1 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,120 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff works, Hey, brain stuff, 2 00:00:07,160 --> 00:00:11,640 Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum. Here without teeth, life is tough. Sure we 3 00:00:11,760 --> 00:00:14,480 Speaker 1: have all sorts of fancy dentistry tricks these days, but 4 00:00:14,720 --> 00:00:17,960 Speaker 1: nothing tops the Choppers were born with. In fact, when 5 00:00:18,040 --> 00:00:20,759 Speaker 1: rocker Patti Smith gave the commencement address at the Pratt 6 00:00:20,840 --> 00:00:24,680 Speaker 1: Institute in New York, she gave those graduating seniors some 7 00:00:24,760 --> 00:00:28,600 Speaker 1: incredibly sound advice. She said, now that I'm here, my 8 00:00:28,680 --> 00:00:31,240 Speaker 1: greatest urge is to speak to you of dental care. 9 00:00:31,640 --> 00:00:34,440 Speaker 1: My generation had a rough go dentally. Our dentists were 10 00:00:34,440 --> 00:00:36,800 Speaker 1: the army dentists who came back from World War Two 11 00:00:36,960 --> 00:00:39,240 Speaker 1: and believed that the dental office was a battle ground. 12 00:00:39,720 --> 00:00:43,320 Speaker 1: You have a better chance at dental health. And it 13 00:00:43,440 --> 00:00:46,520 Speaker 1: may be true that our big dental procedures are considerably 14 00:00:46,560 --> 00:00:48,920 Speaker 1: better than they were in the middle of the last century. 15 00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:51,880 Speaker 1: But it's the maintenance that Smith was probably talking about. 16 00:00:52,280 --> 00:00:54,600 Speaker 1: We've got to scrub our teeth each and every day, 17 00:00:54,880 --> 00:00:58,240 Speaker 1: or else bacteria will calcify into tartar, which is where 18 00:00:58,240 --> 00:01:01,560 Speaker 1: the tooth troubles really begin. Keeping all your teeth in 19 00:01:01,600 --> 00:01:05,240 Speaker 1: your head and avoiding life threatening infection has always required 20 00:01:05,319 --> 00:01:10,360 Speaker 1: constant vigilance, which is where toothpaste comes in. Now, nobody 21 00:01:10,400 --> 00:01:14,080 Speaker 1: knows who invented the toothbrush. Most ancient civilizations seem to 22 00:01:14,080 --> 00:01:16,840 Speaker 1: have had some variation of a frayed choo stick that 23 00:01:16,920 --> 00:01:20,040 Speaker 1: they used to keep their teeth clean. But don't teeth 24 00:01:20,080 --> 00:01:23,520 Speaker 1: also need some sort of well cleaning agent. Is that 25 00:01:23,760 --> 00:01:26,800 Speaker 1: minty plaster like goo that we smear on our modern 26 00:01:26,880 --> 00:01:30,800 Speaker 1: chewing sticks just capitalist snake oil? Not of history has 27 00:01:30,840 --> 00:01:34,440 Speaker 1: anything to say about it. Toothpaste might actually predate the 28 00:01:34,480 --> 00:01:37,960 Speaker 1: tooth brush. While there's evidence that ancient Egyptians were using 29 00:01:37,959 --> 00:01:40,880 Speaker 1: toothbrushes as far back as three thousand, five hundred BC, 30 00:01:41,680 --> 00:01:44,479 Speaker 1: recipes for tooth powder have been found the date back 31 00:01:44,520 --> 00:01:49,200 Speaker 1: to five thousand BC. The earliest Egyptian toothpowder recipe contained 32 00:01:49,200 --> 00:01:52,520 Speaker 1: plenty of abrasives to scrape off all the sticky residue. 33 00:01:52,720 --> 00:01:55,720 Speaker 1: The ashes of burnt eggshells and oxen hoofs mixed with 34 00:01:55,760 --> 00:01:59,600 Speaker 1: pumice seemed to be popular. By the fourth century, Egyptians 35 00:01:59,600 --> 00:02:02,240 Speaker 1: had set up their tooth powder with abrasives like rock 36 00:02:02,280 --> 00:02:05,800 Speaker 1: salt and flavorings like mint and peppercorns. They even added 37 00:02:05,840 --> 00:02:09,560 Speaker 1: dried iris flour, perhaps because it was associated with purification. 38 00:02:10,160 --> 00:02:12,960 Speaker 1: Good thing are tooth enamel is harder than bone or 39 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:16,239 Speaker 1: even iron or steel. If it wasn't, those Egyptians would 40 00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:18,839 Speaker 1: have brushed their teeth right down to nubs. But when 41 00:02:18,840 --> 00:02:21,079 Speaker 1: this recipe was revealed in two thousand three at a 42 00:02:21,120 --> 00:02:24,720 Speaker 1: dental conference in Vienna, Austrian dentist Tynes Newman told the 43 00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:27,440 Speaker 1: Telegraph that he tried it and it wasn't half bad. 44 00:02:27,800 --> 00:02:30,760 Speaker 1: He said, I found that it was not unpleasant. It 45 00:02:30,800 --> 00:02:33,120 Speaker 1: was painful on my gums and made them bleed as well, 46 00:02:33,320 --> 00:02:35,560 Speaker 1: but that's not a bad thing, and afterwards my mouth 47 00:02:35,639 --> 00:02:38,359 Speaker 1: felt fresh and clean. I believe that this recipe would 48 00:02:38,360 --> 00:02:40,280 Speaker 1: have been a big improvement on some of the soap 49 00:02:40,360 --> 00:02:44,760 Speaker 1: toothpastes used much later around the world. Different cultures continued 50 00:02:44,840 --> 00:02:48,200 Speaker 1: mixing crushed abrasives like oyster shell or bone and nice 51 00:02:48,240 --> 00:02:51,040 Speaker 1: tasting herbs like mint and jin sing together to clean 52 00:02:51,080 --> 00:02:54,920 Speaker 1: teeth and keep platosis that's bad breath at bay. But 53 00:02:55,080 --> 00:02:58,519 Speaker 1: as with literally everything else, the Middle Ages didn't really 54 00:02:58,560 --> 00:03:02,840 Speaker 1: do much for toothpaste technology. During this time, Europeans settled 55 00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:05,960 Speaker 1: on a mixture of honey, salt, and dry flour, which 56 00:03:06,040 --> 00:03:08,520 Speaker 1: they supplemented by giving their teeth a good scrubbing with 57 00:03:08,560 --> 00:03:12,040 Speaker 1: the bark of certain trees. It wasn't until the nineteenth 58 00:03:12,040 --> 00:03:14,800 Speaker 1: century that the toothpaste biz as we know it really 59 00:03:14,800 --> 00:03:18,160 Speaker 1: started heating up. Recipes for tooth powders and pastes that 60 00:03:18,200 --> 00:03:21,880 Speaker 1: included abrasives like charcoal, chalk, and burned bread crumbs, as 61 00:03:21,919 --> 00:03:25,079 Speaker 1: well as incense like dragon's blood, were popular in England 62 00:03:25,160 --> 00:03:29,720 Speaker 1: until eighteen fifty when Coalgate introduced its first crem dentifriese, 63 00:03:29,840 --> 00:03:32,920 Speaker 1: which came in a jar. Mass production of this product 64 00:03:32,960 --> 00:03:35,840 Speaker 1: started in the eighteen seventies and twenty years later they 65 00:03:35,840 --> 00:03:39,840 Speaker 1: introduced the collapsible tube and from then on toothpaste was 66 00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:43,360 Speaker 1: a thing. Before World War Two, most toothpastes on the 67 00:03:43,400 --> 00:03:46,680 Speaker 1: market were sold in a lead tube. They also contained soap, 68 00:03:46,920 --> 00:03:51,240 Speaker 1: which was unnecessary and in some cases even counterproductive, but 69 00:03:51,440 --> 00:03:53,840 Speaker 1: we humans seem to have a hang up about wanting 70 00:03:53,840 --> 00:03:58,480 Speaker 1: our cleansers to foam. Toothpastes today still tend to contain soap, 71 00:03:58,680 --> 00:04:02,040 Speaker 1: namely sodium laurel sulf fight because it's not clean unless 72 00:04:02,040 --> 00:04:06,240 Speaker 1: it's foamy, but soap also helped maintain an even creamy texture. 73 00:04:06,520 --> 00:04:09,280 Speaker 1: We can also get this smooth texture with humicants like 74 00:04:09,400 --> 00:04:13,400 Speaker 1: sorbitol glycerin and propylene glycol, which have the added bonus 75 00:04:13,480 --> 00:04:16,799 Speaker 1: of being a little bit sweet. Fluoride was first added 76 00:04:16,800 --> 00:04:19,600 Speaker 1: to toothpaste in nineteen fourteen, but it wasn't until the 77 00:04:19,680 --> 00:04:22,599 Speaker 1: nineteen sixties that it was proven to fight cavities, and 78 00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:26,120 Speaker 1: modern toothpaste no longer uses chalk as an abrasive. We 79 00:04:26,200 --> 00:04:29,400 Speaker 1: most often use hydrated silica, which is exactly the same 80 00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:31,720 Speaker 1: stuff you find in those little packets in your vitamin 81 00:04:31,720 --> 00:04:35,280 Speaker 1: bottles and shoe boxes. So that's the story of toothpaste. 82 00:04:35,920 --> 00:04:43,279 Speaker 1: I'm gonna go brush my teeth. Today's episode was written 83 00:04:43,279 --> 00:04:46,080 Speaker 1: by Jescelin Shields and produced by Tyler Clang. For more 84 00:04:46,120 --> 00:04:48,599 Speaker 1: on this and lots of other minty fresh topics, visit 85 00:04:48,640 --> 00:05:02,120 Speaker 1: our home planet, how stuff Works dot com.