Braces, crowns, veneers etc. didn't exist in Jane Austen's day so they weren't the polished white, straight teeth we strive for today and were often kept hidden. Quite often in portraits you will see the closed mouth polite smile rather than a full beaming smile that you see in many pictures today. Bearing your teeth in a portrait was thought to be a sign of low breeding. 

 

Most people find the dentist an unpleasant experience today, but it was a whole other level of unpleasantness to visit a dentist in the Regency era. This was before the days of local anaesthetic injections, so should a teeth need to be pulled out, it was done without anaesthetic. 

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Jane accompanied three of her nieces to the dentist in London in 1813, where you could usually be more assured of better dental care, and it sounds like a very horrific experience. 

 

"The poor girls and their teeth! I have not mentioned them yet, but we were a whole hour at Spence’s, and Lizzy’s were filed and lamented over again, and poor Marianne had two taken out after all, the two just beyond the eye teeth, to make room for those in front. When her doom was fixed, Fanny, Lizzy, and I walked into the next room, where we heard each of the two sharp and hasty screams.

 

The little girls’ teeth I can suppose in a critical state, but I think he must be a lover of teeth and money and mischief, to parade about Fanny’s. I would not have had him look at mine for a shilling a tooth and double it. It was a disagreeable hour."

 

Of course, oral hygiene wasn't the greatest at the time either with only simple tools available to clean the teeth. Toothpicks, however, were common and fashionable. Jane Austen describes in Sense and Sensibility Robert Ferrars choosing a toothpick case:

 

"He was giving orders for a toothpick-case for himself, and till its size, shape, and ornaments were determined, all of which, after examining and debating for a quarter of an hour over every toothpick-case in the shop, were finally arranged by his own inventive fancy.."

 

Toothbrushes with frayed sticks for chewing or hogs hair brushes were in limited use. Tooth powders contained allsorts of abrasive ingredients, including soot. Whiteners were not available at the time but disgusting alternatives were recommended, such as burnt bread or charcoal, but as you can imagine, these didn't help very much. 

 

Toothache and cavities were common at the time, and unfortunately tooth extraction was a common quick method of alleviating the pain (in the long run!). There were two extraction instruments used: pelican and keys. The pelican had a pad or bolster that was placed on the gum below the tooth and a claw to engage the tooth on the opposite side. The handle would be twisted, which would tear the tooth out of the mouth. The key was similar but had a corkscrew handle, which allowed it to be used more comfortably. 

 

Once a tooth had been extracted, they could fill the gap with a donor tooth. There were those who chose to have their teeth pulled out for money for this purpose! However, false teeth were around at the time and could be made of wood, porcelain or even metal. Wealthy people could visit a dentist for this tooth extraction but those that were poor often relied on the village blacksmith who had the necessary tools to do the extraction. However, wealthy people had the most cavities as they had the money to buy more sugary treats. 

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Filings were developed in the early 1800s with varying filing material. However, some had quantities of mercury, which would have caused more harm than good! In 1815, dental floss was promoted using a piece of silk thread. Modern day mass produced toothpaste wouldn't be distributed until 1873 by Colgate, but not the same formula as today's Colgate toothpaste (I feel obligated here to do the standard addition of - "there are other brands available"). 

 

As unpleasant as the dentist is nowadays, looking at Regency dentistry makes me appreciate my dentist a bit more!