Did George Washington really have wooden teeth?

No. George Washington did wear false teeth, but they were not made of wood. Mount Vernon calls the wooden teeth story one of the most enduring myths about him, and its historians say wood was never used in any of his dental fittings. Snopes reaches the same conclusion, noting that historians agree the dentures were made of other, low-tech materials by modern standards. [1] [2] [3]

Four of Washington's dentures survive in museum collections. Mount Vernon holds the only complete set, and a fifth set is believed to have been buried with him. Each is built differently, as though the dentists were constantly experimenting. Together they include hippopotamus, walrus and probably elephant ivory; cow, horse and human teeth; and lead, brass, silver and gold. Only two of the sets contain human teeth, used for the lower incisors. Where those teeth came from is not known, though the dentist who made the dentures likely supplied them. [4]

The Mount Vernon set has a lead base fitted with cow and human teeth, elephant ivory, brass and steel, according to the museum plaque quoted by Snopes. The same source says Washington was wearing full dentures by the time he took the presidential oath at age 57, and that he repeatedly sent them to his New York dentist, John Greenwood, for repairs. One Mount Vernon source does mention tiny wood pegs in the construction, but no part of the teeth themselves was carved from wood. [3] [4]

The origin is unclear. The explanation most often given by dental scientists and historians, according to Mount Vernon, is that the materials stained over time and took on a grained, wooden look that misled later observers. Snopes reports two versions of this idea: that the dentures turned mottled and brown with age, and that Washington's fondness for dark Madeira wine darkened the ivory and bone, with hairline fractures staining more strongly and resembling wood grain. [5] [3]

There is some contemporary support for staining. In an 1798 letter, Greenwood wrote that a set Washington sent him was very black and that port wine, being sour, takes off all the polish. Because no one can confirm how the story began, the staining explanation is the likeliest one rather than a proven fact. [5]

Mount Vernon notes that even into the mid-twentieth century some scholars described the teeth as wooden. The myth contains a grain of truth: Washington did suffer dental problems, had only one natural tooth by his 1789 inaugural, and occasionally made his own repairs to Greenwood's work. The historian William Etter suggests the story also makes a remote figure seem more ordinary. Wood was also not commonly used by dentists of his era. [5]

A Mount Vernon curator, speaking on a Colonial Williamsburg podcast, adds that wood would be a poor material for teeth in a mouth exposed to liquids, and that none of the known Washington dentures were wooden. [6]