Nothing but the tooth

March 6th is Dentists' Day, which naturally comes several weeks after the first onset of Toothache Day (February 9th) and a week after the incentive of Tooth Fairy Day (February 28th...and apparently also August 22nd).

At Easterween, we're keen to celebrate all things dental, so we recommend to anyone living in the northeastern United States a visit to two temples of dentistry--the National Dental Museum in Baltimore and the Temple University Dental School museum in Philadelphia. There, you can find exhibits that commemorate the pioneering work of two giants in the field of staring into people's mouths.

Photo from the National Dental Museum in Baltimore

John Greenwood, the father of modern dentistry
If John Greenwood is remembered for anything these days, it's for the fact that he made George Washington's false teeth. And he didn't make them of wood, oh no. He used far more civilized materials: Hippopotamus ivory, springs, and other people's teeth, to name but a few.

In the days before dental fixatives, he used physics to keep the top set of dentures in place: They were fixed by coiled springs to the bottom set. This meant, of course, that there was a constant force pushing down on the bottom set. You can see evidence of this on any dollar bill--just look at George's underbite.

Photo from Temple University's dental museum

"Painless" Parker--the P.T. Barnum of dentistry
Even though he formally trained as a dentist at the Philadelphia Dental College (now part of Temple University), Edgar Parker comported himself more like a carnival barker than a medical professional. And his approach made him a fortune. He opened a chain of dental stores on the West Coast in the early 1900s that employed 75 dentists. He appeared at state fairs and other big gatherings under the name Painless Parker, where he would perform mass extractions before an audience, wearing a necklace of human teeth, and filling a wooden bucket with extracted molars.


The American Dental Association called Painless Parker "a menace to the dignity of the profession", but despite being shunned by his colleagues, his alma mater still chose to display the necklace and bucket of teeth. That alone is worth a trip up to Philly, and a climb up the stairs from the Temple dental school's offices to their free museum.