DT News - UK - Dentist purchases Elvis Presley’s dental crown

Dental Tribune International

Fri. 16 March 2012

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STOCKPORT – A Canadian dentist has recently made the winning bid on a porcelain crown of Elvis Presley. The affectionately named “Kings Crown” sold for £5,200 (US$8,150) and added to the dentist’s collection of celebrity dental memorabilia, in which he already had a tooth from John Lennon he bought last year from the same auction house.

Dr Michael Zuk, a general dentist from Red Deer, Alberta (Canada), purchased the crown together with a model of Elvis Presley’s teeth made for the rock-and-roll star by his former dentist, Henry Weiss, in Memphis. The crown was accompanied by five documents confirming its authenticity, including a letter from Presley’s tour manager Joe Esposito.

The crown was sold on 25 February by Omega Auctions, a family-run business in south Manchester, offering rare items of music and film memorabilia, among others. Prior to the auction, the crown was expected to be sold for an estimated value of £6,000 to £10,000.

“Whilst it is not a real tooth, as was the case with the Lennon tooth, it is the only one in existence and we expected there to be considerable interest in this and were really pleased that it sold for £5,200,” said Paul Fairweather of Omega Auctions.

According to Zuk’s blog, Presley used to have a gap between his teeth. He was so embarrassed by the space that he decided to have one of his front teeth crowned.

Weiss practised dentistry in Memphis for 57 years until he died in December 1990. He was Presley’s dentist until 1971, and prepared the porcelain crown and always kept an extra copy of the crown. When Elvis cracked his crown on a microphone during a performance, Weiss’s son, S. Lewis Weiss, flew the replacement crown to Las Vegas.

“John Lennon was a huge Elvis fan so to be the owner of dental memorabilia from both mega-stars is pretty amazing,” said Zuk.

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