George Washington's teeth not wooden

Submitted by Paper Clip on Thu, 2006-09-14 01:56
Light from a red laser scans a resin reproduction of the 1789 lower denture originally carved from Hippopatamus ivory for George Washington.  

Jed Kirschbaum / The Baltimore Sun
Light from a red laser scans a resin reproduction of the 1789 lower denture originally carved from Hippopatamus ivory for George Washington. 

Surfing around MSNBC tonight and I come across this rather interesting article.

I remember a few years ago while I was studying for my citizenship exam and someone told me that George Washington's teeth were wooden, I was pretty surprised, and I was thinking Ewww... that wouldn't feel good.  Visualising the results of wood being left in liquid or a wet area for a long time...not a pretty picture if you have to chew on that!

Well this article uncovers the false beliefe that his dentures were made out of wood.  The dentures are made from gold, ivory, lead, human and animal teeth (horse and donkey teeth were common components).  Interesting combination huh?

Here is the full article

Comments

jonathanmyron's picture

jonathanmyron

Thu, 2006-09-14 16:24

Throughout childhood we were always taught aboug GW's wooden teeth.

So... are they gonna update the history books?

Paper Clip's picture

Paper Clip

Fri, 2006-09-15 14:24

That's a good point!

But I guess that's why every year or so, they print a new edition of text books.

drkraver's picture

drkraver

Sun, 2007-07-15 15:34

The main problem with our first president's teeth was that he had too much money for the time. This was truly the stone knives and bears skins of dentistry. If you had the money back then you could afford the "state-of-the-art" denture like George's. However, just wearing those contraptions back then cause HUGE denture sore throughout the mouth. He actually had to carry with him a bottle of narcotic elixir just to relieve his dental pain throughout the day. He eventually died of a peri-tonsillar abscess which could have been just a run-away denture sore that got infected. Cape Coral, FL Dentist Office.