Washington Wooden Teeth

Like the story of the cherry tree I bought the wooden denture story hook line and sinker I thought while elementary school teachers might make mistakes college professors.

Washington wooden teeth. Next to the cherry tree legend George Washingtons supposed wooden teeth are possibly the most repeated myth about the first president. Although the wooden teeth story is only a myth President Washington did have serious dental challenges. Wood was not a practical building material.

A Life most of the teeth in his dentures were likely made from walrus or elephant ivory. The famous claim that George Washington sported a set of wooden teeth is little more than a myth but Americas first president was certainly not a shining example of oral hygiene. Lead base fitted with cow and human teeth elephant ivory brass and steel.

There is however much evidence that Washington -- who had only one natural tooth remaining when he became president in 1789 -- wore expensive dentures that were technologically advanced for the 18th century. The possible origin of this myth is that the ivory teeth quickly became stained and may have had the appearance of wood to observers. In reality Washington never had wooden teeth.

It would have been kind of dumb to make teeth out of wood when better materials were available. The mistaken belief that Washingtons dentures were wooden was widely accepted by 19th century historians and appeared as fact in school textbooks until well into the 20th century. What were Washingtons teeth made from.

Rather than wooden teeth however as Ron Chernow writes in his Washington biography Washington. Despite the lack of sophisticated general dentistry neither Washington nor any others at the time had wooden teeth. George Washington is known as the founding father of the United States but one bizarre American history fact is the story behind his wooden teeth.

He started losing his teeth from as early as his twenties. Washingtons teeth were made of a lot of things but not wood George Washingtons only complete set of dentures made out of lead human teeth cow teeth and elephant ivory. 3 The myth of Washingtons wooden teeth conventionally imagines such wooden contraptions as.