George Washington Didn't Floss!
By MICHAEL A. HORVATH, DDS
August 2, 2018
Wooden Teeth Misconception
George Washington had a long history of illness. Although he was physically strong, was not the insuperable human force that popular history paints.
All his lifetime, Washington suffered from inflamed gum, aching teeth, lost teeth, ill-fitting dentures and many more. He ventured into massive treatment of his inflated dentures. He tried all possible measures to get his teeth treated. He got for himself different types of custom made tooth brushes, denture files, toothache medication, teeth scrapers, and a cleaning solution was provided for him throughout his life. Yet all these measures did not stop the teeth from falling.
One popular misconception of George W. dentures was that his dentures were made of wood. Hence, this misconception was as a result of some of his stained dentures being likened as that of wooden complexion; therefore, wood was never used in the construction of his dental fittings.
On the contrary, his dentures were made of bone, human teeth (purchased from the Negros), brass screws, lead, hippopotamus ivory, and gold metal wire.
During that time, Washinton had the services of different doctors; Dr. Jean-pierre, Dr. Waston. Despite all his attempts to save his dentures, he was left with just one tooth during his presidential inauguration in 1789 as the first president of United State. At that time, the remaining tooth was eventually pulled by Dr, Greenwood in 1796.
Consequently, Washington started noticing the different appearance in his face. The artificial ill-fitted dentures changed the look and shape of his face particularly his jaw and lower lips. The ill-fitting dentures was too wide and projecting, and that made the upper and under lip to bulge out, and his face swelled up. As a result, it was impossible for him to speak properly.
Meanwhile, painter/artist Gilbert Stuart hated Washington and accentuated the distortion in what became the most famous of all Washington portraits. The Pale portrait of 1776 shows a long scar along Washington's left cheek. Also, artist Gilbert Stuart, packed cotton balls inside Washinton’s mouth to support the lips in his 1797 painting.
George suffered from all sorts of illness throughout his life, but the agonizing one was his dentures ache and the worst was the fact that it was falling out. He once cried out ”I fear I will never eat again”. He was fed with mush and pickled tripe. By middle age Washington had no teeth left. But he did have several sets of dentures, made from different materials.