The history of dentures stretches back fat" before 1791, when a dentist, Nicholas Dubois de Chemant (1753- 1824), obtained the patent for them. There are records from around 700 B.C.E. of Etruscans using dentures made from human and animal teeth. By the fifteenth century, ivory or bone dentures were in use in Europe, attached in the mouth by wire to surviving teeth. All these early forms of dentures would have been highly uncomfortable to wear, deteriorated rapidly, and contributed to the malodor of the mouth,
In 1774 Alexis Duchateau (1714-1792), a French chemist who was dissatisfied with his own set of dentures, produced a new design that used porcelain teeth. He was helped in this endeavor by de Chemant. However, Duchateau was unable to promote his new dentures properly and his idea stalled. De Chemant continued the experimentation and by 1787 had perfected new dentures. He applied for the patent in France, and Duchateau, believing the idea to be his, tried unsuccessfully to sue his former friend.
During the French Revolution, de Chemant fled to England, where in 1791 he was granted the patent to his "mineral paste" dentures. For some years the famous English company Wedgewood provided de. Chemant with the porcelain paste that he needed to make the false teeth; by the early 1800s, he was also producing single false teeth. De Chemant's dentures remained in use through much of the nineteenth century, until improvements were made to fit, structure, and materials. Gradually, vulcanite came into use to replace the porcelain paste, and then acrylic resins and other plastics were introduced.
