Dental News - Dentist adds ‘King’s Crown’ to collection

Robert Selleck, Dental Tribune Canada

Tue. 22 May 2012

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Alberta dentist Michael Zuk, aka “The Tooth Collector,” is at it again, coming in as top bidder on a porcelain crown made for a front tooth of the king of rock ‘n’ roll — Elvis Presley. Zuk’s successful $10,000 bid in the Feb. 25 auction follows his $31,000 bid in November that got him a rotting molar that late Beatle John Lennon had extracted in the ’60s.

Both pieces of rock ’n’ roll dental history were sold by Omega Auctions of Stockport, Greater Manchester, Great Britain.

As he has done with the John Lennon molar, Zuk plans to use the “King’s Crown” in marketing efforts for his dental practice, books and other business efforts. He also will use it to support his favourite dental charity, Smile Train, an international organization that provides free cleft surgery to hundreds of thousands of children in developing countries.

“Marketing guru Dan Kennedy told his thousands of disciples to jump on using these kinds of odd opportunities,” Zuk said of the publicity his acquisitions have generated. “If you get lemons, make lemonade. A rotten Beatle tooth can be worth more than you can imagine.”

As for his plans for the King of Rock’s crown, Zuk doesn’t have a specific strategy in place yet, although at some point it’s likely that the crown will make an appearance among the other celebrity memorabilia on display at his Red Deer general dentistry and orthodontics practice. Right now, he’s still thinking about the crown more from a dentist's perspective rather than a marketer's. “It’s interesting to note,” he said, “that Elvis originally had his upper left central crowned because he was embarrassed by a small diastema. These days, dentists may have considered composite bonding or orthodontics; but many porcelain restorations are still done for this same reason.”

Elvis may never have actually used the crown that Zuk bought, because it likely was created by Presley’s dentist as a backup crown kept at the ready in case Presley damaged the one in his mouth while on tour. Presley's dentist, Henry J. Weiss, kept the backup crown on a plaster cast of Presley’s teeth at his practice in downtown Memphis.

The back-up strategy was known to have been used at least once, when during a Las Vegas performance in 1971 Presley cracked his front-tooth crown on a microphone. Weiss’s son immediately flew to Las Vegas with the replacement. A detailed description of that incident is included in the documentation of authenticity that accompanied the crown at auction. Also included was the cast of Presley’s teeth and a glass display case.

In photos, the auctioned crown appears to have a crack, leading Zuk to believe it may actually be the damaged one that was replaced by the spare. Adding to that possibility is the fact that Weiss’s final year as Presley’s dentist was 1971, the same year the confirmed backup strategy was deployed.

Presley’s concern with crowns may have had roots in an incident early in his career when he accidently inhaled a different crown during a dance sequence in the filming of the 1957 movie Jailhouse Rock. He had to be hospitalized to have that crown nonsurgically removed from his right lung. Interestingly, an X-ray showing the lodged crown is one of a number of dental-related items of Presley’s to have been sold in the years since his death. Zuk said that some of Presley’s dental records were sold at auction last fall, including several bitewing radiographs.

The auction description of Presley’s crown said it was Weiss, the Memphis dentist, who affectionately came up with the moniker “King’s Crown.” The crown came with five letters of authenticity from Weiss’s wife and son and Presley’s road manager Joe Esposito. Of Weiss, the auction description said: “Dr. Henry Weiss was born on Christmas day 1907 and died December 11, 1990. He graduated from the University of Tennessee College of Dentistry with a DDS degree in 1931. He practiced dentistry in Memphis for 57 years and was a recipient of the Tennessee Dental Association’s Fellowship Award.”

Zuk’s purchase of the King’s Crown comes as he’s still riding the tsunami of publicity that accompanied his purchase of the John Lennon tooth. “The purchase of a piece of celebrity can attract a considerable amount of attention, as demonstrated by the John Lennon tooth auction,” Zuk said. “It was likely the biggest media blitz a molar has ever experienced, and due to the Internet, it created a massive publicity opportunity. How many dentists can say their exploits were mentioned by Time magazine, Anderson Cooper, Bill O’Reilly and Jay Leno?”

Zuk has been churning out nonstop press releases and agreeing to numerous interviews. As a result, international sales of his book “Confessions of a Former Cosmetic Dentist” have skyrocketed, as have sales of his children’s book “Teeth Shouldn’t Hurt.” He launched several websites, including www.johnlennontooth.com and www.elvistooth.com.

At least one side venture related to the John Lennon tooth has been launched — a limited line of John Lennon DNA jewelry. “Our first John Lennon DNA limited edition pendant will be featured in polished silver and will incorporate a PEACE sign and a rare fragment of JL given to a fan while he was still alive,” Zuk said in a news release announcing the venture. “Now a very select few will be able to say they actually wear John Lennon DNA as inspiration.”

Zuk said profits from the first casting will go to Smile Train, the charity providing children with cleft lip/palate surgery. “This is an exciting opportunity to blend science and beauty with a tribute to one of the world’s favorite Beatles,” he said.

Zuk probably won't get the same international publicity with the King’s Crown as realized with the Lennon tooth, but that might improve the odds that patients at his Red Deer dental practice, The Bower Dental Clinic, will get to see it on display with some of the other celebrity memorabilia Zuk has acquired over the years (including part of one of Presley’s scarves). For Lennon’s tooth, though, visitors to the office have to settle for a photo on the wall.

“I don’t trust leaving it around,” Zuk said in an interview with the Vancouver Sun. “People steal my newspaper. Anybody who would steal your newspaper would steal one of John Lennon’s teeth.”

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