Are there piles of teeth left over after people are cremated?
We occasionally hear of unfortunate house-fire vicitms, identifiable only by dental records, which indicates that teeth can withstand a lot of heat. But how hot is a house fire?
Cecil says that cremation takes place at about 1600 degrees. Is that sufficient to render the teeth into a pile of ashes? If not, what is done with all of the teeth?
In addition to the burning, I believe there is also a crushing stage in the cremation process. The teeth and bones are made quite brittle by the extreme heat and are easily pulverized.
I’d have to side with Ursa. A friend of mine works in a crematorium (I thought she was cute until I found that out), and she tells me that all remnants of the burning phase (i.e. teeth and bones) are ground into a powder and combined with the ashes.
In most modern crematoriums, there is a crushing machine—the “cremains” are swept into it from the oven; this would be skeletal remains and teeth. Then it’s crushed to a kitty-litter-like substance.
When I visited a crematorium for a college class in the mid-'70s, the bones were swept out onto the floor and crushed with a road-tamper—yikes! But it still beats the hell out of what happens when you just get buried in a coffin.
At funeral pyres and other crematorial fires, a cool sound which everyone anticipates anxiously is that of the skull popping!
There are far too many Baldwins. The only Baldwin I care for is a piano …