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Ancient Greece

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Ancient Greco Prosthesis

Ancient Greco society priamrily learned about dental prosthesis from the Ancient Egyptians. Asclepius was a mythological “God of Medicine” who was said to have performed surgical operations, including removing and filling teeth in 1250BC. Though research negates the existence of such a figure historically, the tale nonetheless suggests the existence of rudimentary dental operations at this time that are now attributed to a mythological figure.

The Ancient Greek tradition of cremating the dead makes it difficult to find evidence for dental prothesis in corpses, however some surviving specimens do indeed point towards dental prosthesis. For instance, several skulls have been found with gold foil-fillings. Because very few of the Greek distinguished were embalmed or buried as opposed to cremated, archaeologists found most evidence of dental prosthesis in Greco literature. One such discovery suggests that the Greeks wore false teeth made from sycamore wood, fastened to the adjoining natural ones by metals like gold or silver. (1)