Play all audios:
The phantom head is a vital teaching tool to hone clinical practice. One style of phantom head was based upon milliners' blocks that were specially adapted for use by dental students.
King's Dental School was described as having, in the 1920s, 'a phantom head room … provided with ten heads; large wooden structures which had been obtained … from Messrs Clarkson
the famous theatrical wigmakers'.1 However, assembling the mouth to work on was done in house and the hospital engineering department made the metal jaws and joints. It was even
suggested that students should source the natural teeth before the start of term. At the Annual General Meeting of the BDA in 1894 at Newcastle upon Tyne, Scottish dentist Oswald Fergus
presented his dental phantom for the use of students and demonstrators. He commented that it was designed to 'aid both student and teacher at this trying time and initiatory stage in
his professional career' and this phantom aimed to simulate chairside work. He went on to suggest his phantom 'lends itself to the illustration of almost any operation surgical or
mechanical, that comes within the scope of our art. For example, the following steps may be demonstrated upon it. Adjusting the rubber dam, preparation of any cavity in any situation,
filling such cavities with the material most suited for the situation in which it is to be placed; the crowning or capping any root or roots with any numerous styles of crowns; the
construction upon suitable roots or tooth of various forms of bridgework and lastly the application of either partial or full dentures of vulcanite, metal or continuous gum'. Oswald
Fergus offered his invention to C. Ash and it first appears in the 1894 _Ash Catalogue_ costing 45 s.2 The phantom head was made in three parts: the metal rod for securing to the back of a
dental chair and the two brass jaws with deep grooves in which plaster of Paris or sealing wax was inserted. The teeth were then secured in the plaster or wax at appropriate spacing and the
regulating screws allowed for movement and manipulation. The model was often stretched with thin sheets of rubber over the upper and lower jaws to serve as cheeks. REFERENCES * Hall V F.
_History of King's College Hospital Dental School_. London: King's College Hospital Medical School London, 1973. * Claudius Ash and Sons Ltd. _A catalogue of artificial teeth and
dental materials, instruments, tools and furniture, manufactured, imported and sold by C Ash._ 1894. Download references AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Head of Museum
Services, British Dental Association Museum, UK Rachel Bairsto Authors * Rachel Bairsto View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar RIGHTS AND
PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Bairsto, R. Phantom head. _Br Dent J_ 231, 152 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-021-3346-8 Download citation *
Published: 13 August 2021 * Issue Date: August 2021 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-021-3346-8 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this
content: Get shareable link Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Copy to clipboard Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative