How did people brush their teeth before the invention of the toothbrush? Were everybody's teeth just rotted out or what?

Well, I would say that each civilization had their own way of taking care of their teeth. For example, the egyptians used camel hair. The Native Americans rubbed a paste made from the cucacua plant on their teeth. Our ancient ancestors, the Neanderthal are thought to have used the birch of the Cloya tree. Peasants in the middle ages had the worst hygeine in history. It was almost unheard of for one to have a full set of teeth by his or her 18th birthday. There is a very concise history of tooth care throughout history at www.dentistryinhistory.com . You ought to check it out.

Wow, thanks, I really appreciate your quick answer! It is nice to know that there are so many intelligent people on this website.

Your funny! :D

ooohh, oooh, oohhhhhh, I think im having a SARGASM!! :m:

Ash of birch + finger were used by Eastern Europian peasants as a tooth paste.

i dont brush my teeth(because of whats in toothpaste) and i havent had a tooth problem for 3 years

i dont brush my teeth(because of whats in toothpaste) and i havent had a tooth problem for 3 years

Bet the ladies love you. :eek:

whats not to love about me, my hot nerd-like frail body?

i dont brush my teeth(because of whats in toothpaste) and i havent had a tooth problem for 3 years

What do you do with your teeth?

What do you do with your teeth?
He soaks them in a glass of water overnight.
A king of Spain once said "I never let water pass my lips- so many diseases in it."
Someone asked: "What about when you clean your teeth, then?"
"Oh" says His Maj, "I've got rather a nice dry white wine for that."

What do you do with your teeth?

i eat with them, what do you do with yours

considering you tag line is "the coffee keeps me awake" please tell me you at least do something. The halitosis otherwise would be unbearable.

Three years is hardly a good time to make a reasonable assumption. Come back to us in 10 or 20 years and tell us how much nicer your dentures are... :D

You do know you can get organic tooth paste. Or if you brush your teeth with baking soda that does it too. Like Tom's of maine toothpaste. Or chewing parsely.

I use a herbal kind made mostly of baking soda and um salt of some kind (I think) made locally.

meh, i cant be bothered walking all over town looking for an organic shop

you can't be bothered to walk up to your fridge take out the box of baking sode, mix a bit in your palm with water and rub it on your teeth.

THERE YOU HAVE IT LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! THE LAZIEST MAN ON EARTH!
Apathetic youth of America be shamed! You've been out lazied again!

hey im not the lasiest... i cant be botherd typing the rest

vslayer,


i dont brush my teeth(because of whats in toothpaste) and i havent had a tooth problem for 3 years Then you can expect something really bad quite soon.

do i look worried?

In the Middle East, you can buy miswak sticks at the souk, and I expect they have been in use for many centuries. It does a very good job- freshens and cleans, no toothpaste required.

do i look worried?


You will in 10 years when the dentist bills start racking up. Or threatening to. :D They need a toothless grin smiley. But, hey look at it this way. If you have the money, you can just have all the rotting stumps pulled out and put in a brand new set of space age polymer in their. You'll be able to chew through concrete. If you spend enough money, I bet you could get a hell of a set of teeth. Would never be as good as the originals, though, would they? I wonder what false teeth feel like? Mouthful of plastic I expect.


In the Middle East, you can buy miswak sticks at the souk, and I expect they have been in use for many centuries. It does a very good job- freshens and cleans, no toothpaste required.

I remember seeing a Sadam propaganda film where he was showing women how to brush their teeth with their finger if nothing else. :p Must have had a miswak stick shortage.

'Course, tooth problems didn't really appear amongst humans before they came to farming. Meat itself consists of very little carbon hydrates.

Let's not forget the Romans used urine in their toothpaste and the wealthiest among them had the luxury of importing urine from Portugal, since they considered it the strongest in ingredients- ammonia.
The modern toothpaste has ammonia so don't cringe.


Dentures! Let's speak of those- its ghastly, but dead soldiers were scavenged for their teeth. It became so chique that Europeans would flash "Waterloo' dentures since collected teeth came from French battlefields and the Americans wore "Civil Wars".

I'm forgetting something here......think think think...yes! Dentures go back all the way to the Etruscans and the technology was lost with their demise, later on they were 'invented again' but were so hard to come by because they were at first made of wood and sticking them to the palate was a problem, big problem until the spring was invented, and still another problem in that they would pop out when the mouth opened.
Until the vulcanization of rubber were all dentures more or less perfected.
and TOO! lest I forget- Washington, our first President, had horrible teeth, look at any picture and you’ll notice a shy man trying to keep his mouth closed.
A lesson future politicians have ignored.
As did Queen Elizabeth, who's molars were always falling out and lacking the hygiene, common sense, and science that we have today she would fill her gaps with cloth.

'Course, tooth problems didn't really appear amongst humans before they came to farming. Meat itself consists of very little carbon hydrates.

Even then there weren't much problems other than the wearing down of teeth by the grinding action of contaminations in food such as sand.

The problems came with the use of sugar.

But I could be wrong. Didn't look it up or anything.

edit - oops, you were right

In Stone Age cultures the caries rate appears to be closely related to diet. Populations having higher meat diets had lower caries rates, while populations with diets higher in vegetables had higher caries rates. Some pre-contact Eskimos have been reported to have the lowest caries rate, about 1% of all teeth. Pre-contact American Indians with mixed diets such as the Calapuya of the Willamette Valley show a caries rate of about 10% of all teeth. Pre-contact Zuni Indians with high vegetable diets had 75%. Lower class, ancient Egyptians had a very low caries rate whereas the royalty, who had diets richer in carbohydrates, had around 80% incidence of caries.

http://www.dental-site.itgo.com/ancientpeople.htm

I was a bit right maybe (from the same site)

These figures do not present a complete assessment of caries in ancient people. The age at onset of caries, the number of lesions per tooth and the extent of the lesions would also need to be considered. The only point being made here is that caries has apparently always been present in humans. It became much more extensive in many European countries in the 17th century with the introduction of inexpensive sugar from the East Indies and the New World. Prior to this time sugar had been a luxury. Skulls from 16th century Flanders show low caries rates similar to Stone Age skulls, but 17th century skulls show an enormous increase, and the paintings of Rembrandt and other 17th century Dutch painters show many of the people with most of their teeth missing.