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Washington's Teeth

Further to yesterday's story about George Washington's mother, let's talk about his teeth for a minute. Like the rest of you, I grew up being told his false teeth were made of wood, which explains his stern expression in paintings and on our money. The truth is that while he did have false teeth, they were not made of wood. "The dentures are made from gold, ivory, lead, human and animal teeth (horse and donkey teeth were common components)"—they have been X-rayed and examined, and an article about them, along with a picture of a reproduction of them, can be found here.

I'm not sure how important you have to be to have your teeth saved and examined more than 200 years after you have died, but I suppose being the first president of the United States meets the requirements. It's an odd thing for us to do, though. Imagine being the guy who does the X-raying at the National Museum of Dentistry (yes, we have one of those), and at the end of the day your kid asks, "Dad, what do you do?" "Well, honey, let me explain...and after that, I called my friend at the National Museum of Noses, and she was examining the preserved nose of Abraham Lincoln."

Comments

Neponset River Bridge Dig said…
Funn story - I never beleived his tooth were made of wood. But I did beleive he chopped down the cherry tree story.
8:45 AM
dive said…
Old Craggy had a wooden nose?
11:36 AM
Utsav said…
And there's Einstein's brain, too. Poor man's dead and gone, and here we are, dissecting his brain and studying it. Why can't people just accept the fact that he was more intelligent than all of us after all, stop finding excuses for our shortcoming?
Oh dear, I seem to be in one of those moods today...
1:17 PM
Old Knudsen said…
Washington did do the dirty on the people of the Appalachians. After they fought for him he threatened them with military action to pay tax on Whisky because that's what they used for currency being so poor and old. Typical two faced president.
2:30 AM
Mrs. G. said…
I respect him as a president, but I would not have wanted to kiss him.
6:35 PM
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