Medicine: Peg Teeth

Putting in a false front tooth is a major feat in dental engineering. Usually dentists get around the difficulty by fitting their patients with removable bridges, often uncomfortable. Sometimes they pare down neighboring teeth, use them as anchors for a permanent bridge.

Young Dr. Alvin Edward Strock of Boston's Peter Bent Brigham Hospital has long furrowed his brow over this front-tooth problem. The simplest procedure, he thought, would be to insert a peg in the socket of the extracted tooth, then cement a false tooth to the protruding end of the peg. But he never dared to do it, for he knew...