1. George Washington Had Wooden Teeth
For generations, students were told that George Washington wore wooden teeth. It is one of the most common stories about America’s first president, and it sounds believable because Washington really did suffer from serious dental problems. By the time he became president, his mouth was in terrible shape, and he wore dentures that were bulky, painful, and easy to imagine as crude wooden devices.
But Washington’s dentures were not made of wood. They were made from materials such as ivory, metal alloys, human teeth, and animal teeth. The “wooden teeth” myth probably survived because some of the dentures became badly stained over time, giving them a dark, grainy appearance that people mistook for wood.
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