Who carved George Washington's false teeth?

Dess77 is on target but Dr John Greenwood was not the only Dentist who fashioned false teeth for Washington. And yes carving was how it was done, carved from ivory, from a hippo, and some accounts suggest a few sets were made of ivory and real teeth - - - -





Also credit a James Gardette for making a set that was very uncomfortable...





http://www.americanrevolution.org/dental...


%26quot;%26quot;%26quot;%26quot;Toothaches followed by extraction would be a yearly occurrence for Washington. There were frequent episodes of infected and abscessed teeth, inflamed gums, and finally ill-fitting dentures. One can imagine that his reputed %26quot;hair-trigger temper%26quot; might have been the result of a constant battle with pain. He was continually corresponding with noted dentists of the day asking for a file to repair a denture, a scraper to clean his teeth or pincers to fasten wires on his teeth. He inquired about a dentist of %26quot;whose skill much has been said.%26quot; He requested material to make a model of his teeth so a dentist could make new dentures.





When George Washington was inaugurated for his first term as president in 1789, he had only one natural tooth remaining and was wearing his first full set of dentures made by John Greenwood. Previously he had had partial dentures which were held in place by hooking them around the remaining teeth. The Greenwood dentures had a base of hippopotamus ivory carved to fit the gums. The upper denture had ivory teeth and the lower plate consisted of eight human teeth fastened by gold pivots that screwed into the base. The set was secured in his mouth by spiral springs.





Washington%26#039;s next set of dentures was made in 1791 and a third in 1795, for which he paid sixty dollars. James Gardette made a large and very clumsy set for him in 1796. Apparently Washington was not pleased with these dentures and may have ordered another set from Greenwood in 1797. Washington often returned dentures for adjustments and repairs, at one time complaining that %26quot;they were forcing his lips out.%26quot; His final set was made in 1798, the year before he died. This set has a swagged gold plate with individual backing for each tooth which was fastened by rivets. The lower denture of this set, along with others, are on display in the Dr. Samuel D. Harris National Museum of Dentistry in Baltimore.





Written descriptions of Washington%26#039;s physical appearance note facial and vocal changes over the years. Portraits by leading painters of the day also record facial changes. Some of the alterations in his appearance may have been due to his dentures. For example, the springs, securing his dentures could have pushed his teeth forward, causing the cheeks to look puffy.





In Charles Wilson Peale%26#039;s first portrait of Washington in 1757, the mouth is noted to be quite small. Washington was twenty-five at that time and certainly still had some of his natural teeth. The painting done in 1776 by the same artist shows a scar on the left cheek from a fistula caused by an abscessed tooth. Here the face is long and oval. There is a story that Peale made a set of dentures for Washington when he was sitting for one of his portraits, because Peale felt that the set he was wearing was causing him too %26quot;%26quot;%26quot;








Pax------------------------

Who carved George Washington%26#039;s false teeth?
thanks - - - - Report It

Reply:wasn%26#039;t it paul revere ?
Reply:if your talking about carving his wooden teeth, that is actaully not true, washington did not have wood teeth, just think about it, do u really think the president of the united states had wooden teeth, he had the money for ivory ones, just think of the logistics of wooden teeth, splinters, it rots and warps, when its wet its softer, wooden teeth wouldnt have been on a man with the calibur of washington
Reply:check this website out! you%26#039;ll love it!





http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6875436/





and the answer is....Dr. John Greenwood








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Goodteeth.com | Joel Goodman, DDS | 410-531-6600 | 410-988-9261





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Washington’s %26quot;Not-So-Wooden%26quot; Teeth


Each year, when Dr. Joel visits area schools in February to commemorate National Children’s Dental Health Month, he tells the story of George Washington’s teeth, long thought to have been carved out of wood. It’s amazing how this legend has survived. Here’s the true story:





President Washington lost his teeth at a relatively early age. He suffered from poor dental health throughout his younger years. He had two sets of false teeth (dentures) made by the most prominent American dentist of his day, Dr. John Greenwood. They were carved from the finest hippopotamus ivory and gold. One of the sets was donated to the University of Maryland Dental School in Baltimore, the oldest dental college in the world. The dental school in turn loaned one of the dentures to the Smithsonian in 1976 for a bicentennial exhibit. The denture was stolen from a storage area of the Smithsonian (presumably for its gold content) and has never been recovered.





http://www.goodteeth.com/gwteeth.htm



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