Eileen remembers making false teeth in Brighton in the 1950s

By Nicola Benge

Eileen smiling

Photo from WRVS Heritage Plus Archive

I remember working in the 1950s. It was my second job when I was 18 years old. It was a large factory and was called the Dents Supply. I worked in the top floor which was the finished teeth department. The teeth were all porcelain with gold pins attached which were very expensive, mostly they went abroad to Australia but the factory mostly made teeth for Great Britain, which were made from plastic.

Before the factory made false teeth it was a diamond cutting factory and it was called the Diamond Buildings back in the 1930s to the 1940s.

My main job was inserting the gold pins into the teeth; we had to write down the amount of gold pins we had each day to keep a check on them. I enjoyed the job, there was about five girls to a table inserting the gold pins, one girl I worked with was called Hazel. We became great friends and I still see her today, we see each other usually every other week and go out to lunch.

The factory was made into a block of flats on Coombe Road, Brighton