The story of George Washington's wooden teeth is one of the most enduring myths in American history.
It is not true. Washington's dentures were not made of wood.
The truth is more complicated and considerably more disturbing.
Washington's dentures were made from a combination of materials including ivory from hippopotamus and elephant tusks, human teeth from other sources, and springs and wire hardware. He suffered from severe dental problems his entire adult life and by the time he became president he had only one natural tooth remaining.
Where Some of Those Human Teeth Came From
Records from Mount Vernon, Washington's plantation, document payments made for teeth. Historians have examined these records carefully.
Among those payments are entries that correspond to teeth purchased from enslaved people at Mount Vernon. The enslaved people living on the plantation had their teeth extracted and those teeth were incorporated into Washington's dentures.
This practice was not unique to Washington. The buying and selling of teeth from poor and enslaved people for wealthy clients who needed dental work was documented across Europe and America in the 18th century. Dentists referred to these as live teeth to distinguish them from teeth taken from corpses and they were considered of higher quality for denture making.
For the people whose teeth were taken the experience was painful and permanent. They lost teeth that could not be replaced. Whether those who were enslaved had any meaningful ability to refuse is a question the historical record does not fully answer but the power dynamic of slavery makes the answer fairly clear.
Why the Wooden Teeth Story Persists
The wooden teeth myth is more comfortable than the truth. It turns a medical reality of 18th century dentistry into a quirky and harmless anecdote about a founding father.
The actual story connects one of America's most celebrated historical figures directly to one of the most brutal realities of the world he lived in. It is harder to tell. It is harder to fit into the version of founding era history that most Americans prefer.
But the historical record is what it is. The records exist. The payments are documented. Historians have studied them and written about them.
Washington was a complex figure who held views about slavery that shifted across his lifetime and who freed the enslaved people he personally owned in his will. None of that erases the reality of what it meant to live as an enslaved person at Mount Vernon.
Getting the history right means telling the full story, not just the comfortable parts.
Robert Lee Beers III is a writer and digital preservation advocate based in North Charleston South Carolina.
