The Japan Times on the discovery of some wooden dentures that date back to the 18th century:

The quality compares favorably with similar wooden teeth discovered elsewhere, demonstrating that the Japanese dental artisans’ wooden teeth were among the best in the world, experts say.

Haruhisa Yamaguchi, a dentist and former head of a museum of teeth in Nagoya, said only the wealthiest people would have owned artificial teeth.

“Only high-class samurai and rich merchants could afford artificial teeth. The owner might have dropped and lost (the wooden teeth), but didn’t throw them away” in the ditch because they would have been so expensive, Yamaguchi said.

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