The ancient Romans also practiced dental hygiene. They used frayed sticks and abrasive powders to brush their teeth. These powders were made from ground-up hooves, pumice, eggshells, seashells, and ashes.
The ancient Romans whitened their teeth using toothpaste made from human urine and goat milk. Dental bridges and crowns were developed in ancient Rome in 500 BCE.
The Romans used to buy bottles of Portuguese urine and use that as a rinse. GROSS! Importing bottled urine became so popular that the emperor Nero taxed the trade. The ammonia in urine was thought to disinfect mouths and whiten teeth, and urine remained a popular mouthwash ingredient until the 18th century.
“They had really good teeth – they ate a diet that contained few sugars, and was high in fruit and vegetables,” orthodontist Elisa Vanacore said at a press conference last week.
The first toothbrush that Egyptians actually used were made by splitting the frayed end of a wooden twig, while in China, they chewed on twigs to clean and freshen their breath. In the 1400s, Chinese invented the first ever-natural soft-bristle toothbrush using hogs' necks.
Cavemen chewed on sticks to clean their teeth and even used grass stalks to pick in between their teeth. Without the availability of high-quality toothbrushes and toothpaste, however, cavemen's teeth were more susceptible to cavities and decay, even with a healthy, carbohydrate-free diet.
Our ancestors' diets consisted of all-natural, unprocessed foods like vegetables, fruits, wheat, and rice. These foods contained no chemicals or preservatives and were rich in the vitamins and nutrients that make teeth resistant to decay and other dental infections.
In studying the skeletal remains of 10th and 11th century Viking raiders in Weymouth, England, however, an unusual discovery was made: Some of the warriors had altered the appearance of their teeth by filing horizontal grooves or stripes into them.
Interestingly, those living in Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome may not have had as many cavities as modern societies due to the lack of sugar and processed food. However, their teeth were worn down by their coarse diet, which required much chewing.
The Romans actually used a mixture of goat milk and stale urine to try to keep their teeth white. The urine's ammonia served as a bleaching agent. During the medieval times, it was thought that worms caused tooth decay.
In fact, in ancient Rome, vessels for collecting urine were commonplace on streets–passers-by would relieve themselves into them and when the vats were full their contents were taken to a fullonica (a laundry), diluted with water and poured over dirty clothes.
Roman citizens came to expect high standards of hygiene, and the army was also well provided with latrines and bath houses, or thermae. Aqueducts were used everywhere in the empire not just to supply drinking water for private houses but to supply other needs such as irrigation, public fountains, and thermae.
The Romans cleaned their behinds with sea sponges attached to a stick, and the gutter supplied clean flowing water to dip the sponges in. This soft, gentle tool was called a tersorium, which literally meant “a wiping thing.” The Romans liked to move their bowels in comfort.
How did medieval people brush their teeth? They would rub their teeth and gums with a rough linen. Recipes have been discovered for pastes and powders they might have applied to the cloth to clean and whiten teeth, as well as to freshen breath. Some pastes were made from ground sage mixed with salt crystals.
The toothache was cured with poppy-tee, or hashish and nightshade plants (Solanaceae) in Egypt, Greece, Roman Empire while with coca (Erythroxylon coca) in South-America.
Roman Toothpaste
The Romans sometimes used powdered mouse brains as toothpaste!
Tooth decay first ravaged human society 15,000 years ago.
Ancient humans had lower loads of harmful disease-causing bacteria and a significantly lower risk of developing tooth decay and gum disease. However, once farming populations expand, there's a massive change. Huge amounts of gum disease and cavities start cropping up," says Alan Cooper, Ph.
It is also a known fact that Ancient Greeks and Romans used to have toothpaste, while people in India and China started using it around 500BC. Just like today, these ancient types of toothpaste were used to keep teeth and gums clean, freshen breath, and whiten the teeth.
The most common dental affliction in ancient Egypt was Attrition. This was caused by their diet of uncooked vegetables and lack of necessary vitamins and minerals - something we take for granted today.
Contrary to the depiction of medieval peasants with blackened and rotting teeth, the average person in the Middle Ages had teeth that were in very good condition. This is substantially due to one factor—the rarity of sugar in the diet.
A new study published in Scientific Reports has found that early humans have been using primitive dentistry techniques for about 14,000 years. Even cavemen had cavities, and now scientists have discovered that they also took pains – literally – to remove them.
Natural Toothcare. Native Americans cleaned their teeth by using chewsticks and chewing on fresh herbs to cleanse their teeth and gums. Chewsticks were twigs that had two uses: one end was frayed by a rock and used for brushing, while the other end was sharpened and used as a tooth pick.
In the last decade or so archaeologists have found evidence from cultures across the world that bad teeth were scraped, scoured, even drilled and filled apparently to remove decayed tissue.
Make it to 94 with all your own teeth intact? You're a record-breaker. Which is precisely what Frank Medina of Stockton, CA has done. According to Ripley's Believe it or Not, Frank Medina is the “oldest man in the world with all his teeth who has never had a cavity."