Cover Story: Wellcome Collection Exhibition by Dr Natalie Bradley

If you’re in London, you have to check out Teeth, the newest exhibition at the Wellcome Collection. The exhibit, which has been open since 17th May, was inspired by Richard Barnett’s book The Smile Stealers and follows the history of dentistry through the ages, from Mayan jade-inlaid teeth to today’s digital 3D scanning technology.

More than 150 objects on display range from dental tools, chairs and objects to interactive public health video campaigns, forensic dentistry and modern technologies. The exhibition is not only a science exhibition but also displays an overlap with the arts, with paintings and carvings depicting dental barbers and displays of dentists in films such as Little Shop of Horrors. Some of the objects, including Napoleon’s toothbrush, are already exhibits at the Wellcome Collection’s long-standing permanent exhibition, Medicine Man. Other objects, such as 1960s dental equipment and sets of ivory dentures, were donated from the BDA Museum. Dental chairs through the ages are also shown, from the first barbers chair, to a 1960s chair with a glass spittoon, to a modern electronic dental chair.

Some aspects that I found particularly interesting were how NHS dentistry was established and the public health problems arising from poor oral health postwar. Some things haven’t changed too much, such as campaigning to improve paediatric oral health and reducing the amount of children’s extractions. A 1960s public health poster shows how 4 tons of children’s teeth were extracted every year. (The figure today is around 1 ton, according to the BDA.)

When the NHS was established in 1948—70?years old this year!—it was realised that dentistry was rapidly costing the nation too much, and so dental charges were introduced in 1951. Check out how much they were, in the photo below.

Interesting to see that if you falsely claimed exemption from dental charges, you were not only liable to pay a fine but also you could also be imprisoned!

On display were several letters to the Tooth Fairy from children which make for some entertaining reads:

I really enjoyed the exhibition and I learnt some really interesting facts from where the words dentist and halitosis came from. The word dentist was first used in France and comes from the Latin dent, which means tooth. The word halitosis was created for a Listerine advert. The patron saint of dentists is St Apollonia.

The exhibition runs until the 16th of September and it is free, so make sure you don’t miss out! To find out more, visit the Wellcome Collection Website.

Editor’s note: Thank you to Dr Shalin Kapoor, who has also shared photos from the Teeth exhibition, including our fantastic front cover shot seen below.