In yesterday's post we looked at the power of amulets and pendants incorporating animal or human teeth, rediscovered in modern times. But if you want to go beyond the fashionable aspect of teeth and discover art, advertising campaigns and medical developments regarding dentistry, take a note in your diary about an exhibition opening this month at the Wellcome Collection in London.
Curated by James Peto with Emily Scott Dearing, "Teeth" (from 17th May to 16th September 2018) will feature over 150 items: Alessandro Michele fans will be happy to hear that ancient Roman votives and 19th century protective amulets will be among them, but there will be a lot more to discover.
The origins of dentistry are traced back to the first scientific treatise on teeth - "Le Chirugien-Dentiste" (The Surgeon-Dentist, 1728) by Pierre Fauchard - displayed next to scary early tools, drills, chairs, and fascinating dentures made of rather unusual materials such as hippopotamus ivory. Denser than elephant and walrus ivory and therefore deemed as more resistant for dental use, this material was very expensive (only wealthy patients such as royalty and the upper classes could afford ivory dentures) and unpleasantly smelling as it was difficult to clean.
These dentures actually came with lovely porcelain display holders also known as Ruspini holders, after Bartholomew Ruspini (1728-1813), who trained as a dentist and boasted among his patients the Prince of Wales, later King George IV.
The differences between wealthy and poor patients is tackled in the exhibition through different objects that look at how different classes took care of their oral hygiene: there's the hygiene set used by Queen Victoria's dentist; dentures belonging to King William IV and a long and thin brush that belonged to Napoleon, but oral hygiene was a luxury for the lower class as proved by cartoons paintings, prints, etchings and engravings of barber-surgeons and blacksmiths performing painful extractions in grim conditions.
Poverty is also depicted in coloured etchings showing healthy teeth being extracted from poor children to create dentures for the wealthy, while Goya's Plate 12 from Los Caprichos shows a young woman covering her eyes as she tries stealing gold teeth from a hanged man because of their value in sorcery.
There's graphic cuteness in the colour lithograph from 1944 showing a red squirrel cleaning its teeth with Binaca toothpaste and a Pop Art touch à la Claes Oldenburg in the giant mouths and oversized teaching tools from the collections of the University Of Utrecht, Netherlands, employed to reveal techniques for training dentists.
Religion and legends combine in the story of St Apollonia, the patron saint of tooth pain martyred after having her teeth shattered, in the myths of vampires and in the tales told to kids about the magical tooth fairy.
But there are also other aspects to consider, such as the importance of teeth providing vital forensic clues, or the latest developments in dentistry and innovative solutions offered by dentists nowadays and including implants, or modern challenges such as preserving our teeth against the constant attack of sugar-rich products.
One of the main sources for this exhibition obviously remains the collection of Henry Wellcome, but there are loans from orther European collections as well, such as the British Dental Association in London, while those who won't be able to attend, can always check The Smile Stealers by Richard Barnett (published by the Wellcome Collection and Thames & Hudson) a volume looking at the evolution of dentistry throughout the world from the Bronze Age to the present day, or, as an alternative, browse the image archive of the Wellcome Collection (artists and creative minds, please don't underestimate its potential).
Visitors to this event (or explorers of the materials related to it) will realise that, being the only visible part of the human skeleton, teeth are strongly linked to identity, both individual and cultural, and they will therefore overcome fear of going to the dentist (after all, only dentist Martin Van Butchell, who lived in the 1700s, was extremely eccentric to the point of keeping his embalmed, glass-eyed wife in his house and turn her into an attraction to draw more customers...).
At the moment teeth amulets may be fashionable, but oral hygiene is definitely not a fashion fad, it is indeed a right and a responsibility, as the Wellcome Collection exhibition will tell you, putting a smile on your face, but also convincing you to brush your teeth more.
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