Early Dental Trade Card for a Dentist & Cupper.

Abstract

Very few "Dentist AND Cupper" trade cards are known and this is the only illustrated one known to the authors. "Mr. Glissan, Dentist and Cupper, 147 Blackfriars Road, (London), Teeth extracted for the Poor Gratuitously." Above the text and in the center is a eight-sided brass boxed scarificator. Developed in the 18th century as a more humane and efficient instrument for bloodletting than lancets or fleams, scarificators had multiple blades that shot out with the press of a spring-loaded lever creating an instantaneous series of parallel cuts in the skin of the patient. After the cuts were made a warm glass cup (to create a vacuum) was applied to drain blood. Two of these cups are pictured on each side of the scarificator. A mandible to the left and a maxilla to the right are also pictured. An explanation of the ancient procedure of cupping can be accessed at: https://www.webmd.com/balance/guide/cupping-therapy#1 (accessed 30 October 2020). Mr. Glessan's offer of free extractions for the poor is not unknown but seldom found on early dentist's trade cards.