Archaeologists excavating a monastery in the Tuscan town of Lucca have unearthed a unique 400-year-old dental prosthesis which appears to predate modern tooth bridges.

The appliance consists of five teeth - three central incisors and two lateral canines aligned in an incorrect anatomical sequence. Belonging to different individuals, the teeth were linked together by a golden band.

To build the prosthesis, the root apex of each tooth was removed and a longitudinal cut was made along the roots.

"The teeth were then aligned and a subtle golden lamina was inserted into the fissure," Simona Minozzi, Valentina Giuffra, at the division of paleopathology of Pisa University, and colleagues wrote in the Clinical Implant Dentistry and Related Research journal.

"Micro-CT scan revealed the presence of two small golden pins inserted into each tooth crossing the root and fixing the teeth to the internal gold band," the researchers said.

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The prosthesis was anchored to the individual's teeth through two S-shaped ends featuring two small holes. Strings were probably used to hold it in place.

Using a scanning electron microscope, the researchers found that the golden lamina is a metal alloy made of 73 percent of gold, 15.6 percent of silver and 11.4 percent of copper.

Appliances to hold loose teeth in place had been described by the innovative French surgeon Ambroise Paré (1510–1590) who served as royal surgeon for a number of French kings, and by Pierre Fauchard (1678–1761), who was widely considered the father of modern dentistry.

But until now, no direct evidence of such devices had been found.

"This is the first archaeological evidence of a dental prosthesis using gold band technology for the replacement of missing teeth," Minozzi told Discovery News.