File:Modern , Dental Implement (FindID 574905).jpg

English: A complete gold dental plate of late Post-Medieval to modern date. The plate has one straight edge and one ridged which would fit between remaining teeth. A flattened panel is present onto which the false teeth would have been fitted. Three semi-circular loops are also present, two of which extend from either end of the plate with a third smaller one slightly to one side. These would have secured the dental plate around the existing teeth, presumably in this case around the lower second molars and a canine. Although it does not look as if any false teeth have been fitted to it, they could have broken off whilst it was in the ground.

Experienced dentist Paul Bellis has suggested that as this dental plate would have been for the upper palate as "the ridges on the flange are the exact contour to the palatal rugae, which are the ridges at the front of the hard palate that you can see looking into someone's mouth. Also there appears to be a small domed part just behind the area which would fit around the incisors which exactly corresponds to a feature named the incisal papilla which is a small lump often seen directly behind/between the upper central incisor teeth". Thanks are extended to Dr Bellis for his assistance with this identification.

Gold dental plates such as this date from circa AD 1800 and start going out of fashion around the 1930's when other materials such as Vulcanite (a hardened rubber) and acrylics start being used. They are made by dental laboratories from stock ingots and are without hallmarks. The amount of gold in the alloy is usually just enough to give the metal a yellow appearance.

The dental plate is 61.9mm long, 18.4mm wide, 0.9mm thick and weighs 9.2g.

Other dental plates have been recorded on the PAS database, for examples see: IOW-A114B2, DEV-E68EC1, WAW-B755A1 and IOW-D164D2.