The same piece as in the preceding figure, seen from the palatal side.
It is to be noted, with regard to the Etruscan dental appliances above described, that the gold bands of which they were constructed covered a considerable part of the dental crown, so that these prosthetic appliances certainly could not have had the pretension of escaping the notice of others, they being, on the contrary, most visible. It is in consequence to be surmised that in those times the wearing of false teeth and other kinds of dental appliance was not a thing to be ashamed of; indeed, that it rather constituted a luxury, a sort of refinement only accessible to persons of means. Besides this, as the gold in which these works were carried out was of the purest quality and in consequence very soft, the appliances would not have possessed sufficient solidity if the softness of the pure gold had not been counteracted by the width and thickness of the bands or strips.
Etruscan appliance (found in 1865 in a tomb by Cervetri), destined perhaps to support a purely ornamental artificial substitute. (Belonging to Castellani’s collection, Rome.)
A reproduction of the gold piece forming the appliance seen in Fig. [23].
In those of the Etruscan appliances destined for the application of inserted teeth, the gum was not made to support the prosthesis, and did not, therefore, suffer any compression from the extraneous body, this resting entirely, like a bridge, upon the neighboring teeth. From which it may be seen that twenty-five centuries and more before our time the Etruscans dentists already practised a system of bridge work, and, relatively to the age, carried it out with sufficient ability.