] This comes from a post on the `Persuasion' board which comments that Mrs Clay couldn't do much about her projecting front tooth. I wonder what teeth looked like in those days. I've posted a link below to an earlier discussion on tooth care, so we know that people did clean them.

] But what else could one do in those days to improve one's smile? I notice that in many portraits of the period, people -- especially older people -- are painted with their lips firmly closed, and have a sort of shrunken look about their mouths: was this because they'd lost their front teeth?

] And could Mrs Clay have done anything?

I did come across a book that said some people ordered porcelain teeth along with their china, from Wedgwood. I assume this was only for people who could afford to do so.