The teeth were real—and some may have come from enslaved people
George Washington’s dentures were not carved from wood. They were complicated appliances made from materials including ivory, metal, and human teeth. The wooden-teeth story likely grew from the dentures’ worn, stained appearance: ivory can darken over time, especially when exposed to food and drink.
The more unsettling detail is where some human teeth may have come from. Washington’s records show that in 1784 he paid enslaved people at Mount Vernon for teeth. That evidence connects his dental needs to the people he enslaved, though it does not establish which teeth went into a particular set of dentures or the circumstances of each sale.
A painful problem, and a revealing record
Washington lost teeth over many years and relied on dentures that were uncomfortable and difficult to use. His dentist, John Greenwood, made sets with human teeth alongside other materials. Human teeth could look more natural than ivory, but they also made the source of the dentures impossible to separate from the era’s unequal power relations.
The records do not support a simple story that Washington forcibly took teeth from enslaved people. They do show that he bought teeth from people he held in bondage—people who could not bargain with him as equals. The myth hides a real and more troubling connection: Washington’s dentures were not wooden, but their human materials may have come from people whose freedom he denied.
