Roman dental bridge, upper, three teeth, copy, original excavated at Teano

Losing a tooth through accident, injury or infection can be very painful. False teeth can be made to fill the gap. A tooth was inserted into a metal bridge like this one, fixed with a metal pin and fitted on to the remaining teeth. Donor teeth were from animals or other people. Imagine eating with someone else’s teeth! Only wealthy people could afford this treatment. There were no specialist dentists, so dentistry was one of the duties of a physician.

The original dental bridge was found in Teano, Southern Italy.