In those days, dentures were not cast from impressions but were crafted from ivory, so they were difficult to keep in place. English gentlemen experienced the same difficulties as Washington. It has been said that their dry form of wit originated from the need to avoid laughing out loud and revealing their false teeth.

A legend that Washington wore wooden dentures is apparently untrue. He had dentures made of human teeth, ivory, and lead, but not wood. His dentists probably obtained teeth from grave robbers. Traders in teeth would also follow armies and pull the teeth from the dead and dying after a battle. Dentures were thus a rich man’s luxury. Not until the 1850’s, with the discovery of vulcanized rubber, which came to be used in making denture bases, did dentures become available to the common people.

[Picture on page 28]

An ivory denture belonging to George Washington, the first U.S. president

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Courtesy of The National Museum of Dentistry, Baltimore, MD