Now here?s a place you can sink your teeth into. Sorry, but comments like that are expected when you?re talking about The Dr. Samuel D. Harris National Museum of Dentistry, now celebrating its 10th year in Baltimore City.
Fortunately, Rosemary Fetter, executive director of the museum, is all smiles. And you?d have to be, if you?re promoting displays like, say, the saliva exhibit.
“You have to come and see! The first thing you see is a vial that shows how much saliva you produce every day. It?s about a quart,” she said.
If the secrets of spit don?t make your mouth water, you might want to peruse the newest exhibit, The Narwhal: A Whale of A Tooth, now on display through August.
Sometimes called the “unicorn of the sea,” the narwhal is an Arctic whale with a 5-foot-long tusk that grows through the upper jaw and lip.
A life-size replica of the whale, which is 13 to 15 feet in length, is on display at the museum.
“There?s been a lot of research as to what that tusk is about. The Enduit people have wonderful tales about how the tusk was originallyformed,” Fetter said. “Some people think it?s just a battle instrument. There?s an international group headed by a Harvard dentist, so we?re highlighting the whole story, the myths, the intrigue of this very special tooth.”
Amy Pelsinsky, director of communications, said the museum, which is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, has about 40,000 objects related to the history of dentistry.
“There?s so much on display. There?s the woman who had an iron jaw and was in a circus act, hanging from her teeth. And there?s a silk-screen painting by Andy Warhol of St. Apollonia holding a tooth in pincers ? she was the patron saint of toothaches. She died in 249 A.D. and had all her teeth broken and pulled out as her martyrdom,” Pelsinsky said. “The museum also explores the evolution of dentistry, from the ancient Egyptians to the latest practices being used today. It also touches on dentistry in pop culture with movie clips of crazy dental feats, like Banana George Blair, who water-skis barefoot while holding on with his teeth.”
Other highlights include Queen Victoria?s gilded dental instruments, dental extraction equipment from the 18th and 19th centuries, a dental “jukebox” that plays dental-related commercials throughout the years, and an online program called “Mouthpower” that targets Junior Girl Scouts and Brownies who can earn patches for oral health knowledge. Then there?s the Mona Lisa of the museum: George Washington?s dentures.
“We have an original set and copies of other sets of his dentures. He had only one tooth, and he was the president, so it makes you wonder what the oral health of the general populace was at that time,” Fetter said.
But were they wooden?
“Oh no ? ivory. We do have some wooden teeth on display from Japan, however. Some people think that Washington drank a great deal of port and that may have stained his teeth brown, though the ones we have aren?t brown at all,” Fetter said.
