A brief history of dental amalgams

Having one's teeth crowned is a common experience. Until a little over a century ago, however, they were unheard of. The idea is simple enough. Metal castings have been made for millennia. All one needs is a hollow mould, into which molten metal can be poured. Iron founders make wooden versions of the object to be cast, which are then pressed into damp sand to form a mould into which molten iron can then be poured and allowed to cool.

Dentistry, however, requires far more delicate methods of casting than are used in the iron industry. Very fine castings can, however, be achieved by another technique—the ‘lost wax’ process. The method is ancient. Examples of its historic use have been found in metal objects from as far apart as Egypt and South America.