British Dental Association Museum (64 Wimpole Street, London W1G 8YS)
The timetable for the day is as follows:
10.30hrs Arrival, toilet, drink, housekeeping etc.
10.40hrs Introductory Powerpoint: numbers and types of milk & permanent teeth, function of teeth
11.00hrs Split into three groups: 3 activities: visit to the museum / match the old and new pairs of objects / compare Victorian and modern toothpastes
12.00hrs Lunch
12.45hrs Powerpoint: comparisons between dental care today & that in the past incorporating feedback by pupils from the morning’s sessions
13.15hrs Game
13.25hrs Role play
13.45hrs Questions, prize giving / follow-up sheets, toilets
14.00hrs Depart
You can find out more information from their website: http://www.bda.org/museum/learning-and-access/teachers/primary-and-prep.aspx
It was an excellent day, possibly C’s only complaint was that there was not quite enough time to finish the museum questionnaire (very nicely produced with colour photos and tooth shaped clipboards!) so we popped down there and she finished off once the session was over whilst I bought a couple of postcards. We like workshop days with timetables as we know what to expect and it pretty much went to schedule, we over ran very slightly by I think 20mins and the game didn’t happen. Free fruit/herbal/proper tea/coffee readily available with lots of proper milk in the fridge too. Quite a few of the children had hot chocolate that I guess the BDA wouldn’t ordinarily anticipate as the machines would ordinarily only be used by the adults accompanying school groups or groups of adults, but they were great about it and everybody had a good day.
C looking at the cabinet of false teeth. Hippopotamus or walrus ivory was the most common material for making dentures. The ivory block was carved to fit a plaster model of the patient’s gums. For a more natural appearance real front teeth were secured to the ivory base using gold pins. These were sometimes called Waterloo Teeth as battlefields supplied hundreds of sound teeth from the mouths of dead soldiers. Other sources were mortuaries and grave robbers. Both ivory and human teeth were prone to decay and discolouration prompting a search for other materials. Vulcanite was then used (a rubber product) then porcelain.
Thumb guards to stop sucking:
mitt to stop babies sucking their thumbs 
:
Tongue scrapers:
Dentures:
Tooth picks:
Toothpaste:
Toothbrush holders:
Silk thread was used as dental floss:
Drills, modern being powered by compressed air and the other hand spun:
Mouth wash:
Modern forceps for tooth extraction:
Old tooth extraction tool:
Toothbrushes (old made from bone). Talked about African chew sticks from licorice bush or gum tree too.
We also discussed St Apollonia, the saint of dentistry (her Saint day is 9th Feb and the education officer said she’d proposed the BDA made it an official holiday day for staff 
), so-called as she was tortured by having her teeth pulled out or broken under command of the Roman Emperor. Looked at some cartoons and paintings of dentistry, one some of the children recreated of a pauper selling his healthier teeth to the dentist who was then putting them in the mouths of rich people. One was a Quack or Witch Doctor getting someone with toothache to hold their head over flames. Sometimes they would throw worms into the fire to show as proof the treatment had worked to get rid of the tooth worm, perhaps also henbain seed was also in the fire so the patient had momentary pain relief.
Was such a good session. Thoroughly recommended.
Chivvied her out to start walking to the British Museum, about a mile away.
Walked past a Chinese Temple hearing music and peeped in through the door to see lots of colour and people celebrating Chinese New Year .
Got to British Museum with the objective of finding the Rosetta Stone (as that’s where I had secretly been in communication with J to meet) and mis remembered where the Rosetta Stone is and went to the replica instead, this meant C then got diverted by one of their handling tables, excellently manned by a volunteer. We’ve never been disappointed with the volunteers on the handling tables at the British Museum.
Unfortunately I didn’t really want C to be enthused about objects thousands of years old, I wanted to find friends! But not get her grumpy and bad tempered by moving her along when she wasn’t ready. Managed when all items had been looked at, then just happened to bump into them . She was surprised and delighted to see them but had that edge of being slightly annoyed with me that I’d managed to keep a surprise from her. Rarely happens
Look at some Egyptian rooms and then down for tea and cake (in reality coffee and tart) before my weary friends needed to leave to start their long journey home. It had been lovely to spend some hours in their company.
C then wanted to buy a sketchbook as she wanted to draw something but in our bid to find as cheap a notebook as possible, we got diverted by many other things in the shops (there are three), then we were advised they were closing and they wanted us to leave.
Brief visit to the toilets . . .
then off to walk to the tube which although busy, was the one we needed to take all the way to the end, so no changes and pretty soon seats get freed up .
Drive back was very straightforward. I had a bath whilst dinner was cooking, then we ate, C&M discussed decoding geocaches nearby as C was reading a Murderous Maths book after dinner:
Then bed. Was a lovely day from beginning to end .
