Martin van Butchell: The Dentist Who Put His Dead Wife on Display

Quackery in dentistry has existed as far back as the earliest days when sufferers from dental problems sought treatment at the hands of some type of practitioner. Among those offering remedies, there existed both legitimate dentists and charlatans. The quacks were easy to spot. They usually resembled showmen taking their practice to the streets, attracting patients through advertisements and flamboyance, with acrobatics, musical instruments, and even trained animals. Like other scam artists, these dentists were notorious for their lack of ethics and association with fraudulent treatments.

One British dentist who was known as much for his quackeries as for his eccentricities was Martin van Butchell.