Made Own False Teeth

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31016, 23 March 1966, Page 8

Made Own False Teeth

Though it takes only a short time in the dentist’s chair to lose a set of teeth, it takes considerably longer to get a new set of dentures made. The gap between loss and recovery used to be even longer, as a former RollsRoyce employee, Mr B. J. Orchard, discovered some years ago when a dentist informed him that it would be a few weeks befofe his new teeth were ready, says an article in “Rolls Royce News.” Most persons would have resigned themselves to a couple of toothless months and a soft food diet. But not Mr Orchard. He wondered if he could make his own teeth. The slightly derisive smile on the dentist’s face when he heard this settled the matter, and Mr

Orchard decided to try. An old gramophone record, a bone serviette ring and a piece of wax were the basic material.

First he took an impression of the shape of his mouth with the wax. He heated the gramophone record until he could knead it like putty. When it was soft enough he pressed it on to the wax mould to form the dental plate. He then cut the teeth from the serviette ring and set them into the plate. “I started the job in the afternoon,” he said, “and turned up to work on the nightshift wearing them. Furthermore, nobody noticed the difference.” .

Eventually Mr Orchard paid another visit to the dentist, who was so impressed that he promptly offered him

a job as a dental mechanic. “But I was earning too much money as a toolmaker with Rolls-Royce.”

The teeth which he now wears were later made for him. The dentist used the home-made set as a pattern. And the set Mr Orchard made? The dentist sent them to Birmingham University Museum, and for all Mr Orchard knows they are still there.