Elvis’ Dental Crown Sells for $10,000
Fans of Elvis Aaron Presley have been known to procure some rather weird pieces of historical rock n’ roll reference, from collectible plates to clutches of the royal rocker’s hair.
What’s next his tooth or dental work?
A dental crown these days can run anywhere from a few hundred dollars to over a thousand bucks, depending on what corner of the world in which we live.
But $10,000 for a dental crown – even the King’s – seems a bit excessive whether we live on Main St., Park Ave., or Savile Row.
My Kingdom for an Elvis Tooth
We’ll wager dollars to donuts we could probably find a cheaper dental crown and bridge job somewhere in our incessant search to save some loot, but is cost always the biggest roadblock preventing us from achieving and maintaining optimal oral health?
We hope not, because that would lead to some pretty shoddy dental work – after all we generally get what we pay for, right?
And if we curtailed our monthly $5 a cup coffee budget or possibly trimmed the entertainment allotment a tad, maintaining optimal oral health would become more like an investment and less like an expense.
The rock n’ roll annals of dental history are rife with over the top displays dental decadence, from Beatles frontman John Lennon’s famous tooth going for over $31,000 at a Manchester (UK) auction house this past November, to dental celebrities donning disguises just to get their teeth cleaned by a certain “dentist to the stars” right here in Hollyweird.
As the dental word turns, it turns out the very same Canadian dentist that purchased Mr. John Lennon’s famous molar went ahead and ponied up $10,000 for a piece of rock n’ roll history – the King’s Crown!
Elvis’ Dental Crown Sells for $10,000
Alberta dentist, Dr. Michael Zuk is fast becoming famous for throwing his dental weight around the international dental-centric auction circuit.
According to this recent article courtesy of the Canadian Press, the entitled tooth in question was won at auction from an equally astute and seemingly dental-centric UK auction house.
But it wasn’t just one tooth that belonged to Elvis that brought in the cash, it was an actual mold of the King’s teeth with a crown on the ready in case the famous singer chipped a tooth on a microphone – something his former Memphis TN dentist Henry Weiss, proclaimed happened all too often.
From this ibtimes.co.uk article, the spare crown was made by a Dr. Henry J. Weiss, who was Elvis Presley’s dentist until 1971.
The model was affectionately called the “King’s Crown”.
Image courtesy of Omega Auctions
Weiss was known to keep an extra crown with him, in case Elvis ever chipped or damaged the one in his mouth.
In February, 1971, that happened.
Elvis cracked his dental crown on a microphone while performing at the International Hotel (currently known as the Hilton Hotel – Las Vegas).
“‘Whilst it is not a real tooth, as was the case with the Lennon tooth, it is the only one in existence and we expect there to be considerable interest in this; we expect that it will sell for over £10,000,” spokesman Paul Fairweather was quoted as saying in the Daily Mail.
Unbalanced exchange rates and variances of international currency exchange aside, it seems the auction house spokesman may have been pumping up the prosthesis in question.
But that’s his job, and anyway you cut it that is one expensive dental crown – whether it belonged to Elvis or not!
Let’s hope we can all manage to find a more cost-effective crown and bridge procedure a lot closer to home.
If You Could Afford It, Would You Pay $10,000 for Elvis’ Tooth?
