Brace yourself for a tour through the most astonishing, jaw‑shaking episodes ever recorded in the annals of dentistry. These 10 jaw dropping tales range from presidential improvisations to prehistoric tooth‑drilling, and even to the grim business of harvesting human teeth. Whether you’re terrified of the drill or simply love a good medical oddity, this list will leave you both laughing and shuddering.
10 Jaw Dropping Dental Facts You Won’t Believe
10 Honest Abe’s Chloroform
President Abraham Lincoln suffered a harrowing bout of dental pain after a botched tooth extraction in 1841 that even snapped a fragment of his jawbone. Back then, anesthesia was virtually nonexistent, so the 16th president endured the agony in silence.
When a later, severe toothache resurfaced, Lincoln didn’t reach for a modern anesthetic. Instead, he fished a tiny bottle of chloroform from his pocket, inhaled the vapors, and slipped into unconsciousness, allowing a makeshift operation to proceed without his usual suffering.
Chloroform wasn’t widely recognized as an anesthetic at the time, which makes Lincoln’s knowledge of its soothing properties all the more mysterious. Today, presidents no longer need to improvise—Herbert Hoover even installed a dedicated dental suite beneath the White House for quick, professional care.
9 Burning Flesh And Arsenic
Long before modern drills, the Chinese were already tackling dental woes with a sophisticated network of 116 acupuncture points linked directly to the teeth, gums, and tongue. These points were stimulated to alleviate pain from extractions, decay, and infections as early as 2700 BC.
To boost the effect, practitioners employed moxibustion—burning a stick of dried mugwort on the skin. The heat was believed to not only numb the area but also to invigorate blood flow, balance life energy, and promote overall health.
By the second century AD, Chinese healers had begun applying arsenic compounds to decayed teeth. The toxic element killed the pulp, instantly relieving pain, albeit with a risky side‑effect profile that modern dentistry would deem unacceptable.
8 Painless Parker
Edgar Parker, later rechristened “Painless Parker,” turned tooth extraction into a traveling circus act. In the early 1900s, he crisscrossed America in a horse‑drawn wagon, accompanied by flamboyant showgirls, nurses, and a brass‑band bugler.
Each stop became a spectacle: crowds gathered to watch Parker’s theatrical antics while he yanked teeth, offered patrons whiskey, and administered a cocaine‑laden anesthetic called hydrocaine. His pièce de résistance was a massive necklace strung with 357 extracted teeth, which he claimed to have pulled in a single day.
The American Dental Association condemned his methods as a “menace to the dignity of the profession,” but Parker’s showmanship paid off. He legally changed his first name to “Painless” to dodge false‑advertising lawsuits and retired a wealthy man, pocketing roughly $3 million.
7 A Flourishing Practice
Alberto Nunez, a 32‑year‑old from Chicago, seemed to run a booming dental clinic—averaging about 30 patients each week and often requiring a full week’s wait for an appointment. On the surface, his practice looked like a thriving business.
The dark truth emerged when investigators discovered Nunez was not a licensed dentist and operated out of his own home. A covert operation, posing as a patient, revealed he performed root canals, surgeries, impressions, cleanings, and even braces without any formal training.
In 2012, Nunez faced a Class 4 felony for practicing dentistry without a license and a misdemeanor for possessing hypodermic syringes illegally. His fraudulent empire crumbled, serving as a stark reminder that not every smiling practitioner holds a valid credential.
6 Prehistoric Dentistry
Archaeologists have uncovered evidence that early humans were already experimenting with dental care more than 7,500 years ago. In what is now Pakistan, a jawbone shows deliberate drilling—a clear sign of primitive tooth work.
Even older, a Slovenian cave yielded a fossilized jaw with a beeswax “filling” used to seal a cracked enamel piece, easing the wearer’s pain. Similarly, ancient Egyptians, some 2,100 years ago, treated severe sinus infections caused by multiple dental abscesses by packing linen soaked in medicinal herbs into the cavities.
These early interventions suggest that the impulse to fix a painful tooth is as ancient as humanity itself, predating modern dentistry by millennia.
5 Glennon Engleman
Dr. Glennon Engleman was a respected dentist in St. Louis, but behind the white coat lay a ruthless murderer. Over two decades, he employed a grisly arsenal of methods—shootings, bludgeoning, car bombs, and even tossing a victim down a well packed with dynamite.
Police suspected Engleman early on, yet it took his third wife to finally bring him down. After a night of intimacy, Engleman bragged about his murderous exploits, hinting she might be next. Detectives convinced her to wear a wire, and her recorded confession sealed his fate.
In September 1980, Engleman was convicted for the bombing of Sophie Marie Barrera and sentenced to two life terms. Though suspected of 12 murders, he confessed to only five before dying in prison at age 71 in 1999.
4 Abrasive Medical Treatments
Contrary to the popular myth of wooden dentures, George Washington’s false teeth were crafted from hippopotamus ivory and now reside at the National Museum of Dentistry in Baltimore. At his inauguration, the future president possessed only a single tooth, underscoring his lifelong dental woes.
Washington’s health was a revolving door of maladies—smallpox, malaria, dengue fever, rheumatic complaints, and dysentery. His physicians treated him with mercurous chloride, a highly abrasive substance that eroded enamel and caused relentless toothaches.
The corrosive treatments led to chronic gum inflammation, frequent abscesses, and yearly extractions. Some historians even argue that persistent dental pain contributed to his decision to skip a second inaugural address.
3 Scavengers
When sugar consumption surged in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, people began bleaching their teeth with acidic solutions, which wore down enamel and sparked a booming demand for false teeth.
Poor individuals capitalized on this market by extracting their own crowns to sell to affluent clients. As living donors dwindled, opportunists turned to the battlefields of Waterloo in 1815, harvesting teeth from fallen soldiers to meet the denture demand.
These harvested teeth were boiled, cleaned, and set into ivory bases. The UK’s Anatomy Act of 1832, which regulated the use of human remains, eventually curbed the practice of using battlefield teeth for dentures.
2 Stress Can Kill
Recent dental literature reveals that dentists face a heightened risk of both physical and mental health issues—alcoholism, drug addiction, marital problems, and a suicide rate three times higher than other white‑collar workers.
Even more alarming, stress‑related cardiovascular disease tops the list of killers among dentists, with a 25 percent increase in high blood pressure and coronary disease compared to the general population.
The root causes include isolation from solo practice, fierce competition, and financial pressures, which together fuel burnout. The constant anxiety of treating fearful patients triggers physiological stress responses, accelerating heart disease and other ailments.
1 Dr. Hugo Blaschke And Hitler’s Remains
On April 30 1945, Adolf Hitler ended his life, and his charred remains were recovered three days later by Soviet forces. In 1973, a team of dental experts examined his jaw fragments, finally confirming his death.
The identification hinged on dental records kept by Hugo Blaschke, Hitler’s American‑trained dentist. These records revealed severe gum disease, multiple abscesses, and extensive decay—culminating in the notorious “terrible bad breath” attributed to the dictator.
Blaschke’s meticulous documentation provided the forensic evidence needed to settle lingering doubts about Hitler’s fate, illustrating how dentistry can play a pivotal role in historical investigations.