The Most Expensive Teeth in the World
Introduction: The Value of a Smile
Ordinary enough as parts of the human anatomy go, teeth have also been some of the most costly objects ever sold and have enjoyed a long, storied history as cultural artefacts. In this piece, we explore how and why some specific fangs hold the Guinness world record for their astronomical prices.
George Washington’s Wooden Myth
It is one of the defining myths in American folklore that the nation’s first president, George Washington, wore wooden teeth, when in fact his dentures, fashioned out of human, possibly slave, teeth, animal teeth, and ivory, were in reality rather an interestingly historic artifact. Strangely enough, the dentures of Washington, who died in 1799, have never been sold and, without any market, they have no price.
The Beatles’ Dental Casts
On a more frivolous note, the Beatles’ dentist casts of the members of the band – John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr – have been sold at auction, each unique, as are the others that presumably exist. These are not teeth, of course, but this, too, is part of the extraordinary cultural value that accrues to memorabilia.
The $37,000 Wisdom Tooth
And it is not just historical figures who can enter the high-value world of fangs. In 2011, a ‘wisdom tooth’ of John Lennon sold at auction for $31,000. The tooth had been removed in the 1960s and given as a gift to Lennon’s housekeeper. For some buyers, celebrity keepsakes are the ultimate way to preserve the life of a long-gone idol.
Sir Isaac Newton’s Tooth – A $35,700 Relic
Going a little further back in time, in 1816 a tooth purportedly from perhaps the most venerated scientist ever, Isaac Newton, fetched $3,633 (about $35,700 today). The tooth, mounted in a ring, was valuable as a relic, but also gave it cachet as a piece of jewelry.
The Multi-Million Dollar T. Rex Teeth
As for prehistoric relics originally belonging to humans, the most valuable and coveted are those denizens of the Mesozoic Era: teeth from Tyrannosaurus rex. A nearly complete T rex tooth can easily top $20,000. Larger sizes and better condition mean more money. And if you are lucky enough to own, or know the person who owns, an entire T. rex jawbone with teeth, it’s not out of the question that you can break $1 million at auction. Dinosaurs sell big.
Vic Tandy’s Tooth – The Smuggler’s Gold
In a final ironic twist, the 18th-century British smuggler Vic Tandy’s supposed gold tooth – made from a block of gold derived, it was claimed, from 2000 Dutch pounds – was auctioned in the late 1990s for more than $15,000.
Conclusion: The Price of Permanence
The world’s most expensive teeth house biographies of celebrity and history, prehistoric life, and even the occasional cultural message, imparting that even the least interesting of actualities – taken from the pointless and essential alike – can, in the right scenario, under the right circumstances, hold the kind of value that comes of culture, history, and sometimes a semblance of simple, literary caprice. From a president’s mouth to a scientist’s skull, through rich exhumations of prehistoric associatedness, the toothy world remains a place of both epic and minor fascinations carried in the public maw, where even in death, the rest of us can be considered of real worth.
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