The first dentures in the 1800s were often made from fallen soldiers' teeth
Long before modern ceramics, the demand for realistic dental prosthetics led scavengers to harvest thousands of natural teeth from soldiers who perished on nineteenth-century battlefields like Waterloo.
Early nineteenth-century dentists struggled to find durable materials for dentures, often resorting to ivory or teeth pulled from the deceased. The 1815 Battle of Waterloo provided a massive supply of healthy teeth from young soldiers, which were scavenged and sold to London dentists. These became known as Waterloo Teeth and were considered a premium status symbol for the wealthy.
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