Etruscan appliance intended to avoid the bad effects of convergence, or, perhaps, to support a purely ornamental artificial substitute. (Museum of Conte Bruschi at Corneto.)
The other appliance (Fig. [20]) is formed by two rings; the one surrounds the left upper canine, the other the left middle incisor. Between these two rings there is not the usual ring crossed by a pivot, but simply a small horizontal bar of gold soldered to the two rings. I suppose that the person not liking to wear false teeth (one meets with this repugnance also at the present day), the dentist has limited himself to putting a horizontal bar of gold between the two teeth on either side of the missing one, in order to maintain them in their normal position and so avoid the bad effects of convergence.
Dental appliance still adhering to the jaw, discovered in an Etruscan necropolis near Orvieto, and now in the possession of the Ghent University.
Another ancient dental appliance discovered in an Etruscan necropolis near Orvieto is now in the possession of the Ghent University, to which it was sold.[107] It still adheres to a piece of upper jaw (Fig. [21]), in which there are four teeth on each side, that is, on the right, the canine, the two bicuspids, and the first molar; on the left, the canine, the second bicuspid, and the two first molars. The alveoli of the four incisors are of normal width and depth, this signifying that these teeth remained in their places until the end of life. The dental appliance, still supported by this fragment of a jaw, is made of the purest gold. It is composed of a small band curved back upon itself, the ends being soldered together, and, by the aid of two partitions, also of pure gold, it forms three compartments, two small lateral ones, and one centre one of double the size. The lateral compartment on the right contains the canine of the same side; that on the left must have contained the left central incisor, that has now disappeared, while the large central compartment must evidently have contained the two incisors on the right side. As there is no pivot in the whole appliance, and as the alveoli are not obliterated, there can be no doubt that the appliance was simply destined to prevent the loss of the two right incisors by keeping them steady.
