The history of dental technology – from ivory to digital crowns

As a dental technician you work at the intersection of craft material science and technology. You manufacture what replaces or rebuilds teeth – crowns bridges dentures and splints – often without meeting the patient yourself. The trade is built on a long history of humanity's attempts to get teeth that both work and look natural.

§Attempts of antiquity

Already in ancient times, attempts were made to replace lost teeth. The Etruscans made bridge-like tooth replacements several thousand years ago from gold bands where natural or carved teeth were tied to the remaining ones. It was as much a status symbol as a function. The materials were what they had: animal teeth, bone, ivory, and precious metals.

§Dentures of ivory and real teeth

In the 1700s and 1800s entire dentures were made from ivory or from human and animal teeth mounted on a base. They fit poorly smelled and rotted over time and were typically held in place by springs. The materials were expensive and the result rarely good. The need for a better more stable material was great.

§Porcelain and vulcanite change everything

Two inventions changed the trade. Porcelain teeth that wouldn't rot and could be shaped naturally were developed late 1700s and refined in 1800s. Real popular change came with vulcanized rubber (vulcanite) mid-1800s giving cheap formable denture base. Suddenly ordinary people could get dentures that fit and looked acceptable — and demand for craftspeople to make them grew

§How people worked before

Before modern technology everything was handwork. Impressions were taken in wax and later in plaster, models were cast in plaster, and teeth were built up by hand. Metalwork happened by melting and casting gold and later other alloys. It required great craftsmanship skill and a good eye for form and color – qualities that are still the core of your trade, even though the tools have changed.

• 01Impressions and models in wax and plaster.
• 02Building of teeth and dentures by hand.
• 03Casting of gold and alloys in the laboratory.
• 04The building blocks of color theory.

§Acrylic and the modern denture

In the 1900s acrylic plastic (PMMA) came which replaced vulcanite as a denture material. It was easier to work with could be naturally coloured and quickly became standard for dentures and a wide range of other work. Together with increasingly better ceramics and dental alloys the dental technician got an entirely new toolkit to manufacture durable naturally looking replacements.

§The digital revolution

Recent decades have fundamentally changed the trade through digitalization. Today mouths or models are often scanned digitally crowns are designed on computer in CAD software and are milled or printed from ceramics or other materials with CAD/CAM technology. This does not mean craftsmanship disappears — it means you today combine classic material understanding and aesthetic sense with digital tools. The skilled dental technician is still the one who can make a tooth look real.

§The dental technician today

Today dental technician is an independent craft profession that combines materials science precision aesthetics and digital technology. You work at a laboratory in close cooperation with dentists and dental hygienists and although you rarely meet the patient your work is crucial for the patient to chew speak and smile. The long history from Etruscan gold bands to today's milled ceramic crowns is about the same thing: making teeth that both work and look natural.

“From ivory and vulcanite to milled ceramic is denturistry's history the story of making the replacement so good you cannot see the difference.”