After announcing last month that a crown belonging to the late Elvis Presley is to go on a tour of dental clinics, the tooth restoration has finally taken to the road to raise awareness of mouth cancer, travelling across eleven locations throughout the UK to support the cause.
Dubbed The King’s Crown, the porcelain restoration will go on tour with Elvis lookalikes after it was arranged by Dr Michael Zuk, the Canadian dentist who purchased the crown. The King’s tooth was bought for £6,500 at an auction in 2013; Dr Zuk also purchased one of John Lennon’s extracted wisdom teeth to add to his collection.
The crown’s first stop will be in Malvern, Worcestershire, where dentist Karen Sutton called it ‘a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.’ She added ‘We are doing this as a way of raising awareness of mouth cancer which currently kills five people a day in the UK’ and encouraged patients to visit to see the crown and get their teeth checked out. After its stay in Malvern, the tooth will travel to ten other locations across the United Kingdom, including London, Glasgow and Edinburgh. It travels with five letters of authenticity, from the wife and sons of the dentist that Elvis visited, as well as confirmation from Joe Esposito, Presley’s road manager.