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4 stamps, blue green on dark green matting
From the 5th century B.C. until about the 18th century, the most common procedure was the removal of painful teeth. Records of dental science are first found in 7th century B.C Assyria where they were concerned with "toothache, looseness of teeth, discoloration, bad breath, excessive saliva, and dental decay." The "worm" was though to be the cause of toothache. Hippocrates in about 400 B.C discussed at length the development of teeth, dental diseases, and the special instruments in use. Professional status of dentists came from French kings in their statutes as early as 1577. Progress was rapid once techniques were learned to make crowns, bridges, and also to actually fill teeth.
The first recorded forensic use of dental records occurred when Paul Revere identified the body of Dr. Joseph Warren because of a dental treatment he, Revere, had done two years earlier. The Doctor had been killed at Bunker Hill (actually Breed's Hill) June 17,1775.
Flag Day is due to a 30 year campaign by Dr. Bernard J. Cigrand, a Dentist from Illinois, who actually held his own observance of the flag on June 14,1885 while a school teacher in Stoney Hill, WI.
There are many stories of George Washington and his wooden teeth, but very little documentation. There are, however, newspaper ads of 1789 by John Greenwood, one of Washington's dentists, that he was well established in dentistry and "sold brushes, dentifrices and tooth powder proper for the teeth and gums."
