JEWELLED TEETH AS HEALTH PRESERVATIVES

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 129, 1 June 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

JEWELLED TEETH AS HEALTH PRESERVATIVES

I Jewelled teeth are scarcely popular ! ■with the unostentatious, but a French dental specialist has arisen to defend the practice on the score of utility and healthfulness. It was a common practice ages ago ,to have the teeth studded with precious ; stones. When the mysterious cities of Honduras were being explored numbers of mummies were discovered in the tombs with ornamented teeth. According: to the. Parisian dental authority, there was and Is sound reasons for pursuing: the practice. Diamonds, of course, are only inserted In artificial teeth and crown settings. "At the point of contact In the articulation of an artificial tooth or crown setting with the surface of the opposing tooth, or teeth, one or more diamonds are inserted in such a manner that the 'bite' is on carbon or diamond instead of on PORCELAIN OR GOLD. Experience proves two advantages. The first, which is the least, is that a porcelain tooth can never break, nor can a crown setting be worn through. The second, which Is of great importance, is that through the application of the diamond one can masticate food with astonishing t.hroughness, and thus avoid indigestion. For full sets, and for gaps in the back of the mouth, this arrangement i.s specially valuable. Two diamonds are set in each bicuspid, and aa many as three or four in a single molar, the sulci in the masticative surfaces of the crowns being utilised for the settings." From twenty to 100 guineas per tooth, varying according to the size of the stones, Is the price of a jewelled mouth, which, however, would not gleam and glitter in the public gaze, for the diamonds are embedded in the grinding surfaces of the teeth, and would not be Been.