George Washington’s Dentures Included Hippopotamus Ivory — But Not Wood

Most portraits of George Washington show the nation’s first president looking calm, dignified and firmly in control. What those paintings do not reveal is that Washington spent much of his adult life suffering from severe dental problems.

Washington had his first tooth pulled when he was 24. Whether caused by genetics, diet, inadequate childhood dental care or some combination of the three, his teeth continued deteriorating despite his careful attention to oral hygiene.

By his early 50s, Washington was saving his extracted teeth in the hope that they could be incorporated into dentures. Human teeth were valuable components of artificial dental sets at the time, but dentists also used animal teeth, ivory and various metals.

Contrary to one of America’s most enduring historical myths, Washington’s dentures were not made of wood.

The materials used in his different sets included human and animal teeth, hippopotamus ivory, lead-tin alloys, copper, silver, gold wire and brass screws.

When Washington became president in 1789, he wore a custom set made by New York dentist John Greenwood. The device featured a base carved from hippopotamus ivory, with human teeth held in position using gold-wire springs and brass fasteners.

As impressive as that may sound for 18th-century dentistry, the contraption was hardly comfortable. The spring-loaded dentures placed constant pressure inside Washington’s mouth and reportedly affected both his appearance and speech.

Washington repeatedly wrote to Greenwood complaining that the dentures caused pain and made his lips and cheeks bulge. The discomfort may help explain the tense, closed-mouth expression seen in many of his portraits.

By 1796, Washington had only one natural tooth remaining. When that final tooth was extracted, he gave it to Greenwood as a keepsake.

Paul Revere Had a Side Job as a Dentist

George Washington was not the only famous figure from the American Revolution with an unusual connection to early dentistry.

Paul Revere is remembered primarily as the Boston silversmith who made a midnight ride in April 1775 to warn that British troops were advancing. Before the Revolution, however, Revere supplemented his income by working as a dentist.

An economic depression following the French and Indian War forced Revere to pursue several additional trades. Along with producing silver goods, he worked as an engraver and illustrator.

He learned basic dentistry from a local practitioner named John Baker and subsequently advertised his services in the Boston-Gazette. One advertisement claimed that Revere had successfully “fixt some hundreds of teeth.”

Revere’s dental work primarily involved wiring artificial teeth into place rather than treating cavities or performing the type of restorative procedures associated with modern dentistry.

He appears to have abandoned the profession around the beginning of the Revolutionary War, but his dental experience later played an unexpected role in American history.

After the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775, the body of Revolutionary leader Dr. Joseph Warren was discovered in a mass grave. The remains were badly decomposed and difficult to identify.

Revere recognized a replacement tooth that he had previously secured in Warren’s mouth using wire. That dental work helped confirm Warren’s identity and allowed his remains to receive a proper burial.

The identification is frequently described as one of the earliest documented uses of dental evidence to identify a deceased person in American history. It also earned Revere another distinction beyond silversmith, engraver and midnight rider: pioneer of American forensic dentistry.