Japanese Wooden Plate Denture as Origin of Suction Retention

The modern theory of complete denture retention using suction was applied to wooden plate dentures in Japan from the first half of the 16th century, which is an astonishing achievement since it was clinically applied in North America and Europe in the latter half of the 19th century nearly 300 years later. Wooden dentures are unique to Japan resulting from skilled Japanese craftsmanship and are not found in other countries. We comprehensively reviewed reports on wooden plate dentures, analyzed 145 complete and partial dentures, and discussed their history. Japanese wooden plate dentures are mainly made of box wood, and artificial teeth are made of pagodite, ivory, and natural teeth. Small nails were driven into the molar region. Many existing dentures revealed attrition on the occlusal faces, thereby indicating that the wearers were able to masticate sufficiently. Wooden plate dentures have been used for 400 years in the early 20th century. Although Japanese wooden dentures have not been mentioned in the history of dentistry in Western literature, they comprise an important part of the history of denture development.