I'm Missing Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mexico

Mexico is an independent country on the North American continent, located immediately south of the United States. The set of artificial teeth dating back to 2,500 BC which were located here were made from animal teeth. It is believed they came from a wolf and are in amazingly good condition.

Answer: Gold

The Etruscans were a civilisation in the area of what we know today as Italy. It endured until it was swallowed up by the Roman Empire between the 2nd and 4th centuries BC. By 700 BC, these talented people had developed the skills to manufacture fixed bridges for missing teeth, by linking human teeth with animal teeth with gold wire.

Answer: Japan

The island nation of Japan is located in the Pacific Ocean in East Asia. By the 1500s AD, skilled workers in this always technically forward land had mastered the skills to make dentures out of wood. How uncomfortable would that be? Wooden dentures continued to be made in Japan right up to the 1900s.

Answer: Ivory

These new dentures, made with a combination of animal teeth and ivory initially, were fastened together with springs. The purpose of the wires was to help hold the dentures in the mouth. Photographs of old examples of these look like torture instruments. Still, it was another step along the way. Why they chose ivory is anybody's guess. Perhaps for the colour.

This product however was extremely hard to work on, took a long time to shape, and the dentures were notorious for not fitting comfortably. Animal teeth were still being used during this period as well.

Answer: His dentures were hurting his mouth like crazy

The mighty George Washington (1732-1799) was President of the United States from 1789 until 1797. As a young man, he had suffered a bout of smallpox which left his face somewhat scarred. The treatment for smallpox at that time was mercury oxide and for the rest of his life this caused problems with his teeth. By the time he became President, he had only one of his natural teeth left. His dentures, of which he had several sets, were made from hippopotamus and elephant ivory. These sets all caused his great discomfort and pain.

With a face marred from smallpox, only one tooth left, but wishing to look his best at his second inaugural speech as President, however, the President wore them. They were so uncomfortable that he kept that speech to an absolute minimum and had it completed in record time. One imagines that as soon as he left the proceedings, he took those dentures out with a mighty sigh of relief.

Answer: Waterloo teeth

What a dreadful thing to do, but true it is. Many ghastly people stole the teeth out of the dead - and dying - soldiers on that terrible 1815 Waterloo battlefield and sold them to dentists. Far from being repulsed by it however, those who gained a set of dentures manufactured from these teeth were proud of their trophies and cheerfully displayed their Waterloo teeth smiles to all and sundry. Stealing teeth from corpses was a fairly common practice back then, and battlefields were like denture gold fields.

In fact, during the American Civil War (1861-1865), thousands and thousands of teeth obtained on the battlefields from dead and dying soldiers were transported in barrels and sold to manufacturers in Europe to make dentures and dental prosthetics.

Answer: Vulcanite

Porcelain made teeth gradually began to replace the ivory manufactured ones in the late 1700s. These were still uncomfortable however. By the 1850s, the base of the dentures began to be manufactured from a form of rubber known as vulcanite. Porcelain teeth were still used in combination with these bases and, though certainly still far from perfect, made the wearing of dentures a lot more comfortable.

Answer: Acrylic resin

Acrylic resin can last for many years, it's strong, it does not crack, and it does not lose its colour or shape. This was a giant step forward in the field of tooth replacement. Since that time, many further advances have been made in this necessary field so that now, unless one's dentures actually fall out in the middle of a hearty laugh, it's virtually impossible to tell if anyone has natural or artificial teeth.

Answer: Dribbling

Well it's certainly not comical for the people who are dealing with dentures for the first time, so my sense of humour needs some prosthetic work as well. When dentures are fitted for the first time, the brain interprets them, rightly or wrongly, as food.

It consequently tells the body to produce more saliva to help with what would be the normal process of chewing food and swallowing. Unfortunately, because no food is involved at all, the result is sometimes rather a lot of excess saliva in the wearer's mouth.

This can lead to the occasional bouts of dribbling when one talks, but fortunately this excess only takes one or two days before the brain sorts everything out again.

Answer: Yes

So whenever and however you can, and if you can, hang onto your pearly whites. Even retaining one tooth is better than none at all.