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The oral health of George Washington has been widely studied and written about. Not so, however, with our second president, John Adams, whose dental health was apparently poor throughout his life. His pernicious habit of inducing vomiting to treat various bodily ills, coupled with a great love of sweets, led to the loss of his teeth, which he stubbornly refused to replace with dentures. When he was older, this led to his speech being so badly affected, that he could barely be understood.
MUCH HAS BEEN WRITTEN about the dental health of our first president, George Washington, but woefully little is known about the oral health of John Adams, our second chief executive. He was a man who was apparently plagued with health problems all his years, yet he lived a long and productive life.
John Adams was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, on October 19, 1735. His father, after whom he was named, was a farmer. His mother came from a family of prominent physicians from Brookline.
Farming did not appeal to young Adams, who, despite his small stature-he was just five feet tall-was muscular and well-built. At the age of 15, he was admitted to Harvard College (Figure 1), and graduated from there in 1755. While at Harvard, he frequently wrote home about the poor quality of the food and commented that he subsisted principally on bread and beer, the latter brew most likely only weakly alcoholic. He had another pernicious habit, smoking, as well as chewing tobacco, which he began at age 8 and continued until well past the age of 70.
Upon graduation, Adams was indecisive about a career. He was leaning toward becoming a physician and lodged with Nahum Willard, M.D., who had an extensive library of medical books. Adams read many of them and developed a good understanding of the functioning of the body.' But concomitant with that he became somewhat of a hypochondriac. Ultimately, he decided to study law, which he did in Worcester.
During that period,...