A traveler in Brittany, made a strange discovery in a 15th century village church, which was a favorite place of pilgrimage for tourists. At the entrance, there was a font filled with holy water, which was greatly admired because of its antiquity and pleasing form. Observant visitors noticed, that at the bottom of the font, there was a thick deposit of round, white objects which appeared to be pebbles. Only people who were conversant with customs of the region were aware of their true nature. The Parisian traveler, ventured to seize one of the “pebbles”, and on examining it, discovered the truth. The font, it was found, contained dozens of old, human teeth. On making enquiries, he learned that they had been placed there by toothache sufferers, who had heard of a local legend, that if a bad tooth was dropped into the font, the sufferer would have no trouble with other teeth!
Source: Morning Bulleting (Rockhampton, QLD: 1878-1954), Wed 31 Jan 1934
A portable instrument, so small that it could be carried in a woman’s handbag, was devised to enable deaf people to hear through their teeth. Speech or music was transmitted by means of a gramophone record or a microphone through an electrical apparatus, which could be plugged in to an ordinary house-lighting circuit. The sound impulses were conveyed to small pads, and when these were gently pressed against the teeth of a person who was otherwise stone deaf, he was able to “hear” vibrations and understand them.
Source: The World’s News (Sydney, NSW: 1901-1955), Wed 20 Feb 1935
Residents of Kaohsiung, the South Formosan port, crowned “Miss Beautiful Teeth” from among 10 finalists. She was Miss Huang Wen Hsing, 21, a pretty Chinese girl, who was a clerk in a bank. More than 100 contestants were eliminated before she was picked. Miss Huang received a gold medal and a certificate testifying that she had the most beautiful teeth in Formosa…
Source: The Herald (Melbourne , Vic, 1861-1954), Wed 13 May 1953
A dentist, who made a new set of teeth for a Bishop, anxiously watched the prelate as he examined himself and his teeth in the vier-glass, and was startled when he heard the bishop mutter something which he emphasised the fearful words, “into everlasting fire”. The dentist ventured to suggest that his lordship might feel rather uncomfortable at first but in a little time he would get used to them. Without appearing to notice the dentist, his lordship exclaimed, with tremendous vehemency, “Into ever lasting fire!” “But, indeed, my lord, if you have patience”, pleaded the dentist, “In a week’s time or so………..” “What do you mean?” inquired the prelate, turning around with a benignant smile. “Why should I have patience? The teeth fit me beautifully. It is the first time I have found myself able to pronounce the Athanasian Creed with distinctness for these twenty years.”
After an excellent dinner at a restaurant in Paris, a provincial visitor was unable to pay the bill on discovery that his pocket book had disappeared. He explained his position to the proprietor but the latter, who was recently swindled by an individual who told the same story, refused to take any excuse for non-payment. In order to avoid a scandal, the visitor was obliged to leave his gold-mounted artificial teeth as a guarantee that he would return and pay for his meal.
President Hoover went to the Walter Reed Military Hospital in Washington for dental treatment, and it was found necessary to extract three or four of his teeth. An orderly who was in attendance had the bright idea that there were people who would be willing to pay good money for a President’s teeth, so he gathered them up as soon as Mr. Hoover had left. He not only possessed himself of the Hoover teeth, he also collected all the teeth that had been extracted that day from the jaws of many sufferers by the hospital dentists. The exact number of his collection is not stated, but it was considerable and he had no difficulty in disposing of them all as genuine Hoover teeth at 50 cents. This price he found afterwards was absurdly low, for within a day or two he discovered that they were being sold in the city at several dollars each. Then somebody discovered that there were more teeth on offer than the Hoover household could have supplied, even if every member had visited the dentist and had every tooth extracted. Quotations in the Presidential old teeth market immediately dropped to zero.
The Sultan of Turkey, it is said, once suffered much from toothache, and the dentist having inspected the royal patient’s teeth declared that one of them must be drawn. In order to give the Sultan nerve, a slave was brought to his apartment and had a tooth extracted. The slave, however, bore the operation so very badly that it had just the opposite effect to that which was intended, and the Sultan, thinking the remedy worse than the disease, declined to submit himself to the forceps. A little later on the faulty tooth again became troublesome, and again the Sultan sent for the dentist, who reiterated his former opinion that the offending tooth must come out. So a second slave was summoned and underwent torture. He yelled louder than the first and for a second time Abdul Hamid declined to be relieved through such an ordeal. The attacks of toothache continued to occur, yet when eight slaves had been operated upon, the Sultan had not gathered up sufficient courage.
America’s Skylab astronauts were trained in pulling teeth and stitching wounds to avoid the possibility of having their flights cut short by health problems.
The special training was aimed at setting space endurance records.
When Buffalo Bill was 50, his teeth were well aligned and without cavities, but worn almost down to the gum line. This, according to a professor of dentistry at the University of Otago (Dr Pickerill), was a great example of leading the life of a normal savage who ate primitive foods…
FANGTALES 