Toothsome Find - Is this what I think it is?

[artemis moon]

I found this in a field that saw a large political gathering (supposedly 25,000 people) in 1830. I know very little of the history of dentistry, except that George Washington had dentures. It could very well be a part that broke off of some piece of equipment or other, but it sure as heck looks like a front tooth to me. I wish that I could identify what type of metal this is..if I had to guess, and this is only a guess, I would say it was lead..which makes me hope that it wasn't somebody's tooth. Any ideas?

 

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[BosnMate]

I agree, looks like a tooth. A friend of mine got a gold tooth in his dredge. Makes a guy wonder what happened for that tooht to get into the river, but we expect someone drowned years ago, and that's all that's left of the poor fellow.

 

[creskol]

There must be a problem posting photos this morning .. I have tried four times! I give up!

 

[DCMatt]

I'm having trouble as well.

It certainly looks like a gold central incisor crown. Gross...

For the record, George Washington DID have dentures but they were mostly made of wood. I've read that he did not do much public speaking because of them.

DCMatt

 

[artemis moon]

This tooth does not seem modern to me. It was found at 10+ inches in the middle of the field. I realize that this field has seen use in the 183 years since the gathering, which was the site of the Whig Convention in 1830 where Daniel Webster spoke.

My questions are: Would replacement teeth have been available back then? This is definitely not gold, but some inexpensive metal. I wonder if it was coated with porcelain originally. I also wonder if this was part of a set of false teeth where one broke off or if they had bridgework back then.

 

[DCMatt]

Learned something again today. From MountVernon.org:

Contrary to later legend, none of Washington's false teeth were made of wood. Prior to Washington's service in the Revolutionary War, Dr. John Baker, the first dentist to fashion false teeth for Washington, fabricated a partial denture with ivory that was wired to Washington's remaining real teeth. In the 1780s, Washington employed the services of Jean-Pierre Le Mayeur, a French dentist living in America, but it is unclear precisely what dental services Le Mayeur performed.
Le Mayeur probably fashioned a partial set of false teeth for Washington; the Frenchman also advertised he was experienced at "transplanting...put[ting] natural teeth instead of false," but no definitive evidence indicates he attempted such operations on Washington.[SUP]1[/SUP] Le Mayeur and Washington quickly became friends, and Le Mayeur was a guest at Mount Vernon on multiple occasions in the mid-1780s.
When Washington was inaugurated President in 1789, only one real tooth remained in his mouth. Dr. John Greenwood—a New York dentist, former soldier in the Revolution, and a true pioneer in American dentistry—fashioned a technologically advanced set of dentures carved out of hippopotamus ivory and employing gold wire springs and brass screws holding human teeth. Greenwood even left a hole in the dentures to accommodate Washington's single tooth as he believed a dentist should "never extract a tooth...[when] there is a possibility of saving it."[SUP]2[/SUP] When Washington finally lost this tooth as well, he gave it to Greenwood who saved this cherished item in a special case.

I also read the from the 1850's dentures were made from Vulcanite with porcelain "teeth" inserted into the rubber (thank you Mr. Goodyear).

DCMatt

 

[artemis moon]

So there was such thing as dentistry in the late 18th century and they didn't just extract when a tooth became troublesome- although I don't think that anesthetics came along until later, so you probably had to be very brave and very drunk to consider having any kind of serious work done. I can't imagine having something like a wisdom tooth pulled without being unconscious. I'm guessing that you'd also have to be pretty well off to afford anything other than an extraction back then. Things haven't changed all that much if you think about it. Do you know how expensive implants are??

 

[thegreatmerlin]

likely a tooth
BTW
there have been tooth extractions since ancient Egypt, but the tooth is likely 18th to early 19th centuries. since you found it at the sight of a Whig convention, then two people with different ideas very well may have gotten into an argument and duked it out. one may have ended up placing a blow to the other's jaw, knocking out the tooth you found.

 

[creskol]

Hey .. That is the very tooth I am missing! Where did you find it?

 

[woodstock]

I've also read somewhere that George only wore his dentures when he was in public because they were very uncomfortable . And at that time there were other pain killers even if they were not as effective as modern ones today . When I was a kid my mother would use oil of cloves to numb a toothache . I'm not saying that clove oil will work for a extraction , but it does numb the nerve in some toothaches ... Happy Trails , Woodstock

 

[artemis moon]

I've also read somewhere that George only wore his dentures when he was in public because they were very uncomfortable . And at that time there were other pain killers even if they were not as effective as modern ones today . When I was a kid my mother would use oil of cloves to numb a toothache . I'm not saying that clove oil will work for a extraction , but it does numb the nerve in some toothaches ... Happy Trails , Woodstock

I remember reading that when posing for the famous portrait of Washington that is on the dollar bill, the artist had him stuff his mouth with cotton so that his face would not look sunken in because of his ill fitting dentures.

When I was a kid, I remember my mother rubbing my brother's gums with whiskey when he was teething