Yikes, human tooth with gold filling maybe?

[oldsmith]

Hello all, I finished up clearing a new trail to my pasture on my old farm so I decided to grab the t2 outa the truck and see if there was anything around. I have found the odd relic here, but nothing like this. The item was 4" down in the topsoil. If you look closely at the pictures it looks like their is a hook protruding from the white mass. The item seems very delicate so I will not attempt to clean it. I know nothing about dentistry, past or present so any help would be much appreciated and hh.

 

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[Charlie P. (NY)]

I don't think so. Teeth look like teeth for a LONG time. Gold is used for caps or crowns or peg teeth but not fillings.

 

[villagenut]

If that were his fake tooth, he was better off without it anyways....yikes

 

[oldsmith]

I don't think so. Teeth look like teeth for a LONG time. Gold is used for caps or crowns or peg teeth but not fillings.

Thanks Charlie, from what I can see the item has a hook in it. By the way, what are peg teeth?

 

[oldsmith]

Hello all, with all due respect Charlie, upon further research, Dental material - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (I'm not very good at posting links, please forgive) states that gold foil was indeed a material used for tooth fillings and preferred during the U.S. civil war era. I am in Canada but the area that I live and search dates back to the late 18 th century due to the westward movement of the fur trade. I don't know how long human teeth survive in certain soils , but I took another picture of the underside. It may be modern, but I'm hoping it's not. Alas, the search continues.

 

[calisdad]

Perhaps the hooks were used to anchor an adjacent bridge?

 

[BVI Hunter]

Gold is used for caps or crowns or peg teeth but not fillings.

I know plenty of people with gold fillings

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9Lqjv9XRt.../_CMjFSAfYa8/s1600/08-08-2012+PM+02-58-59.png

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

I live and learn! Guess I just never explored the pricier options.

A peg tooth is just a single replacement (also refers to a condition where the "natural" tooth has space on either side).

 

[DCMatt]

I don't know what it is, but it doesn't look like a tooth to me.

One of my detecting buddies has a collection of teeth he has sifted from the "dirt" removed from old septic systems being renovated. Lots of jewelry and buttons in there, too. Some of the systems date back to the turn of the 20th C and all of the teeth are easily identifiable as teeth. Gross if you ask me. I hate looking at them. But most of them have gold or silver content.

DCMatt