Dental war history

I went to see my dentist today, and fittingly read a story about teeth in J. Pollard's "Charge! The interesting bits of military history". Pollard tells in section "Waterloo smile"[p. 147] that during the 18th century dental surgery had developed .. to a level where false teeth carved of ivory could be fitted into jaws of people who had lost some of their original teeth.

However, unlike natural teeth these false teeth did not have an enamel casing and would quickly deteriorate. For people of means, the obvious solution was to wear .. someone else's teeth. I'm sure I do not need to explain why there was a good supply of these after the battle of Waterloo.

Technology needed for the enamel casing was learned a bit later, and "natural teeth" went out of fashion. It is interesting to note that Europeans learned the secrets of manufacturing porcelain ("china") in the early 18th century, though.