Back to the Little Bighorn.

Fillings found in the skull of a 7th Cavalry trooper killed 118 years ago in the Battle of Little Bighorn show sophisticated, well-executed dentistry. Some fillings are examples of early preventive dentistry, using a variety of materials and techniques typical of 19th-century cavity preparation. Dental care most likely was delivered by a private dentist or performed in part at a dental school in the East or Midwest, in a large city or at West Point. The logical, deductive process suggests an identification: Cpl. George Lell. Without additional corroborative documentation, however, this is speculation. Whoever he was, the cavalryman was older and shorter and had better oral care and health than most of the comrades who died with him in 1876. He used tobacco, most likely by chewing it. His remains provide a glimpse into the reality of life and death, dental care and hygiene of the mid-19th century.

Dental fillings in Civil War skulls: what do they tell us?

This article discusses the dental techniques, methods and materials used in the South during the Civil War based on the dental restorations found in the skulls of four confederate soldiers. The skulls display a variety of dental filling materials, including thorium, lead, tin and tin amalgam. These materials were used at a time when more valuable materials, such as gold and silver, were not readily available in the South.

Dental machines then and now.

The earliest dentists brought instruments and techniques from Europe as well as tools used by mechanics, watch makers, jewelers and artists. This historical journey through machinery history is a study in contrast to the machines of the present.

Dental filling materials in the Confederacy.

The mid-1800s were innovative and volatile times, both in the development of the United States and in dentistry. The political and social manifestation of this unrest was the Civil War. The strides in the country's dentistry are indicated by the founding of the first dental college, the first dental journal, and the first dental society during the two decades before the war.

Oral health of Seventh Cavalry troopers: dentitions from the Custer National Cemetery.

To document the oral health of mid-nineteenth century frontiersmen, the dentitions of eight Seventh Cavalry troopers from the Little Bighorn Battlefield were examined for indications of disease. These observations are supplemented with historic records and compared with the oral health of other soldiers from the Indian Wars. The Seventh Cavalry troopers, despite their young ages, had a variety of oral problems, including abscesses, caries, periodontitis, attrition, antemortem tooth loss, and indications of tobacco use. One of the specimens had gold and tin foil fillings. Combining historic records and a dental approach to the archaeological specimens provides complementary insights which are unavailable otherwise from either of the individual fields.