Alexis Duchâteau

Alexis Duchâteau (born April 7, 1714 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye ; † August 6, 1792 ) was a French pharmacist who practiced in Saint-Germain-en-Laye from 1740 and is considered one of the inventors of porcelain teeth .

As his teeth got worse and worse with age , he had dentures made from hippopotamus bones. Soon the stench of this bone bothered him and he considered making teeth out of porcelain. It is not known whether he took the idea from the writings of Pierre Fauchard or from a conversation with Louis-Claude Cadet from Gassicourt , the chemical commissioner of the French king at the Manufacture royale de porcelaine de Sèvres . In any case, in 1774 he made porcelain scaffolds from Sèvres porcelain, which he gradually improved. He reportedly presented his invention to the Academy of Surgery and the Academy of Medicine, respectively. However, there is no record of this at these academies. The only known mention is in a certificate issued by Duchâteau to the dentist Nicolas Dubois de Chémant on October 20, 1789 , in which he recognizes the superiority of the porcelain teeth by Dubois de Chémant in relation to his own developments. This did not prevent him from filing a patent rights lawsuit, which he failed on January 26, 1792.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Le mystère de l'apothicaire inventeur des dents en porcelaine: Louis Verchère, Le pharmacien Alexis Duchateau, inventeur des dents de porcelaine, in Rev. d'odonto-stomatologie, 1974 , Revue d'Histoire de la Pharmacie, 1976, 229, Pp. 129-130. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
2. ^ A French dentist showing his artificial teeth , British Dental Association. Retrieved April 1, 2019.