This week I have the honor and pleasure of attending the George Washington Teacher Institute at Mount Vernon. The hospitality and generosity of the staff here is astounding, and the scholars I’m getting to learn from just amaze me (I got to meet and listen to Lindsay Chervinsky, author of The Cabinet and an all-time favorite, Denver Brunsman, whose care in answering one question I had in a class I took with him years ago inspired my undying love for studying Quakers in the 18th century.).
While I have much to share from the sessions I’ve attended so far, today I thought I would share a bit of Washington lore and write about his teeth. 🦷 A set of Washington’s dentures, plus other dental tools used by Washington to take care of his pearly whites, are housed in the education center and museum at Mount Vernon. While these are not the only incredibly interesting objects in the museum and I could certainly write about a million other things, I wanted to dispel some myths around Washington’s dental health and hygiene- just one of many pieces of lore around this particular founder.
Are they ugly? Certainly. Were they painful? I’m sure they were! Were they expensive? You bet! I think the greater question we can ask is “what was the cost and pain behind the dentures for others?” Obviously we want to empathize with Washington, as well, but besides being an object of curiosity about POTUS 1, I think there’s also something to be said about finding a deeper meaning behind objects, including a seemingly crusty set of dentures.
In order not to detract from the point I’m trying to make, I want to address Washington teeth myths. First, and yes I am shouting at you, THEY ARE NOT MADE OF WOOD! The material in this set of dentures includes human teeth (more on that later), cow teeth, and elephant ivory. They need to be adjusted regularly, so Washington would send them to his dentist, John Greenwood. Greenwood was in New York City, so Washington had more than one set of dentures. The ones you see in the above photos are those held in the collection at Mount Vernon. Washington did have his own teeth at one point in his life and he was absolutely meticulous about his dental hygiene. Despite attempts at keeping his teeth and gums healthy by brushing with a toothbrush and tooth powder and using a tongue scraper himself and his dentist using a scraper set to remove tartar, in 1781 by age 49, Washington had very few teeth left. He wore false teeth wired to his old ones by this point in his life. The full set of dentures turned up in his life in 1789. This means that Washington wore those unbearably uncomfortable dentures for a decade before he passed away in 1799. Remember, also, that the shape of your teeth in your mouth affects the shape of your face and your teeth also affect what you can eat. This is why in later portraits of Washington his face changes, particularly below the lower lip. Additionally, he ate soft foods because it hurt to eat anything firm or sticky. Fun fact: Mount Vernon’s materials conjecture that Washington was buried with a set of dentures. Imagine going to eternity with those things in your mouth!
Now, let’s move on to the tastier part of this story (see what I did there?) and think about the information that these dentures give us if we choose to think a bit more deeply. First, and I’m sure this crossed your mind, there are human teeth in this set of dentures. There’s a lot we don’t know about how these human teeth were acquired, but one thing that I did learn is that dentists in the 1700s had a stock of human teeth at their disposal so that they could make sets of dentures for their patients. The British Dentistry Association Museum shows an advertisement from a dentist seeking front teeth. Similar advertisements would have been found in American newspapers by dentists seeking to grow their collection of teeth, such as the below 1785 article from the Virginia Gazette in which Doctor Le Mayeur sought front teeth, as well. People from Washington’s class were not selling their teeth to dentists, but desperate lower class people were, including poor Whites, free Blacks, and enslaved Black people. While Washington certainly paid for his dentist’s services, and the dentist paid these people for their teeth, it is important to remember that people SOLD their teeth so that upper class people such as Washington could have teeth. This fact opens up conversations about social class in the 18th century as well as equity or lack there of. Elites like Washington could preserve their smiles while those of the lowest classes who could either just about get by or perhaps were looking to purchase freedom literally had to sell a body part to survive. Think about how smiling makes you feel and the way you might feel if you did not have front teeth. Think also about biting into a fresh apple. Because they were desperate for money, those who sold their teeth so that the wealthy could have them lost their smiles and their ability to eat certain foods. The evidence is inconclusive as to whether or not Washington’s dentures are made with the teeth of people he enslaved, but Mount Vernon does cite evidence that a local dentist purchased nine teeth from people enslaved by Washington in 1784, but this was 5 years before his first full set was made. The teeth were sold to Doctor Le Mayeur.
Another important point to consider is the lack of anesthesia in the 18th century. When surgeries were performed, whether an amputation or a tooth extraction, it was painful. The poor who sold their teeth to dentists because they needed cash were subjecting themselves to a very painful surgery. In fact, according to author Richard Holmes in an interview with NPR, doctors thought pain was a good thing! Screaming made them work faster and with greater precision (or so they thought) and they also thought pain was the body resisting the surgical trauma and beginning to heal itself. To fight off some of the pain, patients were given alcohol (which was also a blood thinner), something to bite down upon, or simply passed out. Using a tooth key, a dentist-surgeon would wrap the instrument around the tooth and wrench it from the gum. This could cause jaw and gum damage, and because those living in the 18th century had not yet discovered germ theory, the extraction could lead to a major infection as instruments were not sterilized and hands were likely not washed prior to the tooth being pulled. Post-operative care in case of infection or jaw damage were likely unattainable by the poor as they couldn’t afford a doctor unless the doctor was exceptionally generous.
When we consider the stories behind Washington’s teeth about social class and access to the medical care that existed, the dentures on exhibition at Mount Vernon become about much more than whether or not Washington was on top of his dental hygiene or figuring out if he suffered from tooth decay or gum disease. These dentures also have something to say about the haves and have-nots in early America, who had access to both necessary and cosmetic dental care, and who had to result to desperate measures in order to eke by. Think not just about the painting of Washington on the dollar bill in which he is wearing his dentures and his cheeks are stuffed with cotton so he can look good, but think also of his incredible privilege and wealth and the person who perhaps was now too embarrassed to smile or had even more limited food choices because they instead had to choose between their teeth and dental health and survival.
Citations:
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125730340
https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/health/teeth/