High-value dentistry.

• Author: Goethals, Henry
• Position: Inlays in ancient Mexico

In the days before Crest, Colgate and other toothpastes promised their users a dazzling smile, the dentists of ancient Mexico had a surefire way to make teeth glisten and gleam. By today's standards the procedure would be extremely costly--and painful enough to set your teeth on edge. But when it was over it left you with a "million-dollar smile."

A recent exhibit at Mexico City's Museum of Anthropology was as ghoulish as it was fascinating, and definitely not for those who go weak in the knees at the sight of a dentist's chair. On display were approximately 80 skulls of persons believed to have lived in central Mexico between 1,000 B.C. and 1,500 A.D. Protruding from the jawbones were the original teeth, many of which had been inlaid with semi-precious stones such as jade, turquoise and bloodstone, or iron pyrite, which glistens like gold when shined.

According to Antonio Pompa, coordinator of the exhibition, the inlays were performed by two people--a dental specialist using a rudimentary drill, and an assistant who carved the stone to size. One of the more captivating skulls in the exhibit was that of a man whose front teeth were inlaid with small, round stones of a blue and green luster. As Pompa observed, "The man must have worn a lavish headdress, a dazzling necklace and bracelets to match such resplendent dental work." A visitor to the exhibit commented, "This guy must have been the envy of the |punks' of his day."

Pompa explained that the placement of semi-precious stones in teeth was very much the fashion among the wealthy classes of Mesoamerica long before the arrival of the Spaniards. Not to be outdone, the common people, who could not afford such luxuries, would go to dentists with slightly different skills and have their teeth filed into shapes of pyramids, inverted mushrooms and pointed spears.

If the...