George Washington's "Not-So-Wooden-Teeth"

Today our nation celebrates George Washington's birthday. An interesting dental fact about him was that Washington's teeth were NOT made out of wood, as the rumor states. Instead, the first President's teeth were made out of gold, elephant ivory, hippopotamus tusk, and human teeth!

President Washington lost his teeth at a relatively early age, his first tooth when he was 22 years old. He suffered from poor dental health throughout his younger years. Despite the fact that he used tooth powder daily, over the next 35 years he would lose the rest of his teeth. Toothaches were a common problem for Washington, especially after he had bouts of small pox, malaria and the flu. Back in the 1700's, there were no antibiotics such as we have today. Treatments for illnesses in those days included blood-letting and remedies such as the use of mercurous chloride, which is known to destroy the teeth.

During his life, Washington had nine different dentists. Even his physician extracted teeth for him. His dentists made him many sets of false teeth but he hated wearing them because his dentures were uncomfortable. One dentist, John Greenwood, was able to make teeth for Washington that were comfortable and he became his favorite dentist. Washington had two sets of false teeth (dentures) made by Dr. Greenwood. They were carved from the finest hippopotamus ivory and gold. One of the sets was donated to the University of Maryland Dental School in Baltimore, the oldest dental college in the world. The dental school in turn loaned one of the dentures to the Smithsonian in 1976 for a bicentennial exhibit. The denture was stolen from a storage area of the Smithsonian (presumably for its gold content) and has never been recovered.

Because of his responsibilities as a general and then as President, it was inconvienient for Washington to travel to New York where John Greenwood had his office.  Instead, he had to send his teeth through the mail to be repaired or adjusted. But sometimes he fixed his own dentures.  He wrote letters to John Greenwood describing a problem he was having with his teeth and asked for the right tools to fix them.  He requested files to adjust his teeth, scrapers to clean them, and pincers to fasten the wires.  Once he even asked for material to make an impression of his mouth for new dentures.

By the time Washington was inaugurated as the first President in 1789, he had only one natural tooth left in his mouth.  He wore dentures made by John Greenwood during his presidency.  He was elected to a second term as President, but delivered a very short two paragraph inaugural address, probably because his mouth was bothering him.

For me, the most interesting part of the story about George’s teeth is the mechanism of their fabrication. The upper and lower gold plates were connected by springs which pushed the upper and lower plates against the upper and lower ridges of his mouth to hold them in place. Washington actually had to actively close his jaws together to make his teeth bite together. If he relaxed, his mouth would pop open. There is speculation that this is the reason that the Father of Our Country always looks so stern in his portraits. Take a look at a dollar bill. George isn’t upset - he’s just trying to keep his teeth in!!!

Many pictures were painted of George Washington during his lifetime.  These portraits show how his face changes as he ages and loses his teeth.  In 1795, Rembrandt Peale painted a portrait of Washington that shows his mouth puffy and swollen.  The most famous portrait of Washington was painted by Gilbert Stuart, but he had to pack cotton in Washington's mouth to make him look better.

George Washington died in 1799, and was buried with a set of dentures made by John Greenwood.