A national museum of dentistry in the US state of Maryland is showcasing a collection of about 200 historical items from Japan, including dentures from the Edo period.

The Dr. Samuel D. Harris National Museum of Dentistry in Baltimore is holding a special exhibition. It is located on the campus of the School of Dentistry of the University of Maryland, which is said to be the world's first dental school.

The exhibition displays about 200 items collected by a US manufacturer of dental products who visited Japan at the end of the 19th century seeking to cultivate a new market. The collection includes dentures and tools for making them from the Japanese Edo to Meiji era.

The dentures from Japan have wooden bases, with teeth made of ivory and other materials. The museum says wooden denture bases are not seen anywhere else in the world.

The museum also exhibits the dentures used around 1800 by the first US president, George Washington. They were made of ivory and hippopotamus teeth. This was common in Western nations at the time.

Assistant Director Patrick Cutter said the ongoing exhibition is a very unique showcase of the amount of craftsmanship that went into Japanese dentures. He added that they were at the most advanced level compared with those that existed elsewhere in the world.