George Washington’s Teeth (c. 1790 – 1799)
The first President of the United States George Washington, for all his military prowess and governmental might, had been plagued with dental issues for most of this life. His journal entries and letters would include details of his discomfort, tooth pain, gum inflammation, tooth loss, and other miseries, particularly ill-fitting dentures. Despite popular myth, he never wore wooden dentures.
Some might have stained enough to look like wood, but his dentures were sturdier, using human or animal teeth, ivory, alloys like lead-tin, copper, or brass. He even used some of his own teeth, saving them as they came out to be used in dentures. The set shown here, on display at Washington’s home Mount Vernon, use human incisors in the lower jaw (the source of the human teeth is unknown). This set is the only complete set of dentures remaining, aside from what he may have been entombed wearing.
