Dental Furniture

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During the nineteenth century, great craftsmen turned their attention to the production of dental furniture as manufacturers attempted to meet the needs of a growing population that was more able to afford dental care.

the Josiah Flagg dental chair (1790)

The first chair to be used specifically in the dental office was designed by Josiah Flagg in 1790 when he added a headrest to an armchair, that chair now considered to be the oldest dental chair in the United States.

the “High-Low”Wilkerson dental chair (1886)

a typical nineteenth century dental office

Morrison dental chair with spittoon by S.S. White, dentist’s stool by Smith, foot dental engine by S.S. White, Holmes bracket table with S.S. White bracket, Electro-Dental MFG. Co. Rhein cluster light (ca. 1911), quarter-sewn oak dental cabinet (ca. 1902) by The Harvard Co.

Dental Instruments

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“His instruments of torture, called by courtesy dental tools, were many and varied. He was very skillful in his profession and when he took a job he did it in first-class style. The dental tools are simply copies in miniature of articles used in the Spanish inquisition and on refractory prisoners in the Tower of London. There are monkey wrenches, raspers, files, gouges, cleavers, pickes, squeezers, drills, daggers, little crowbars, punches, chisels, pincers, and long wire feelers with prehensile, palpitating tips, that can reach down through the roots of a throbbing tooth and fish up a yell from your inner consciousness. When a painstaking dentist cannot hurt you with the cold steel, he lights a small alcohol lamp and heats one of his little spades red hot, and hovers over you with an expectant smile. Then he deftly inserts this into your mouth and when you give a yell he says, ‘Does that hurt?’”

from the Chicago Herald

a pelican

In the early fourteenth century, Guy de Chauliac invented an instrument that continued to be used into the late eighteenth century. It was called a dental pelican because of its resemblance to the beak of that bird. With it, the operator could apply extreme leverage to loosen the tooth out of the socket.

dental pelican (ca. 1600)

dental pelican (ca. 1700)

eighteenth century dental pelican

dental pelican (ca. 1800)

dental pelican (ca. 1860)

This ivory screw type pelican was the finest of its era.

dental forceps (ca. 1600)

These forceps were decorated with a dragon's mouth.

dental forceps (ca. 1600)

dental extraction with tooth key in Traité complet d’anatomie de l’homme, 2nd ed. (1866–1871), by J.M. Bourgery

dental tooth keys

(below): eighteenth century door key from which the name of the instrument was derived; (left to right): eighteenth and nineteenth century dental keys of metal, ivory, and ebony

eighteenth century extraction instruments

(top to bottom): goat’s foot elevator, chisel, split-shaft punch elevator by Benjamin Bell

two ivory dental file carriers

ebony dental screw

Once the crown of the tooth was broken off, this instrument was drilled into the tooth for removal.

bow drill (mid nineteenth century)

ivory Archimedes drill, ivory hand drill

two dental cauteries

cased dental set of ivory and mother-of-pearl (ca. 1860) by John D. Chevalier

A dentist would have been proud to exhibit this large cased set to his patients as a mark of his expertise and success.

daguerreotype of a dentist with his instruments (ca. 1855)

Maw, Son & Thompson roll up dental extraction set

This ninetenth century portable set would have been used by dentists in their travels from town to town.

tongue scrapers

Tongue scraping was routine dental hygiene in the nineteenth century. (upper): by Prout; (lower): silver and ivory (ca. 1780)

Queen Victoria’s oral hygiene instruments

nineteenth century dental hygiene sets

(left): ivory with multiple blades; (right): cased set with mother-of-pearl toothbrush

Dentures and The Vulcanite Murder

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The demand for dentures dramatically increased in the mid nineteenth century after the discovery of anesthesia made relatively painless extractions possible.

Etruscan dental bridges (seventh century B.C.)

The art of producing replacement dentures began with the Etruscans when they designed false teeth skillfully crafted of ivory and bone as early as 700 B.C.

President George Washington’s dentures (1795)

Washington had dental disease from his teenage years and lost teeth on a regular basis until he was down to only one tooth, a premolar on the left side of his jaw when he took the oath of office as the first president of the United States in 1789 at the age of 57. He visited most of the dentists in colonial America, though his favorite was Dr. John Greenwood, who produced almost all of the dentures worn by the first president. They were constructed of various combinations of hippopotamus ivory, cow teeth, elephant tusk, natural teeth and gold, though none were made of wood as legend would have it.

vulcanite denture with porcelain teeth and gold inlay (ca. 1880)

In 1839, Nelson Goodyear discovered a hardened rubber material that he called vulcanite, making dental prostheses available to the masses since dentures with vulcanite bases and porcelain teeth were easy to manufacture, affordable, and were quite comfortable. Goodyear enforced their patent on vulcanite throughout the country, that is until Dr. Samuel P. Chalfant murdered Goodyear's attorney, Josiah Bacon, after loosing in court on several occassions.

Lewis vulcanizer, Buffalo Dental Manufacturing Co. (ca. 1880)

early twentieth century French dental form

dental powders

(left to right): Royal Tooth Powder (ca. 1900), Allen Pharmaceutical Co., New York and Plainfield, NJ, Dr. Huff ’s Tooth Powder (ca. 1921), Hot Springs, AR; Dr. Lyon’s Ammoniated Tooth Powder (licensed by the University of Illinois Foundation, 1951), Sterling Drug, NY, Dr. VC Bell’s Tooth Powder (ca. 1890), American Dentifrice Co., NY, Smith’s Rosebud Tooth Powder, Rosebud Perfume Co., Woodsboro, MD (ca. 1910)

History and Myths

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The history of dentistry is easily revealed through the beautiful art that has recorded some of the major high points of this specialty.

Nineteenth century reproduction(?) of Saint Apollonia, oil on canvas by Sassoferrato (Giovanni Battista Salvi) (1609–1685)

For centuries, the pathophysiology of dental disease was a mystery, leaving an opportunity for those dealing in superstition and the occult to explain the unexplainable. Many turned to religion and as a result St. Apollonia became the patron saint of dentistry after her execution in 249 A.D. Her image is found in churches throughout the world, and she is usually pictured carrying pincers holding a tooth in her right hand and a martyr’s palm in her left.

The martyrdom of Saint Apollonia, oil on canvas by Jacob Jordaens (1593–1678)

The Anatomy of Humane Bodies (1698) by William Cowper

Prior to the eighteenth century, dental anatomy was included only as a part of more comprehensive medical anatomy texts, as in this illustration.

The Anatomy, Physiology, and Pathology of the Human Teeth (1844) by Paul B. Goddard

This is from an early American text on dentistry.

hand-carved ivory teeth (ca. 1840)

Early anatomic dental models are rare, but fortunately some have survived from the nineteenth century.

prepared anatomical skull (ca. 1870–1900) by Tramond, Paris

ivory teeth with images of a tooth worm and suffering in Hell (ca. 1780), from southern France

For centuries, the “tooth worm” played a mythical role as the primary cause of dental disease and discomfort by chewing through teeth to cause decay and destruction.

A caza de dientes (“Out Hunting for Teeth”), sketch by Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746–1828)

Spanish painter Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) recognized the fabled power of teeth when he sketched a woman reaching up to remove a tooth from a hanged man still on the gallows as she protected her face with a scarf.

The Dentist/em> (1523), copperplate engraving by Lucas van Leydon

Dental extraction was frequently the treatment of choice for dental disease even into the eighteenth century. Note that while the dentist on the left is removing the patient's tooth, his assistant on the right is removing his purse.

Quacks on stage, oil on wood attributed to a painter from the Netherlands

“Tooth pullers” and barber-surgeons, who also practiced minor surgery and bleeding, spent most of their time out-of-doors and traveled from one town to another, often in a carnival atmosphere with music, jugglers, and magicians.

The Dentist by Gerrit Dou (1613–1675)

Pierre Fauchard (1678-1761)

Early physicians interested in diseases of the mouth and gums finally began to gain respectability with the publication of Le Chirurgien Dentiste, ou Traite des Dents in 1728 by Pierre Fauchard. Fauchard is now recognized as “the Father of Dentistry,” and was the first to use of term “surgeon-dentist,” forever changing dentistry from a trade of tooth-pullers to a true profession of specialists.

The First Use of Ether in Dental Surgery (1846), late nineteenth century oil on canvas by Ernest Board

A dentist, Dr. William T.G. Morton, has been given credit for the discovery of anesthesia, one of the most important discoveries in the history of medicine.