Brimful of gnashers: “Teeth” at the Wellcome Collection

By Arthur House

Our teeth form part of our identity, whether we like them or not. Designed for eating, but prominent when talking, smiling or crying out in pain, they are the most visible part of your skeleton. The Pogues singer Shane MacGowan felt so attached to his notoriously eroded fangs that when they had to be replaced in a procedure dubbed the “Everest of dentistry” he considered having his new set artificially discoloured.

“Teeth”, an exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London, is more than a history of dentistry – although there are plenty of gruesome implements to admire. It also explores the cultural associations of teeth, from the childhood ritual of the tooth fairy to the dream of the Hollywood smile. In 1841 Queen Victoria became the first European monarch to smile in a portrait: open mouths had hitherto been considered vulgar due to their likely rotten contents. Elizabeth I’s teeth, we learn, were black.