This episode of the Smile Reconstruction Podcast explores the history and advancements of dentures and their role in transforming smiles, from George Washington’s ivory dentures to Winston Churchill’s custom prosthetics and Hollywood stars like Emma Watson and Clark Gable using dental solutions to enhance their appearance. Modern options like 3D-printed and implant-retained dentures are discussed for their improved aesthetics and functionality, while the importance of preserving natural teeth is emphasized. Smile makeovers are celebrated for boosting confidence and quality of life. Stay tuned to the end of the podcast to learn about a surprising celebrity who turned to a smile makeover during their career.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 0:00 So when we see red carpet ready smiles, it’s easy to envy those perfect teeth. But did you know many of those smiles aren’t entirely natural. Some of Hollywood’s biggest stars have turned to dentures and veneers and such to enhance their smiles to make them look perfect. And so today, we’re going to be discussing some of the things that you need to know to make your smile more perfect like theirs.

Dr. Josh Muir 0:27 Welcome to another exciting episode of Smile Reconstruction, the podcast where we talk about all things with dental restoration. We’re going to talk about the materials used to make dentures, some of the different types of dentures that are available, and we’ll even talk about some of Hollywood stars over the years that have turned to dentures to improve their smiles. Now, at the end of this show, we’re going to share with you one of those Hollywood stars that might be a real shocker to you, so stay tuned.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 0:53 So there’s tons of celebrities that have gone to dentures and enhanced smile things to help make their smiles better. Probably the most prominent one would be George Washington. Tell us a little bit about George Washington, Dr Muir.

Dr. Josh Muir 1:06 Yeah. So, you know, I get asked quite a bit, did, hey, you’re a dentist, did George Washington really have wooden teeth? Well, George Washington had a lot of different teeth, and he’s actually someone that I’ve looked up a little bit. And so I know some of his things, his his most notorious one was he had these spring loaded dentures, and they kind of came together like this, but there was a spring that wrapped around the back, and so it would push them open. And the only way to keep him closed was he had to constantly fight. And so, so he was noted for having this, this, this constantly biting with this muscular jaw and things. He had teeth that were made out of wood. He had teeth that were made out of ivory. And what they would do back then, they would use hippopotamus ivory. They’d take these blocks, and they’d have someone that just carves it into teeth.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 2:04 Quite impressive.

Dr. Josh Muir 2:05 It is pretty impressive, but it would kind of be like carving a wooden shoe for yourself.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 2:11 Yeah.

Dr. Josh Muir 2:12 Except a lot harder, because you can see your foot, you can set something on it, you can trace it a lot easier, but in the mouth, you know, to get all of those little grooves, and so they were just trying to find something that would be better than having nothing. So that’s George Washington. He’s probably our most famous one.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 2:32 So another one that we kind of came across during this research was Winston Churchill, and I didn’t know this until we did a little bit of research on it, but his false teeth are what helped win World War II. Did you know that, Dr. Muir?

Dr. Josh Muir 2:44 I actually did not know that. Tell us about it.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 2:47 So it’s kind of interesting in the fact that he had his dentures made to keep his lisp. So he had a lisp that was really recognizable, and he made it. I mean, these teeth were made in such a way that kept his Lisp So, like when he would broadcast stuff during World War II, that people would recognize it became a recognizable sound. And so that was something he really wanted to kind of preserve, to help people recognize, like, Hey, this is our prime minister speaking.

Dr. Josh Muir 3:18 So that’s really interesting when people come in for dentures or or a reconstruction of their mouth in in any way, a lot of people will say, Hey, this is something that’s bothered me my whole life. I want it fixed. I want it changed. My teeth are too dark. I don’t like the shape. I lisp. I want to change these things that have bugged me forever, but it’s neat that he wanted it preserved, because that was how people knew him, and we do see that too. We had a guy that that came, and he had a great big space between his two front teeth, and his two front teeth were pretty broken, and so he wanted some dentures to help with that, to replace them. And he said, but the most important thing to me is this space right here. I said, okay, hey, that’s wonderful. And he said, I have this space, and my mom has this space, and she is very, very dear to me. I never want to lose that. Okay, there you go. So everyone has something that they’re looking for in their own smile. So that’s pretty cool.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 4:23 Yeah.

Dr. Josh Muir 4:23 Well, what other ones have you come across?

Dr. Tanner Townsend 4:25 Another one is Emma Watson. You remember her from Harry Potter?

Dr. Josh Muir 4:28 Yes, I do.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 4:29 Um, so she like, when she was kind of going through the filming of Harry Potter, she had a number of baby teeth, and she didn’t want, like, they they didn’t want to, like, have that be a distraction, necessarily. So they kind of gave her a denture that went over the top. So I thought that was kind of interesting, that she, you know, they made a denture, or snap on smile, I would assume, to kind of cover up those teeth.

Dr. Josh Muir 4:53 Yeah. And, you know, that’s a that’s something for those kids, those show kids. Or kids that are actors and actresses as they’re transitioning from baby teeth to adult teeth. It’s pretty common. So even if we go back to Shirley Temple’s time, that’s something we would see there, and they would have a full set of teeth that they would pop over top of their natural teeth, even if they hadn’t lost them, just to give them a specific type of appearance. Kind of a personal story. I have a patient that when he was three years old, his front tooth, baby tooth, was knocked out.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 5:34 Oh

Dr. Josh Muir 5:34 It didn’t bother him at all. He didn’t care at all until he got into school, kindergarten, not too bad. But by the end, kids were asking him about it. Hey, what happened to your tooth? And he got pretty self-conscious. And so this little patient came to me and he said, Uncle Josh, can you make me a tooth? And so I made a tooth. I made this little one tooth denture on a five year old. And anyway, that was a pretty fun little experience, too. So, you know, everybody has feelings about their teeth.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 6:07 Yeah, it just shows that, especially those front teeth, they’re important. Who’s another one, Dr Muir, that’s like a famous person that has had some major dental work done.

Dr. Josh Muir 6:17 Yeah, I think, you know, going back to dentures, prominent guy was Clark Gable, and at one point he was known as the king of Hollywood. He starred in, you know, films like Gone With The Wind and other films from that era, but, yeah, he turned to dentures to give himself a more predictable look. And you know, the way actors would work back then, it wasn’t hired for one show and then another show later, it was. They were employed by these producing companies, and so they wanted to get as many movies in as they could. And you didn’t want things like dental work, dental pain or any dental problems to come in the way of getting as much out of these actors as you could. So a lot of them would turn to things like that for for help.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 7:06 Man, that’s incredible how, like, they didn’t want the unpredictability of having to go to the dentist. So they’re like, just take them all out and let’s do some dentures.

Dr. Josh Muir 7:13 Well, as you can imagine, you know, I mean, I can think of multiple patients that we’ve seen together, that one guy, it seems like every time he has to go speak out of town, one of his teeth breaks. And so, you know, we’re always seeing him after hours and super early before his flights to fix things, just enough to patch them together so he can go make his appearance wherever he’s going. So yeah, when you have tooth problems, they’re problems, and they typically don’t come at the at the ideal times. Well, why don’t we talk a little bit about what dentures are? You know, we’ve talked about some of the cool history of it and things, but dentures come in two types. There’s a type that replaces all of your teeth. That’s called a complete denture. There’s a type that replaces some of your teeth, and that’s called a partial denture. And you know, what’s been interesting is we get a number of patients who come in and they say, Hey, I’m sick of my teeth. They have too many problems. I just want dentures. And sometimes they need dentures. But, you know, there are other times where, you know, what do you find?

Dr. Tanner Townsend 8:23 Yeah, I find like, sometimes people want to pull all their teeth, just like you said, because they’re done with it, just like Clark Gable was and but at the same time, I kind of caution against it, because nothing is as good as your natural teeth. If we can save a natural tooth, it may cost more, but at the same time, a denture, you can’t especially a lower denture. Lower dentures stink like you can’t eat with the lower denture, very good. The quality of the food that you can eat is a lot lower. You can’t chew them very well. So with people that have some savable teeth, we try to save those teeth. Is that what you notice as well?

Dr. Josh Muir 8:57 Yeah, absolutely. And you know there’s, there are procedures that we don’t do in our office. We don’t do root canals right now, and some things like that. And so to save someone’s tooth, if they need a root canal, we have someone else do it. I mean, we could absolutely put them in a denture. But the point is, man, if it’s better to keep the tooth or teeth, then we’ll, we’ll steer in that direction. You know, one thing you mentioned was how bad a lower denture is.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 9:24 Yeah.

Dr. Josh Muir 9:25 And it’s really, it’s all relative, because a lower denture is definitely much worse than your nice, natural teeth. However, if your choice is a lower denture versus no teeth at all, I mean, that can be a huge improvement, but you just got to understand, our patients need to understand that it’s not going to be like their natural teeth. But that’s where, you know, some people come in for dentures, and they think that’s their only option. And like, that’s those are the best days, because then we get to say, look, there are some other options, and we’re not pushy salesman, but we’re going to talk to you about these options and explain to you why it’s better. And most patients, you know, as soon as we talk to them a little bit about it, they they get it. You know, with dentures, they rest on your gums, and, you know, how, how hard can you push to bite through something if it’s just resting on your gums? And, you know, you use that statistic quite a bit, where you only get 20% of the bite force that you would have had with your natural teeth. And so, yeah, not a problem with mashed potatoes, necessarily. But even getting through, you know, something’s pretty soft, like a small sandwich, it’s harder. You’ve got to, you’ve got to bite it harder, and it can push on your gums, and it can cause some, some soreness.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 10:51 Yeah, and I think, like you said, that’s where implants to kind of come in to relieve that, and it’s such a blessing that that is a treatment that really elevates your quality of life.

Dr. Josh Muir 11:02 Yeah, I mean, and for some patients, we just put two implants in the lower front here, snaps the denture on, and suddenly it it’s more life changing that that bite force is anchored into the bone at that point, so it’s not pushing on the gums. And it’s great. And of course, if we add a couple more implants, it’s even more stable. That’s a kind that still snaps in and out, or we can do the kind that stays in all the time. I mean, it’s pretty cool, but I love it when people come in just for a denture, when they don’t know any of the other options because they’re excited, they say, Oh, good. You know, my grandma had dentures, and I know she didn’t like it, but I just thought that was the only option that’s pretty cool to be able to offer those nowadays.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 11:46 Yeah, I think it’s a great service to be able to offer. So what are some of the different materials that we kind of use in partial dentures, maybe first and then going into real dentures, and then implant retained dentures or screwed-in dentures.

Dr. Josh Muir 12:02 Yeah, so just, just again, partial dentures are dentures that replace some of the teeth, and it could be one single front tooth that’s missing. It could be a region, or it could be some on the left side, some in the front and some on the right side. Partial dentures, in the easiest form, are made out of plastic or acrylic, and they just rest on the roof of your mouth to hold them in. And they just have the teeth attached. They can have some wires or little pieces of metal that help latch onto your other teeth. The downside with those ones is that they do push on your gums, and so they’re really not designed to chew with, but they are nice to oftentimes, to speak with, depending on your anatomy and how much bulk there is covering the roof of your mouth. But they look nice and they’re lightweight, and they cost less as well. Another type that I know we talked about earlier was the flexible partial dentures. And those are another one. They’re really comfortable. They have a little flex to them, but again, they rest on the gums, and they’re not quite as nice to eat with, because they they move when you chew with them, and they push up on the gums, which can cause some soreness. And so the third option for partial dentures is to have a metal framework. And the metal framework is unique because we can have these little pads, or little feet that go to your natural teeth, and they’ll rest right on your natural tooth. And you put a couple of those pads around the mouth, and then when you bite down on the partial denture, it’s actually pushing on your natural teeth rather than pushing on your gums. So you actually get a lot better bite force, which helps you eat better. And then that metal framework will also reach around some of your other teeth and hold it in place better, so it’s less likely to move while you’re eating and speaking and stuff. So, but those are really the types of partial dentures. And you know, each one has a place. We have options for things that are more temporary versus ones that are more permanent. And the nice thing is, some of those also can snap into implants. And so we have patients that like that case you were working on last week, where they’re missing some teeth over here and all of the teeth over here. So put one implant here, one implant there. They snap that partial denture into place, and suddenly they’ve got all of their missing teeth taken care of. They got to keep their good, natural teeth that were left. And you know, what a great option. Why don’t you tell us about the different options of complete dentures?

Dr. Tanner Townsend 13:53 So good question. So I think an emerging material in complete dentures is printed dentures, or resin based dentures.

Dr. Josh Muir 14:59 Now what do you mean by printed?

Dr. Tanner Townsend 15:01 I mean 3D printed. So we can 3D print a denture, and that denture is able to fit and adapt to someone’s mouth, and it’s pretty similar to a denture. Now they’re still improving those technologies with the 3D printing, and so it’s constantly getting better and better, which is wonderful. The historic material is acrylic, which is basically, I don’t know, a great way. How would you describe acrylic, Dr. Muir? I mean,

Dr. Josh Muir 15:28 It’s like, plastic. It’s like, but it’s called acrylic.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 15:31 Yeah, so it’s, it’s just acrylic, and it’s great. It’s kind of the traditional material for a denture, and then once we kind of get into the Implant Dentures, like a screwed in denture for that has a bunch of implants into it. We can get into different materials, like zirconia, which is super strong and super hard, which

Dr. Josh Muir 15:53 And very aesthetic.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 15:54 And it’s super aesthetic. And there’s some different flavors and options that you can do that way, but that’s the one that most people are getting nowadays. And so those are kind of the three main buckets of complete dentures that are out there right now.

Dr. Josh Muir 16:08 Well, I think it’s neat that we have multiple options available. And in our office, of course, we do 3D printed dentures. We also offer acrylic dentures for some people that have a really strong bite force, even if they don’t have implants, sometimes we’ll put a metal reinforcement through the denture, inside the layers of acrylic, just so they don’t break it. And so it’s, I mean, it’s just so neat, as you see, all of these different options, because, you know, each one was made to solve a specific problem, and we live in a neat time where we really have solutions to most everything. And yeah, pretty fun to be a part of that.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 16:51 Yeah, I would 100% agree. So what do you feel like are some of the advantages of having a denture in general?

Dr. Josh Muir 16:59 Well, it’s one of those things. If you need a denture, it means that your teeth are either missing or they’re in bad enough shape that they really can’t be saved predictably. And sometimes we look at it’s going to cost 10s of 1000s of dollars to save all of these teeth. But what’s going to happen then, three years down the road, are we going to break some more off? Are we going to get more decay, more infections? Does it make sense to keep them? And that’s where you know the advantage of a denture is you’re not going to get a cavity again. That’s done. You’re not going to have the same type of pain and infection. Those are gone. And so people that have been through so much and oftentimes through no fault of their own, it’s just we’re brought up differently. We make a couple of bad choices, and that steers us a direction that’s horrible on our teeth, and then we try to correct but here we are in this situation where our teeth can’t be saved. So dentures are neat because they really give a lot of people a fresh start, a second chance, or a new beginning. You know, it’s the ultimate smile makeover, because we are truly changing their entire smile appearance. And, you know, I enjoy working with all types of dentures, because when you start with teeth that are in bad enough shape that someone needs them removed, they tend to be pretty grateful when they get some new teeth in. And those are the best smile photos, the best selfies, you know. So those are, those are the pros. The cons are, like we’ve talked about, Dentures tend to rest on your gums. It’s harder to chew with them. They are bulkier because they have a thickness to them. Even if we have the ability to make a really thin denture, there’s still some bulk to it.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 19:02 Yeah.

Dr. Josh Muir 19:02 It’ll cover the roof of the mouth that your tongue will notice it. Sometimes it does alter speech, and so you have to, you have to really practice to get your speech correct. So even Winston Churchill, I am positive that going from his teeth to a denture was still a big transition period that he had to work really hard on, especially to be that voice, that recognizable voice of World War II. So as we look at partial dentures, you know, similar thing. A partial denture is neat, though, because it allows you to keep the good teeth that you can keep, and then for an inexpensive price, you can just replace the missing ones. And we have a veteran that we recently worked on who only has these posterior teeth, and he just needed something to wrap around the front. And for him, a partial denture was a good option, and we’re hoping to. Do some implants for them in the future, either to replace all of those missing teeth, or to snap the partial denture in so it’s more stable. But you know that partial denture is a great option. The downside is, again, it’s bulky. Has to come in and out like a denture does, but it serves a neat purpose. And then we have, you know, our fixed dentures, or our All-On 4, or All-On-X. And tell us about those ones.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 20:28 I think there’s so many pros with those. In particular, it’s the closest thing you can get to your natural teeth. And we’ve talked about that before in the show that that is the the top of the line Mercedes Benz, kind of treatment. You don’t have the dentures not covering the roof of your mouth. It is can feel exactly like your natural teeth, depending on the style the dentist is doing that surgery and putting the implants in. And so there are very few drawbacks at that point. There could be issues with like the prosthetic breaking, it’s depending on where, and stuff like that over time. But those, some of those issues are few and far between. Do you have any other cons or anything like that that you feel like should be added with that?

Dr. Josh Muir 20:28 You know, different treatments have different prices, and the biggest con that I see with with those types of treatments is the cost.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 21:23 Yeah

Dr. Josh Muir 21:24 That being said, though, you know, a smile that functions allows you to speak, chew, smooch and everything else it it’s something that you use all day long, every single day. And so when we look at it that way, for what we’re getting, it, getting out of it, it’s worth it. It’s, it’s, yeah, it’s actually not that expensive. You know, we take our cars, for example, you know, my car, I drive to work, it’s 10 minutes home is 10 minutes and maybe I run some errands, all right? So I’m 30-40, minutes at the very most in a day, unless I’m traveling in my car. And so, you know, I’m willing to spend tons of money on a nice car or a cool car, but I’m not willing to spend that money on my teeth. That’s where, that’s where it’s a priority thing. And you know, people, I’m not saying one is right and one is wrong. We all just have to make that decision for ourselves. So, but yeah, price is one of the cons. Fortunately, we do have some financing options. We do have some upgradable treatment options like we’ve talked about. So someone might want implants they can’t do them right now. Well, let’s design the teeth and get things going so that later when they want, when they’re able to do implants, they can add those without starting from scratch. And that upgradable treatment option is pretty neat, too.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 22:57 Yeah, I think that’s one of the coolest things that we offer, because you can start with something like two implants and then eventually end up in something that’s screwed in that is much nicer.

Dr. Josh Muir 23:07 Yeah, like, like, our patient tomorrow, she’s got two implants here, and here she’s broken some of these other front ones. We’re going to add just two more, and then she’ll have all implants.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 23:19 Yeah

Dr. Josh Muir 23:19 And so, you know, if we do our implants in such a way that we’re thinking of the future or what might happen in the future, we can use the same implants for a different type of treatment down the road, when it’s needed.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 23:32 But just to kind of conclude with what we were talking about with the dentures, there’s so many wonderful things that dentures can do, and a lot of times we really focus on the smile aspect of it, like changing the appearance of it, but there’s way more that goes into it, in terms of how you talk, like with a lisp or not, or how you function, like how you’re able to chew your food. And so as dentists, that’s kind of what we focus on, is not just the looks. We focus on the looks, the way you speak, and then also the way you chew. So those are the things that we really want to kind of enhance. Just to kind of come back around to our promise that Dr. Muir had made in the beginning of the show of someone that you may have heard of, that in Hollywood, that has had their smile reconstructed. And that person is Ben Affleck. So if you go back and look at some of his early movies, he has some buck teeth, and his teeth are not very attractive at all. And then as you kind of go through his progression as an actor, you can see his smile changes. And he had some work done. He got some veneers to kind of change his buck teeth, and changed his smile completely. And as you look at his teeth today, and like the movie Batman versus Superman, his teeth looked totally different. And so that’s one star that you may not have known that has gone from more ugly teeth. Or not as attractive of a smile to a very attractive smile that’s helped him land some very big roles.

Dr. Josh Muir 25:05 One thing I like about Ben Affleck is his goal was to improve his aesthetics and maybe improve his speech a little bit, but his teeth weren’t destroyed, like he actually had good, healthy teeth, just the alignment and shape and size of his teeth didn’t really match the rest of his face and mouth. And so, you know, just because you you’re changing your appearance doesn’t mean that you’ve done anything wrong. Not everyone that goes through a smile makeover just neglected their teeth and hasn’t brushed for decades. It’s it’s something that, you know, some people just need or choose to get, because they see that value in it. And so I just think it’s cool with him, because he had a vision in mind of what he wanted for himself.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 25:55 Yeah

Dr. Josh Muir 25:55 And no doubt that influenced his career, what people thought of him right away and the roles that they envisioned him in. And I’m sure it, yeah, it really improved his self esteem, gave him that confidence as well.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 26:08 It’s amazing to see how even the self-confidence of actors changes once you change their smile. Dr. Josh Muir 26:16 Yeah, absolutely. And it’s just, it’s what we notice. There are a few things we notice on people, and the smile is one of the first ones.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 26:26 Have you seen that ad? Like the picture of like the guy that’s missing the eyebrow and he’s also missing the front tooth. And like, what’s the first thing you notice? You’re missing the tooth first. That’s the first thing everyone notices.

Dr. Josh Muir 26:36 And no one noticed the eyebrow.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 26:37 No one notices the eyebrow at all. It’s totally the same thing. It’s like, people look at the mouth first, along with the smile. We want people to be able to function, enjoy their food and chew. And I think from a dentist standpoint, we’re looking for both of those things, the looks and being able to have a high quality of life in terms of eating.

Dr. Josh Muir 26:56 Yeah, predictability in everything you know, we want you to have a predictable smile, predictable speech, predictable chewing. You know, if you’re out on a date, you don’t want your teeth to fall out, so I always say smooching as well.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 27:09 That’s an important one.

Dr. Josh Muir 27:11 Smooching is important.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 27:12 Is an important one. Well, that is it for today’s episode of Smile Reconstruction. We will catch you later.