Illustration:DR. Burlingham’s advertisement on a newspaper
What was the treatment by foreign dentists who began practicing in the Yokohama foreign settlement at the end of the Edo period?
What type of dental treatment were foreign dentists who came to Japan at the end of the Edo period giving? An advertisement placed on an English daily published in the Yokohama foreign settlement may give you a hint. DR.J. R. Lysner, who opened a dental clinic at the end of the Edo period (1866), claimed that he uses china teeth, whose color can compare well with natural ones; he makes a denture using gold (plate) on an ad placed on a foreign newspaper translated in Japanese.
DR.J. S. Burlingham who began practicing in 1866 advertised on an English newspaper the use of a metal clasp (spring) for a vulcanized denture using rubber, gold leaves or silver (amalgam?) for tooth decay, painless tooth extraction (nitrous oxide anesthesia?) and toothache treatment. These foreign dentists would use the latest dental techniques and materials, which were developed in the U.S. in those days.