been sent
to the uttermost ends of the earth.
In other days every dentist made
his teeth in little laboratory attach
ed to his Office. Now they are made in
gigantic factories where hundreds of
hands are employed. The labor is of
the most skilled order, and the fine
hand of woman is employed with sat
isfaction in shaping and finishing the
cleaning dental supplies. In one Of
the big factories there is capacious
freproof room in which are kept the
moulds Of hundreds of different kinds
of teeth. Should there be call for
particular pattern supplied by the fac
tory years ago, the mould could be got
In a few minutes and the order filled
with much greater celebrity than If
new style were required.
When new teeth are ordered-and
there are fashions in teeth, it seems
It is necessary to make mould first.
The greatest care is taken by hand
workers in the preparation of these
moulds, which must be shaped and
fooled with the utmost precision in
order that the teeth may conform to
the shape and style ordered. When the
mould is made it is filed with the soft
composition is in the mould 1t is placed
press it into the shape of the mould.
The nature of this composition, which
resembles in appearance plaster of
paris, is factory secret. When the
composition is in the would 1t is placed
In an oven to be hardened. From the
oven 1t travels to another operator.
who trims off the rough edges and
shapes 1t into the finished tooth. Then
It goes to the furnace to receive the
final baking at tremendous heat. At
ter that the girls get In their fine
work, polishing and finishing and ex-
amining for defects, for the smallest
flaw in the tooth will cause discomfort
when in the mouth. Some of the girls.
skilled in the work, SIT all day long
critically examining the cards OF
shining teeth and discarding those
that are imperfect and need further
touching up.
There are faddists in teeth as in
everything else. Sometimes a tooth
less person will order a set of teeth
of the kind she has seen some one else
flashing on an admiring audience. II
these are artificial and the covetous
one will pay the price, the dentist will
make point of basking in the gleam-
ing smile of the possessor of the fine
set of teeth, and will then order set
expressly made to match it. The task
of supplying such an order is often
easy, as long years of experience in
moulding teeth has secured models of
almost every kind of genuine teeth
but occasionally there are ordered
what is known as freak teeth"-teeth
which have a peculiar color and a
shape so different from any teeth be-
fore manufactured that 1t takes days
of experiment with chemicals and
moulds to produce anything that APP
proaches the original.
On the other hand, men frequently
want teeth to match their own tobacco
stained ones. Then the coloring process
has to be of the expert order so that
no one may detect the presence of a
false tooth in the dental display of the
nicotine user A large business is
done in these tinted teeth and the art
of coloring to match sample is as
important in its way as the making Of
the teeth to match the shape of the
genuine ones.