In a recent post, we discussed the very intriguing history of the toothbrush. The history of toothpaste is just as interesting and that is what we will be discussing today.
Just like the toothbrush, toothpaste has been around longer than we might assume at first. Toothpaste, to be true, has been in existence for less than one hundred and fifty years. However, toothpowder, which performed the same function, has been around for as much as 7,000 years. Archaeologists believe that the first recipe for toothpowder was developed in Egypt around 5,000 BC. Toothpowder seems to have developed separately in many ancient civilisations. Different recipes dating to before the birth of Christ have been found for ancient Rome, Greece, Egypt, India and China. You would certainly hesitate before using most of these and you would question whether they would actually contribute positively to you oral health. The Egyptians had a recipe consisting of the powdered ashes of ox hooves, myrrh, powdered and burnt eggshells and pumice (BBC 2004). A common Greek and Roman formula included crushed bones, oyster shells, powdered bark and powdered charcoal. Some Romans are even known to have used a toothpowder that included urine as an ingredient (Guleria 2008).
Example of a modern, homemade toothpowder.
The earliest complete recipe was recently discovered on a roll of papyrus that had long been dusting in the basement of a Vienna museum. This dated from Egypt around the year 400 AD. According to the document, to create a good toothpowder you needed one drachma of salt, two drachmas of mint, one drachma of dried iris flower and twenty grains of pepper. Unsurprisingly, a dentist decided to make the ancient toothpowder for himself once the details of the discovery were published in a local newspaper. He concluded that although it wasn’t very effective, it was still probably better many of the homemade toothpastes used before fluoride based mass-produced toothpastes became ubiquitous in the western world and education became more widespread (Kolpakov 2009).
Following this fifth century reference, literally nothing is heard about toothpowders until the 11th century when a Persian official wrote to warn people of the dangers of using hard abrasives as ingredients when creating them. Subsequent Persian documents dating to the same century recommended using dried animal parts, herbs and honey as ingredients (BBC 2004). It is not known whether all of these toothpowders were used in conjunction with the proto-toothbrushes known as chewsticks where actual toothbrushes were not common or were simply applied to the teeth by means of hand or cloth (Connolly 2010).
The next major advance came in the early nineteenth century, when the first toothpaste, as opposed to powder, was developed. This was achieved by the addition of glycerine to the powder. It was not long before pre-mixed toothpaste was marketed but crude homemade recipes were more popular until well into the twentieth century. Toothpaste was first sold in jars. Only later on was it sold in the synonymous collapsible toothpaste tube. This development came from Connecticut dentist whose son had picked up the idea after noticing painters’ collapsible tubes while visiting Paris. These were first made from lead until a shortage of that resource during World War II resulted in plastic being used instead (Connolly 2010)
An example of packaging for toothpaste before the collapsible tube was developed. Yes, that toothpaste is made from charcoal. But its ‘purified’ charcoal, so that’s alright.
Over the years, advancements in science meant that toothpaste became much more efficient in cleaning teeth. One such example is the addition of soap and the subsequent replacement of soap with emulsifying agents (Jardim et al. 2009). The most important development in toothpaste since its invention though, was the addition of fluoride. Fluoride was first added to toothpaste in 1914, but it didn’t really catch for many decades. The later part of the twentieth century also saw many developments such as the introduction of whitening toothpaste and toothpaste for sensitive teeth.
New advancements are occurring all the time in the area of toothpaste, and indeed oral health care at a time. MouthWatchers is at the forefront of these developments with our antibacterial toothbrushes.
‘Armed to the teeth’.
References:
BBC 2004. The History of Teeth Cleaning [online]. Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/dna/place-lancashire/plain/A2818686.
Connolly, T. 2010. The History of Toothpaste [online]. Available from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thomas-p-connelly-dds/mouth-health-the-history-_b_702332.html.
Cooper, H. and Gill, B. 1960. The talk of the town: Collapsible. The New Yorker [online], August 6. Available from: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1960/08/06/1960_08_06_020_TNY_CARDS_000262427.
Guleria, S. 2008. Toothpaste history: How was toothpaste invented? Who made toothpaste? [online]. Available from: https://files.nyu.edu/ssg280/public/toothpaste_history.html.
Jardim, J., Alves, L. and Maltz, M. 2009. The history and global market of oral home-care products. Brazilian Oral Research, 23 (1), pp. 17-22.
Kolpakov, V. 2009. History of Toothpaste [online]. Available from: http://www.toothpasteworld.com/history.php.
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