Imagine, it is the 19th century and you are from the middle classes. You sometimes think it could be nice to be a little poorer, then perhaps you wouldn't have to use toothpaste. It's not that you don't like your teeth to be clean, but your teeth aren't exactly in great condition. Indeed, nobody's really are and rubbing the powder which comes in that dreaded little ceramic pot into them is just plain painful! You have a new type which is supposed to numb the pain a bit, but you don't hold out too much hope.
When I took this toothpaste pot lid to show the children they were astonished to learn that toothpaste was not in fact a new invention. Whenever they think of the 'olden days' they assume teeth were simply uncleaned and anyone lucky enough to have their teeth their whole life was simply that - lucky! Seeing various television shows and movies portraying many with yellow, black or missing teeth probably helped to cement this view. It had never occurred to them that toothpaste or tooth powder as the case may be had existed back in the Victorian days, let alone thousands of years ago!
Toothpaste is indeed thousands of years old, first appearing up to 7000 years ago!The Egyptians used a combination of ashes of ox's hooves, myrrh, burned egg shells and pumice. We think they probably added water to this unpleasant sounding mix to make it into a paste and then used their fingers to rub it onto their teeth. The Greeks and Romans added abrasives like crushed bones or oyster shells to the mix, making it better at cleaning various foods from teeth, especially from between their teeth. The Romans also added things to make the breath smell better, like powdered charcoal or bark. After that there aren't many records of toothpaste until about 1000AD when the Persians suggested that such hard abrasives like bone and oyster shell might actually not be good for your teeth. They suggested using burned snail shells and gypsum as well as herbs, honey, incense and other minerals. Still doesn't sound too appetizing, but at least it might have been a little less painful and dangerous for your teeth!
There is another huge gap in the known history of toothpaste after the Persians, and we first learn about it again in the 18th century in England when tooth powder or dentifice started to be sold by chemists, dentists and doctors. Again, they weren't like anything we would recognise today, using things like brick dust, crushed china and cuttlefish as the abrasives. They also used bicarbonate soda and borax powder to add a foaming effect. The toothpaste pot lid which I took to show the children probably came from the 19th century when toothpaste started to evolve into something a bit closer to what we would recognise. First, glycerin was added to make tooth powder into a paste and then soap and chalk were also added. They even added things like strontium which strengthened teeth - so toothpaste might actually have done some good!
The areca nut, which is the type of toothpaste which was originally in my toothpaste pot, is actually itself used by some to keep the teeth clean and is also known as the betel nut. You might have heard of the betel nut as it is chewed by people and is spat out as a red pulp. There are some who want to ban its use because the people spitting it out on the streets are spreading disease! On top of this betel nut itself is not very good for you, and it seems to damage the gums, but people who chew it believe it keeps the teeth themselves strong. Many people also think it tastes pretty bad. Luckily today, our toothpastes clean our teeth without causing damage and even taste OK! If you would like to learn more about the history of toothpaste click here.