Random Things Of George Washington's Teeth Weren't Wooden At All - They May Have Been Teeth of Slaves (13 items)

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  (#1) Washington's Smile Was Made Of Stolen Teeth

  George Washington didn't usually smile in his portraits - and no, it's not because he had wooden teeth. That myth may have lasted so long because, like the cherry tree legend, it humanized the first president and made him seem like a common man instead of a very wealthy plantation owner who could afford the most expensive dentures available.

  But the myth hardly gets to the truth of the matter. Washington's dentures contained several materials, including ivory, but the at least some of the teeth themselves were likely actual human teeth. While it's impossible to say for certain if the Founding Father had the teeth put in his own mouth, he certainly purchased teeth from his own slaves on at least one occasion, and he probably had a specific reason why.
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  (#3) Dentists Paid Money For Human Teeth

  In Washington's day, many dentures included human teeth - for people who could afford them. Dentists like John Greenwood, the president's dentist, paid good money for human teeth. Greenwood posted an advertisement for "Live teeth," offering "a guinea each."

  One of Washington's other dentists, Jean Pierre Le Moyer, also bought human teeth. In 1783 he advertised in the New York papers for "persons disposed to sell their front teeth, or any of them." Le Moyer was more generous, promising two guineas per tooth. The same year, Le Moyer began treating Washington, and he likely performed the tooth transplant the general had in 1784. 
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  (#10) People Who Couldn't Afford Live Teeth Could Always Buy Corpse Teeth

  Buying live human teeth was expensive, but there was a cheaper alternative: corpse teeth. The main source was dead soldiers on battlefields, and after Napoleon's 1815 defeat at Waterloo, which left thousands dead, they became known as Waterloo teeth.

  A rotten tooth might be pulled and replaced with a tooth from a dead soldier. Or, more commonly, corpse teeth were used to create dentures. But as one dentist pointed out "most people have a dread of teeth which have been obtained from a corpse." So those who could afford it purchased living human teeth - like Washington.
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  (#7) The Market For Human Teeth Preyed On Poor People

  Teeth only traveled one direction: from the mouths of the poor to the gums of the rich. As a dentist in York promised, she could "transplant teeth from the front jaws of poor lads into the heads of any Lady or Gentleman without putting both patients to any anguish."

  However, in the newly formed country of the United States, there were other sources of teeth: slaves. In 1782, one New York dentist refused to buy teeth from slaves, offering five guineas for healthy front teeth but adding "slave teeth excepted." Perhaps his theory was that wealthy white tooth-buyers wouldn't pay for slave teeth - or that the slave's owner wouldn't be happy if his "property" sold part of himself. 
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  (#11) London's Poor Sold Their Teeth For Money

  When surgeons like John Hunter advertised, looking for human teeth to transplant into the mouths of wealthy Londoners, it was the poorest from London's slums who responded. Hunter recommended using young donors, and said that girls were the best because their teeth were generally smaller. He was also able to line up a row of eager donors willing to sell a tooth for a few pennies.

  Another 18th-century dentist named William Rae argued that it was immoral to take teeth from the poor to give to the rich: "In the first place, it is cruel to take the teeth of a poor creature, whose necessities may induce him to part with it as a means of procuring subsistence." He then added that poor people were often diseased, putting the wealthy at risk. 
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  (#12) The Patient Came Face-To-Face With The Donor

  A tooth transplant was a gruesome procedure. The donor and the recipient would visit the dentist at the same time, sitting next to each other, as shown in a 1787 caricature by Thomas Rowlandson. The image shows a dirty chimney sweep selling teeth straight from his mouth to a dentist who plans to transplant them into the mouth of a wealthy woman. 

  After checking the impoverished donor for diseases, the dentist would pull the tooth and quickly implant it into the gums of the patient, tying the donor tooth into the mouth with silk threads or seaweed. Hunter emphasized the procedure had to be fast "as delay will perpetually lessen the power upon which the union of the two parts depends."

  In Washington's case, he was most likely present when his dentist yanked nine teeth from the mouths of his slaves for the Founding Father.

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