If your favorite celebrity offered you their extracted tooth to keep, would you take it? Or better yet would you buy the celebrity’s tooth? This is the exact case for the legendary John Lennon and his tooth that was auctioned off recently at the UK Omega Auctions. The Beatle’s tooth was sold to a Canadian Dentist, Michael Zuk for over $31,000, which is just about the price of some new cars on the road today. It boggles my mind why this man would want it, or why someone would still have it.
Back in the late 1960s Lennon’s tooth was given to his housekeeper, Dorothy Jarlett as a keepsake. Knowing that the housekeeper’s daughter was a huge fan of Lennon, the tooth was given to her daughter as a souvenir. The fragile, discolored tooth was sold by the family to the auction so that it would not be lost.
It was estimated to be auctioned for approximately $16,000, however, that number doubled Monday when the curious dentist out- bidded everyone for the famous tooth to add to his collection of dinosaur teeth and display it in his office. According to BBC, when the dentist was asked what he thought about his new purchase, unlike what many other people may have commented regarding a decayed, yellow tooth, his response was “It’s fantastic.”
We all remember the Beatles for the song Yellow Submarine, and we can now all remember the John Lennon for his expensive yellow tooth. However, if Lennon had the dental technology and equipment available to him back in the 60’s that we have today, would the Beatle had to have his tooth pulled?
-Lynn White, Lanmark360 Intern
