How Did People Clean Their Teeths In The Past

Creative means people cleaned their teeth throughout history

In the by, some dentures were made of reused hippopotamus teeth. (Photo credit: gumtau on Visualhunt / CC Past-NC-SA)

If you're interested in avoiding toothaches — you definitely should be — good dental hygiene is a must. Unfortunately, those who grew upward long ago (way before your grandparents even!), didn't have the aforementioned great dental tools at their disposal that you have. The next time you mutter nigh your teeth-brushing obligations, remember: it could have been so much worse!

Picking your teeth with feathers

white bird feather

Pixabay

Believe it or not, there was a fourth dimension when no one brushed their teeth ever... because toothbrushes didn't exist! Of form, people had to find another way to proceed their teeth pearly white. The solution? Beast bones, bird feathers and porcupine quills. Yeah, it was once considered a expert thought to put every i of those unappetizing objects in your oral cavity and use them like toothpicks.

Chewing your manner to clean teeth

street scene in India with women selling goods on blankets

A woman sells teeth-cleaning sticks in Girija Ghar crossing in Bharat. (Photo past juggadery licensed CC Past-SA)

Some other pre-toothbrush option — one that's closer to the existent deal — is the chew stick. Not much more than complicated than it sounds, this is simply a twig with a frayed end used to make clean teeth. The primeval chew sticks have been traced back to 3500 B.C., but they're still going strong all over the world, from Africa to the U.s..

Scrubbing your teeth with hog hair

close up of a hog

Photo on VisualHunt.com

The toothbrush we know and (kind of) love today get-go caught on in Cathay during the Tang Dynasty (around 1,400 years ago). Not unlike before teeth-cleaning tools, the original toothbrush relied on brute parts: a os handle and hog bristles. But these early tooth-brushers didn't settle for but any hog hair. Instantly recognizing the importance of firm bristles, they gear up their sights on hogs in colder climates similar Siberia and northern Mainland china.

Brushing your teeth with oyster shells

oyster shells on the beach

Photo credit: EEPaul on Visualhunt / CC By

Long before the toothbrush was in common use, the aboriginal Egyptians created a tooth powder to keep their teeth clean. However, keeping anything clean was incommunicable with the ingredients they had on hand, including burnt eggshells and the powdered ashes of ox hooves. The Greeks and Romans eventually upgraded this recipe, bringing crushed bones and oyster shells into the mix.

Forget brushing, just wear hippo teeth

old dentures made of ivory

Dentures in the 1800s were made from materials like ivory and were expensive. They were hard to clean and somewhen were quite evil-smelling. (Wikimedia/Wellcome Images/CC By)

George Washington had chronic dental problems throughout his life. (But i of his original teeth was left when he became the get-go president of the United States.) For some reason, people seem to call back his dentures were fabricated of wood, only the reality is far more, well, gross. In addition to elephant ivory, he re-used the teeth of hippopotamuses, donkeys and even other humans.

Kiss your toothache abroad

close up of donkey faces

Photograph credit: Richard Sunderland on Visualhunt.com / CC Past-NC-ND

We've already established that toothaches are universally unpopular, just when y'all're stuck with this trouble today there are several ways your dentist tin deal with it. If yous were unfortunate enough to be around in Medieval Germany, yet, at that place was simply one option: kissing a ass. It was believed that kissing a donkey would cure you of toothaches, though nosotros're guessing most Medieval Germans just got a mouthful of donkey spit for their efforts.