John Greenwood (dentist)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This page has few or no links to other articles. (Tagged since April 2008).
You can improve this article by adding links to related material, within the existing text. For some link suggestions, you can try Can We Link It tool. (You can help!)

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (April 2008)

This article may not meet the notability guideline for biographies. If you are familiar with the subject matter, please expand or rewrite the article to establish its notability. The best way to address this concern is to reference published, third-party sources about the subject. If notability cannot be established, the article is more likely to be considered for redirection, merge or ultimately deletion, per Wikipedia:Guide to deletion.
This article has been tagged since April 2008.

Dr. John Greenwood (1760-1819) was George Washington's personal dentist, often called the Father of Modern Dentistry, was responsible for designing Washington's famous dentures, which were not wood but carved from hippopotamus tusk. He invented the first known "dental foot engine" in 1790.

He was the son of Isaac Greenwood, the first native-born American dentist.

A letter from John Greenwood to Lt. General George Washington on his denture charges, dated 1799, is in the A.D. Black History of Dentistry Collection at Northwestern University.