Specification of George Fellows Harrington : artificial teeth.

  • Harrington, George Fellows.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Specification of George Fellows Harrington : artificial teeth. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Harringtons Improvements in the Manufacture of Artificial Teeth, cfyc. parts of the mouth which have to be covered by the beds or palates for mineral teeth, being composed of a substance which is first moulded and then vitrified, and it being a property of such substance to decrease in size to a considerable degree in the process of firing, and as the form and undulations of each mouth £ differs from all others, it has hitherto been found impossible to mould it so that it shall exactly fit the intended bed or palate after the piece of mineral has been vitrified; all which render the accurate fitting of artificial teeth a very difficult art, and the same is comparatively seldom well done. Mineral teeth have also been made in single teeth, and in small pieces of three or four teeth, 10 without reference to any particular mouth, but a sufficient substance of mineral has been left at the base of each tooth or teeth to allow of its being cut away to fit a particular mouth, or part thereof, so that the same description of difficult workmanship is required in fitting as in cases where pieces of mineral are made for a particular mouth. Now, according to the first part of my 15 Invention, I manufacture mineral teeth with the surfaces which come next the palates or beds without reference to the nature of the particular mouth to which they may afterwards be fitted, and cause the palates or beds to be made on the one surface to correspond with the particular mouth to which artificial teeth are to be fitted, and the other surface thereof to correspond with the 20 surface of the mineral teeth, so as accurately to fit the same, thus rendering the making of such surfaces of the mineral teeth first to correspond with the mouth, and then to cut away the same to allow for and adjust them to the bed and palate introduced between the teeth and the mouth unnecessary. In carrying out this part of my Invention, I would state that I have found, on 25 an extensive examination, that in the variation between extreme cases of the mouths of persons (so far as the sets of teeth are concerned) there is not a large difference, and that if four or five sets of teeth, slightly differing in dimensions, be made, such a series will, if the palates and beds be well made, be suitable for most if not all the cases which a dentist will be called on to 30 treat; and, in carrying out my Invention, I cause a series of distinct sets of mineral teeth to be moulded, each set being but in a small degree less or larger than another set, so that when a dentist is about to prepare for fixing a set of teeth he will take a cast of the mouth, in order to make the palate and bed correct to the mouth, and he will at once know which of the sized 35 sets will be the proper one for the particular case. But in place of taking the cast of the mouth by the means of soft wax, placed in what are called “ model pans” of the ordinary kind, one part of my improvements consists in using model pans or sets with teeth, or projecting surfaces of the dimen¬ sions of teeth, so that a patient having two model pans or sets in the mouth