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Bodies of Evidence

Case studies

Tooth implant

Did the Romans use teeth implants?

Tooth implants are at the cutting edge of dentistry today, but the Romans were doing similar things nearly 2000 years ago. Anthropologists excavating a Roman burial site at Chatambre in France found the remains of a man with a wrought-iron false tooth that had been fixed in place by being hammered into the socket of the original tooth.

This was an agonising procedure which the researchers believe must have been carried out soon after the loss of the tooth, and using the original as a model for the substitute. A mixture of technical skill and luck meant that the false tooth adhered to the bone and became integrated into the lower jaw. The patient, who died in his 30s, had already lost all the molars on the left side of his jaw and must have been keen to retain the use of his remaining teeth.

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