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                          THE FIRST DENTURE                                  
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The earliest-known set of dentures embodying both upper and lower rows of    
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false teeth was dug up from a field in Switzerland, and is believed to date  
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from the late 15th century. The teeth are carved from bone and attached to   
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hinged side-pieces with gut. This denture would probably have been worn as an
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aid to beauty and would need to have been removed at mealtimes.              
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The first porcelain dentures were made c. 1770 by an apothecary from a town  
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near Paris. After repeated failures-the porcelain contracted under firing,   
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making it extremely difficult to judge how large a mould to use-he at last   
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succeeded in making a pair that fitted so excellently that he was able to    
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wear them for the rest of his life.                                          
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A Parisian dentist who had assisted the apothecary in his experiments, began 
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to manufacture the new dentures. The first really satisfactory false teeth   
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to be made available to the toothless public at large, they united, said the 
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Paris Faculty of Medicine in a testimonial, the "qualities of beauty, solidi-
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ty and comfort to the exigiences of hygiene".                                
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