Whether from a functional or aesthetic standpoint, mankind has strived to find suitable replacements for missing teeth throughout history. Numerous ancient civilizations developed false teeth and bridgework options to replace lost natural teeth, but the Mayans are credited with the first successful attempts to “implant” false teeth into the jawbone. In around 600 AD, the Mayans implanted pieces of seashells into the bone to replace mandibular teeth. Modern radiographs of this ancient dental work show compact bone formation around the implant materials “that amazingly looks very much like that seen” in blade implant techniques developed in the 1960s.

Sometime in the late 1950s or early 1960s, Canadian hunter and inventor Francis Wharton shot a deer deep in the backwoods of British Columbia. Lacking teeth, Francis filed down the deer’s teeth, inserted them into a base of plastic wood, and affixed them to his gums with plastic cement. He then ate the deer and reportedly used his homemade teeth for the next three years. Francis’s feat was so impressive that those homemade dentures are on exhibit in Canada’s Museum of Health Care.

Your teeth may be the most noticeable feature of your smile, but the gums anchoring those teeth play an instrumental role in supporting their aesthetics. Excess gum tissue and gumlines that are too low, too high, or uneven can make a smile look unbalanced and otherwise diminish the beauty of your teeth.