"BITING EVIDENCE" OR "PUTTING TEETH INTO LAW"

Accusing him of fitting people with useless artificial teeth, his enemies bring a lawsuit against him. One of his numerous clients reshapes a horseshoe before his judges to prove the merit of the dentures he made. (Edouard Pingret- circa 1850- Meibauer Collection, New York.)


The witness in this lawsuit could possibly have had his prosthesis well wired to the mandible, enabling him to change the form of a horseshoe by using his artificial dentures as a vice. That his prosthesis must be of a better quality than the usual product dispensed by this dentist is evident by the angry protests of his former patients.

Prosthetic Dentistry has become a fine art today. Dentures are beautifully constructed and fitted so well that the substitution of false for real is difficult to detect. However, the patient knows they are there-- he feels their presence. He will be conscious of them as a part of his life.