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Before dentures were invented, teeth were pulled from the mouths of dead soldiers for use as prosthetics.
As horrifying as it sounds, in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries "everyone was dabbling in dentistry", says Rachel Bairsto, curator of British Dental Association museum in central London.
Anyone from ivory turners to jewelers, chemists, wigmakers and even blacksmiths were trying their hand at the steadily budding industry. Just about everyone had a need for new teeth (even the very wealthy had mouths full of rot).
Dentistry was in its infancy, and they began taking teeth for their dentures from the dead. Tens of thousands of were taken from the bodies of dead soldiers on the battlefield at Waterloo. At this point in time dentures' had base plates made of ivory and the human teeth were attached. The other option was to just have Another option was to have ivory "teeth" built into the denture.
