George Washington's Teeth
We know that it’s debatable whether or not George Washington actually chopped down a cherry tree, but we do know that the story that tells us that he had wooden denture is categorically incorrect. It appears that this Urban Myth has its beginnings in the historically correct records that indicate that Washington seriously suffered from dental problems throughout his life. Documentation indicates that he had infected and abscessed teeth, as well as inflamed gums and that while he was in command of the Continental Army, these dental issues were a source of great discomfort to him.
In Washington’s day, barbers did double duty as dentists and there actually are documents that report Washington’s having submitted “dental” bills to the tune of almost five-hundred dollars, no insignificant amount of money at that time. It’s safe to assume that the Father of Our Country took good care of his teeth, but, despite that he lost most of his teeth by the time he was in his mid50s. When he became President in 1789, he was left with just one tooth, a lower left bicuspid.
Washington took great pains (no pun intended) in his efforts to locate comfortable dentures. His first full set of dentures was made for him by the noted denture maker John Greenwood. The bases of the dentures were fashioned of hippopotamus ivory. The teeth were both made from ivory and human teeth. Albeit Greenwald made Washington three other sets of dentures and Washington was unhappy with all of them. He complained to Greenwald saying that they “worked loose; and, at length, two or three of them have given away altogether.” Washington added, “They are both uneasy in the mouth and bulge my lips out in such a manner as to make them appear considerably swelled.” The dentures, he added, had also quickly discolored.
An actual set of George Washington's dentures is on display at his home in Virginia. The New York Academy of Medicine in New York is home to the last dentures that Washington wore, also made by Greenwood. The Academy also has in its possession Washington’s last natural tooth, which Greenwood put on his watch fob, as an ornament.
For those who wish to chronicle Washington’s teeth, the many portraits of him throughout his life provide information which exhibit his continuing dental difficulties. The Portraits begin in
1757, by Charles Wilson Peale. Washington was twenty-five and had most of his natural. Subsequent portraits show a small scar on his left cheek from a fistula caused by an abscessed tooth, evidence of puffiness and swelling of his mouth. By 1796, when the famous painting by Gilbert Stuart was done, we are told that the artist packed cotton inside Washington's mouth in order to support his lips, in the absence of teeth.