A Japanese scientist has recreated the first example of a suction denture – which was, of course, made from wood—fitting a healthy 90-year-old woman with a denture using the same materials, tools, and methods as used 400 years ago.
Published late last week, Wooden Plate Denture Reproduced Using Materials and Methods From 400 Years Ago is the work of Kazuya Yoshida, a specialist in Oral Medicine and Neurophysiology at the Kyoto Medical Center’s Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, who said the origins of Japanese wooden-plate dentures predate clinical use in North America and Europe by 300 years.
“Japanese wooden plate dentures have not been mentioned in Western literature on the history of dentistry, except in the writing of Hoffmann-Axthelm. As a result, these historical facts are rarely recognised outside Japan,” Yoshida said. “This study aimed to reproduce a complete Japanese wooden plate denture using the same materials, tools, and methods used 400 years ago and to verify its masticatory performance.”
The denture—which fit into a 90-year-old female whose maxilla was edentulous and otherwise wore a complete denture—was fabricated using Japanese boxwood, carved using age-appropriate chisels and knives, formed using beeswax, and red food colouring. The denture base then connected the patient’s anterior teeth to the wooden denture with ivory used as artificial teeth.
“To our knowledge, this is the first trial to regenerate the characteristic Japanese wooden plate denture using the same materials, tools, and techniques used 400 years ago,” Yoshida said in the study.
“A complete maxillary denture was fabricated and showed satisfactory masticatory performance. This study shows that wooden dentures may be functionally comparable to modern complete dentures. Wooden plate dentures are unique to Japan and are not found in other countries as they originate from skilled Japanese craftsmanship,” Yoshida said in the study.
“Although records exist stating that wooden dentures were made in the 13th century, the oldest denture discovered is the maxillary complete denture was worn by Nakaoka Tei, who died in 1538.”
Kazuya Yoshida, a specialist in Oral Medicine and Neurophysiology at the Kyoto Medical Center’s Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
According to the study, Nakaoka Tei was a priestess who founded a temple. After her death, her hair and dentures were stored at the temple as treasures: “The denture is identical in form to modern dentures, and the retention by suction force is the same as that in modern theory.”
Not used in Europe and North America before the later half of the 19th century, Yoshida said the dentist for King Louis XVI of France famously refused a patient who had requested a complete denture in 1737:
“Making dentures in a mouth without a single tooth left and without all the conditions to connect it is as difficult as attempting to build a building in the air.”
Dentist for King Louis XVI of France who in 1737 cast doubt on the feasiblity of a complete denture.
In 1728, Pierre Fauchard (1679-1761), often referred to as the founder of modern dentistry, reported the development of maxillary and mandibular dentures. Metal springs were installed at the distal end of the molars of the upper and lower dentures, and the spring’s elasticity maintained the fall of the maxillary denture. “George Washington (1732-1799) also used similar dentures; however, mastication with these dentures was impossible. The dentures were inserted for aesthetic purposes to make missing teeth less noticeable,” Yoshida said.
“Two hundred years earlier than the “founder of modern dentistry,” unknown Japanese craftsmen had applied far superior techniques and theories,” according to Yoshida. Only in the 19th century did James Gardette notice that upper complete dentures could be maintained using suction under negative pressure – with the clinical use of dentures using suction retention began in the United States after Charles Goodyear invented vulcanite dentures in 1855.
- For more information: Yoshida K (December 13, 2024) Wooden Plate Denture Reproduced Using Materials and Methods From 400 Years Ago. Cureus 16(12): e75641. doi:10.7759/cureus.75641
