Anne d'Alègre Used Gold Wire to Keep Her Teeth in Place

In 1988, archaeologists opened a lead coffin at the Château de Laval in north-western France and encountered an unexpected discovery.

Inside lay a woman who had been dead for over 350 years, yet whose teeth appeared to be in remarkably good condition.

Embalming had played a part in preserving her.

However, the team was especially intrigued by an unusual metal device wrapped around her teeth.

In 1988, nobody had the technology to determine precisely what it was or what purpose it served. The unanswered question, together with the coffin, was therefore returned to storage.

It would take 35 more years, new dental-scanning technology and an exceptionally persistent group of archaeologists to solve the puzzle.

The remains were those of Anne d'Alègre, a French aristocrat who died in 1619, aged 54.

A 2023 study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports found that d'Alègre had spent her final years attempting to keep her own teeth in place with gold wire.

Anne d'Alègre's gold-wire dental treatment

Using a cone beam scan, a form of 3D X-ray imaging, researchers established that gold wire had been passed through several of d'Alègre's teeth to pull them tight and support them.

She also had an artificial tooth made from elephant ivory, rather than hippopotamus ivory, which was the fashionable material of the period.

This was not simply a matter of appearance. D'Alègre suffered from serious periodontal, or gum, disease, which can make teeth loose in their sockets before they eventually fall out. The gold wire was intended to give her more time.

"We propose that the objective of the treatment was triple: therapeutic, aesthetic, and societal," anthropologist Rozenn Colleter of INRAP, the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research, and her colleagues wrote in their journal article.

Unfortunately, d'Alègre's improvised wiring was unlikely to have been beneficial, at least not in a direct way.

This type of wiring requires frequent tightening, and each adjustment places extra pressure on neighbouring teeth, causing those teeth to loosen as well.

D'Alègre would have understood that risk, yet she continued with the treatment.

Teeth, speech and social rank in 16th-century France

In that era, having a healthy-looking set of teeth was not merely a question of comfort. Tooth loss affected more than someone's appearance: it also altered the way others heard them speak.

"If the patient remains toothless and disfigured, his speech becomes depraved," wrote Ambroise Paré, the 16th-century physician to the French kings.

For d'Alègre, these concerns carried particular weight. A socialite widowed twice, she was the sort of woman whose face and voice were continually evaluated in a society that linked women's value to their presentation.

"Beyond the only aesthetic aspects, the installation of a dental prosthesis, and despite the possible odontological complications known at that time, perhaps allowed Anne d'Alègre to maintain a certain social rank in front of her detractors," Colleter and colleagues wrote.

D'Alègre was a Huguenot, or French Protestant, who experienced the French Wars of Religion and supported the Protestant side against the Catholic crown.

By the age of 21, she had already been widowed and had a young son, Guy XX de Laval. When the Eighth War of Religion began, she and her son were forced to hide after the king confiscated their land.

Her son later converted to Catholicism, travelled to fight in Hungary and was killed in battle when he was 20.

D'Alègre survived him, remarried, became a widow for a second time and died from illness at 54, with her teeth still wired into her jaw.

Stress and severe periodontal disease

Her teeth were nevertheless weathered and heavily worn, perhaps because d'Alègre ground her teeth or clenched her jaw.

"We have noted that the bruxism observed on Anne d'Alègre could be the sign of important stress states," the researchers wrote.

"Her artificial teeth were probably not just a coquetry on her part. The various widowhoods she experienced undoubtedly contributed to her anxiety."

According to the World Health Organization, severe periodontal disease now affects an estimated 1 billion adults around the world.

Most people do not have gold wire and elephant ivory available to resist it, though experimental treatments capable of repairing enamel and combating tooth decay without drilling may soon be accessible.

The research was published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

This article was fact-checked and edited by Clare Watson. Although we take pride in our process, we are only human. If you notice an error, please tell us.