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Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Invention. My name is Robert Lamb and

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Speaker 1: I'm Joe McCormick. Robert, have you ever had the misfortune

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Speaker 1: of going to work having forgotten to brush your teeth

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Speaker 1: in the morning. First, No, you've never done it. No,

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Speaker 1: I just don't. I don't remember having done it. I

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Speaker 1: might have done this earlier on. But I've I've really,

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Speaker 1: I've been on a care the last ten years or so,

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Speaker 1: um where I've I've really put a focus on maintaining

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Speaker 1: proper dental hygiene. Yeah, you keep the mouth regiment under

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Speaker 1: the lash. Yeah. Like I'll go into to see my

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Speaker 1: dentist and the dentist will say, hey, what do you uh,

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Speaker 1: what's it like when you don't wear your mouth guard

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Speaker 1: at night? Because I wear a mouth guard at night

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Speaker 1: to keep from grinding my teeth. And and I when

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Speaker 1: they asked me this, they say, well, what do you

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Speaker 1: mean you tell me to wear this every night? I

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Speaker 1: wear it every night. So um so yeah, I I

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Speaker 1: try and follow everything to the letter. You are like

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Speaker 1: a monk. You are like a medieval monk with that

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Speaker 1: kind of discipline. I guess you know the fear of hell,

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Speaker 1: but in this case, the hell that I that I

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Speaker 1: am uh fearful of is a hell of lost teeth

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Speaker 1: or decaying teeth, et cetera. Oh, nasty mouth is a

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Speaker 1: kind of hell. I mean, when this has happened to me,

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Speaker 1: it feels so disgusting, and my mouth feels nasty and unhealthy,

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Speaker 1: and I assume my breath must be terrible, and I

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Speaker 1: assume that, like my teeth are all going to fall

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Speaker 1: out by six pm. It's it's just bad. And I

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Speaker 1: also feel like I have, I have made some seriously injurious,

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Speaker 1: irreparable mistake for my own dental health. I know that's

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Speaker 1: probably way over the line, but I I do feel

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Speaker 1: that way sometimes, And and brushing one's teeth can sometimes

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Speaker 1: feel I don't know if you share this, feel as

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Speaker 1: absolutely essential, as like biologically essential and primordial as sleeping

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Speaker 1: or breathing. You know that like if you don't do it,

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Speaker 1: something is deeply wrong with your body and you're not

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Speaker 1: living as you were meant to. Yeah, it's it's a

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Speaker 1: totally weird area that I've probably spent way too much

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Speaker 1: time contemplating. Because on one level, yes, when you're when

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Speaker 1: you're younger, older people tell you, hey, you need to

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Speaker 1: brush your teeth, you need to flash your teeth, you

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Speaker 1: need to do these things. And when you're young, you're

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Speaker 1: you're just kind of like, oh, yeah, yeah, I'll do

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Speaker 1: those things. I'll do those things some of the time.

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Speaker 1: Um it's and oftentimes as only as you get older

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Speaker 1: that you realize, oh, I need a double down on that,

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Speaker 1: or worse, I really should have listened to them back

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Speaker 1: in the day, back when I was younger. Well, you

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Speaker 1: don't want to be looking back and saying, oh, if

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Speaker 1: only I've done things differently, I wouldn't have goblin shark mouth.

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Speaker 1: And it also doesn't help that so many of us

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Speaker 1: are pet owners. And if you get older pets, then

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Speaker 1: you know the experience of your your your pet outliving

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Speaker 1: its teeth um because or having to pay for for

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Speaker 1: brushings for your various animals, having to get in there

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Speaker 1: and brush their teeth yourself, that sort of thing. You know.

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Speaker 1: I was wondering what happens if you just don't brush

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Speaker 1: your teeth. I have this fear that the bad things

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Speaker 1: will happen if I don't. But what actually happens if

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Speaker 1: you just say let it go for a year. And

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Speaker 1: there are actually quite a few articles about this. There

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Speaker 1: must be a thing people wonder pretty often. For example,

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Speaker 1: I was just reading an article in USA today that

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Speaker 1: interviewed a dentist and a spokesperson from the American Dental

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Speaker 1: Association named Matthew Messina about what would happen if you

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Speaker 1: stop brushing your teeth for a year, And for reference,

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Speaker 1: the the a DA, the American Dental Association recommends flossing

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Speaker 1: once a day and brushing twice a day. And that's

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Speaker 1: and that's what everyone should do um at least twice

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Speaker 1: a day. I say, do three if you can. But

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Speaker 1: everybody apparently has a different reaction to neglect of dental hygiene.

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Speaker 1: So there are probably some people out there, just depending

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Speaker 1: on your genes, your diet, your microbiome, various things about you,

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Speaker 1: that that could do this and wouldn't suffer all that

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Speaker 1: many consequences. Probably there are other people who would have

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Speaker 1: very negative consequences. But generally, on average, people who stopped

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Speaker 1: brushing their teeth for a year would be a lot

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Speaker 1: more likely to develop tooth decay in the form of

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Speaker 1: cab at ease, and more likely to develop periodontal disease

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Speaker 1: or gum disease, and both of these can be really bad,

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Speaker 1: They cause pain in the mouth, can cause tooth loss.

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Speaker 1: Uh So, a primary function of tooth brushing is to

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Speaker 1: just brush away bacterial formations on your teeth, and if

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Speaker 1: you don't brush that bacteria away, it can cause immune

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Speaker 1: system reactions, and the gums can potentially lead to a

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Speaker 1: host of other sort of secondary health problems in the

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Speaker 1: body which aren't even in the mouth. It can even

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Speaker 1: it's been linked to, say, pneumonia and heart attacks and

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Speaker 1: so forth. And then on the more esthetic side, you

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Speaker 1: of course have your teeth looking like you haven't brushed

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Speaker 1: them in a year, and chronic bad breath probably, But

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Speaker 1: sometimes I think about how my toothbrush, the toothpaste I use.

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Speaker 1: These are products of twenty first century industry, and if

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Speaker 1: you go back a few hundred years, people didn't have

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Speaker 1: products exactly like these. They might have had some other

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Speaker 1: things they did to their mouth, and we'll discuss those

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Speaker 1: in a bit. But what would it be like to be, say,

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Speaker 1: a fifteenth century peasant who just doesn't have a tooth

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Speaker 1: rush and toothpaste. Because our dental health and hygiene, as

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Speaker 1: we understand it is, is dependent upon this modern technology,

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Speaker 1: upon these inventions, and what did we do before those inventions,

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Speaker 1: because obviously there's like a base level, right of like

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Speaker 1: the animal level of maintaining your dental hygiene, in which

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Speaker 1: you use your tongue and maybe your nails to remove

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Speaker 1: and you know, dislodge bits of vegetable or flesh. But

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Speaker 1: but beyond that, what was there. That's one of the

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Speaker 1: things we're gonna talk about today, not only where does

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Speaker 1: modern toothpaste come from, but what past for toothpaste in

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Speaker 1: ages past and the relationship between why we use toothpaste

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Speaker 1: and what it actually does. I have to to admit

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Speaker 1: that the historical question here is something I always think

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Speaker 1: about whenever I'm watching a movie that's that has a

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Speaker 1: historical setting, especially if it's a big budget, modern Hollywood production,

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Speaker 1: because you inevitably have just somebody with you know, they've

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Speaker 1: they've put grime on their face, they're wearing splendid outfits,

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Speaker 1: but then their their teeth just shine like like the sun,

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Speaker 1: and they're just so pearly white. And I'll often say,

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Speaker 1: often call them out on that. I'd be like, oh,

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Speaker 1: that that doesn't seem right at all, like the teeth

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Speaker 1: in Brave Heart, And yeah, you know, to go in

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Speaker 1: the other direction, if you look at post apocalyptic films,

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Speaker 1: especially bad post apocalyptic movies from the eighties, the kind

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Speaker 1: of Mad Max rip offs that like Cannon films did,

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Speaker 1: like a Cyborg, the gen Claude Van Damn movie, You'll

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Speaker 1: get people living in this squalid future and they do

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Speaker 1: the thing where they take people who have normal, healthy

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Speaker 1: looking teeth and they just kind of rub grime on it,

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Speaker 1: like they've got these streaks of black across their teeth.

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Speaker 1: Like in the future, everybody just eats shoe polish. Well,

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Speaker 1: who knows. I mean, that's actually gonna gonna line up

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Speaker 1: in interesting ways with some of the earlier dental hygiene

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Speaker 1: inventions that will be discussing. That's true. I didn't even

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Speaker 1: think about that. People in Cyborg, those those black and

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Speaker 1: teeth could be a product of their their tooth cleaning regimen,

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Speaker 1: not a product of decay, right or you know that

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Speaker 1: has to do with their their tobacco usage. Who knows.

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Speaker 1: But another question and I have is, Okay, so if

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Speaker 1: we don't brush our teeth for a year or even longer,

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Speaker 1: some bad things can happen to our mouth. Which makes

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Speaker 1: me think that if you go back to prehistoric life,

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Speaker 1: people didn't really have much of anything, toothbrushes, toothpaste. Uh,

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Speaker 1: they probably didn't really brush their teeth much anyo. They

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Speaker 1: had fingers and like they had twigs to chew on.

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Speaker 1: They could probably rub around in their in their mouth

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Speaker 1: with their fingers if they felt like it. We don't

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Speaker 1: know how much they did that, but did prehistoric people's

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Speaker 1: just always have nasty mouth syndrome with teeth rotten away

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Speaker 1: by the time they were teenagers? Like, how did teeth

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Speaker 1: survive before we had modern dental care and dental hygiene equipment.

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Speaker 1: And I actually found a really interesting paper about this.

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Speaker 1: This was a paper published in Nature Genetics in by

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Speaker 1: Christina J. Adler at All a bunch of authors called

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Speaker 1: Sequencing Ancient calcified dental plaque shows changes in oral microbiota

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Speaker 1: with dietary shifts of the Neolithic and Industrial revolutions. And

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Speaker 1: so the takeaway of this paper is, despite not having

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Speaker 1: the dental hygiene methods that we do, prehistoric hunter gatherers

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Speaker 1: had pretty good teeth. They could probably pick at their

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Speaker 1: teeth with twigs and so forth, But they didn't have toothpaste,

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Speaker 1: they didn't have toothbrushes, they didn't have dentists, So how

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Speaker 1: did their teeth survive And the answer appears to be

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Speaker 1: their teeth were pretty healthy because they survived on a

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Speaker 1: totally different diet than we do now. Yeah. Indeed, think

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Speaker 1: of all the coffee and sugary sodas that they were

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Speaker 1: not consuming. I think it seems like sugar is a

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Speaker 1: big part of this equation because much of our oral

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Speaker 1: health depends on the relationship with the microbial organisms that

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Speaker 1: live in our mouths. It's kind of fun to think

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Speaker 1: about the fact that your mouth is an ecosystem. Yeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And and sugar is something that you're you're only really

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Speaker 1: supposed to find so much of in the wild. Our

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Speaker 1: modern candy bars just throw all that out of whack.

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Speaker 1: And my my father, I should mentioned, was a dentist

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Speaker 1: and u in. One of the things he always told

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Speaker 1: my sisters and me was was, if you eat that

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Speaker 1: candy bar, it's just gonna write your teeth own, Like,

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Speaker 1: don't don't eat that candy bar. Don't eat it. We

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Speaker 1: still ate a lot of candy, but the message was

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Speaker 1: always there, like it's eating consuming too much sugar is

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Speaker 1: a road to garbage mouth. Well that you can assume

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Speaker 1: that that might be like one of those kind of

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Speaker 1: just uninformed parental warnings is just to scare you, the

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Speaker 1: same way they say, like don't if you watch too

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Speaker 1: much TV, you'll go cross eye. There's something like that.

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Speaker 1: You know, that's not really based in fact, but but

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Speaker 1: it does appear that that piece of advice is somewhat

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Speaker 1: based in fact that there does appear to be a

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Speaker 1: relationship between sugar consumption and poor oral health. Because if

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Speaker 1: you change what you eat, you also change what the

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Speaker 1: organisms in your mouth eat. It's an ecosystem. You're changing

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Speaker 1: what chemical energy profile is going into that ecosystem in

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Speaker 1: your mouth, and different microbes eat different things, change your diet,

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Speaker 1: and you might encourage a different crowd to take up

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Speaker 1: shop in your teeth. And so the prehistoric hunter gatherer

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Speaker 1: diet favored things like meat, vegetables, and nuts, and apparently

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Speaker 1: that is pretty friendly to your teeth. One of the

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Speaker 1: important things to keep in mind yeah here is that

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Speaker 1: inventions do not occur within a vacuum, and inventions are

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Speaker 1: affected by other inventions. And there's a pretty key invention

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Speaker 1: involved here. That invention, of course, would be agriculture. About

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Speaker 1: ten thousand years ago, Neil with the humans began the

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Speaker 1: farming Revolution, which caused a massive shift in the human diet.

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Speaker 1: If you were in one of these regions that was

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Speaker 1: sustained by farming, suddenly your diet would shift from things

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Speaker 1: like you know, meats, wild growing fruit and vegetables and

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Speaker 1: nuts and roots and all that into carbohydrate rich grains,

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Speaker 1: grain based breads and porridges and things like that. So

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Speaker 1: you're you're suddenly shifting your diet to this mainly carbon

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Speaker 1: driven thing. And then there's another shift that happens again

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Speaker 1: once again due to technology. Uh, the Industrial Revolution brings

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Speaker 1: about the wide spread availability of processed flour and sugar

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Speaker 1: around say eighteen fifty or so. And so this study

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Speaker 1: that I mentioned a minute ago, it looked at thirty

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Speaker 1: four early European skeletons to show that the transition from

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Speaker 1: the hunter gatherer diet to farming quote, shifted the oral

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Speaker 1: microbial community to a disease associated configuration. And apparently around

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Speaker 1: the Industrial Revolution, carryogenic bacteria, which is bacteria that causes

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Speaker 1: tooth decay, became dominant in our mouths, and mouth microbiota

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Speaker 1: are much less diverse now, which may be the cause

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Speaker 1: of all the chronic oral disease we see in wealthy

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Speaker 1: industrial societies today. It's a case where innovations and innovations

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Speaker 1: unbalanced things, and then we have to create other inventions.

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Speaker 1: We have to come up with with with various schemes

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Speaker 1: to try and rebalance everything. Yeah, exactly. So one of

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Speaker 1: the authors of that paper was Alan Cooper, director of

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Speaker 1: the Australian Center for Ancient DNA, and so, speaking to NPR,

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Speaker 1: he said, quote, what you've really created is an ecosystem

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Speaker 1: which is very low and diversity and full of opportunistic

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Speaker 1: pathogens that have jumped in to utilize the resources which

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Speaker 1: are now free. And as a result, of course, what

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Speaker 1: happens is that the mouth is constantly fighting these microbes

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Speaker 1: that live inside it. Uh to quote Cooper again, quote

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Speaker 1: you're walking around with a permanent immune response, which is

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Speaker 1: not a good thing. It causes problems all over the place.

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Speaker 1: This reminds me of of of of one of my

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Speaker 1: favorite quotes from Tina Fey that was in her her autobiography.

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Speaker 1: She's talking about the experience of growing older and waking

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Speaker 1: up in the morning and just having this horrible taste

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Speaker 1: in your mouth, and she uh surmised that quote the

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Speaker 1: mouth dies first, and it makes sense that it would

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Speaker 1: be of them. The mouth is just this constantly just

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Speaker 1: ground zero for this war against pathogens. Well, this is

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Speaker 1: just one front on which we're seeing more and more

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Speaker 1: evidence that our microbiome, the microbes that live within us

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Speaker 1: and on us, really do affect our health in in

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Speaker 1: pretty extreme ways that we haven't really recognized until very

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Speaker 1: recent times. But anyway, what all this so far tells

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Speaker 1: us is that it's not necessarily a fact of nature

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Speaker 1: that animals just have to brush their teeth with toothpaste

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Speaker 1: and floss and stuff. I mean, it can be good

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Speaker 1: for animals to clean their mouths, right, Oh yeah, I

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Speaker 1: mean it's it's worth noting that cleaning your teeth is

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Speaker 1: not merely a human thing. I mean, you just think

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Speaker 1: about how we might again dislodge food with you with

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Speaker 1: a tongue or or a nail in some cases. And

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Speaker 1: certainly there are other creatures that may do the same. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Tooth grooming even with tools has been observed among chimpanzees.

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Speaker 1: So they might use twigs for close work when fingers

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Speaker 1: won't cut it. But do they stand outside the olive

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Speaker 1: garden with that twig hanging out of their mouth in

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Speaker 1: the parking lot holding a styrofoam clamshell. Uh no, I

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Speaker 1: don't believe they do. But but they're not there yet

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Speaker 1: as a species. But from these results, it seems pretty

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Speaker 1: clear that what what's going on is that we have

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Speaker 1: created through our technology a need for an oral hygiene

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Speaker 1: regime that was that was not necessarily there in our

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Speaker 1: wild existence. And so how how do we cope with

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Speaker 1: this new microbiome in our mouths, this new more hostile

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Speaker 1: ecosystem between the teeth and the gums. Yeah, when we

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Speaker 1: look into the look back into the deeper history of

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Speaker 1: toothpaste itself, um, it seems pretty clear that that people

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Speaker 1: were figuring out things they could do pretty early on. Um,

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Speaker 1: in terms of recorded history. Uh, it's thought that Egyptians

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Speaker 1: probably started using uh something like toothpaste is as long

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Speaker 1: ago is maybe five thousand uh BC. And also we

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Speaker 1: see evidence for this among the ancient Greeks, the Romans,

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Speaker 1: the ancient Chinese, the ancient Indians. Yeah, there there is

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Speaker 1: a long tradition of I mean, one of one of

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Speaker 1: the things you see if you go back into the

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Speaker 1: ancient world as medical manuals and and like more magical

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Speaker 1: edging kind of potion manuals and these things may sometimes

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Speaker 1: give you recipes for what to do with the mouth.

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Speaker 1: A lot of times there will be like a powder

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Speaker 1: or something it'll tell you to grind up and you

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Speaker 1: rub that on the teeth to clean them. Yeah. I

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Speaker 1: was actually reading in a book, uh title Clean, a

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Speaker 1: History of Personal Hygiene Impurity by Virginia Smith, which is

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Speaker 1: a really excellent book that I've referred to on podcasts

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Speaker 1: in the past. But she mentions that the ancient Egyptians

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Speaker 1: indeed had to deal with dental problems and that this

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Speaker 1: is ultimately one of the quote problems of civilization. Uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, getting back again to the the idea that

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Speaker 1: the the agricultural revolution created some of these problems for us.

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Speaker 1: She says that it's likely that excess consumption of honey

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Speaker 1: and sugar likely impacted that at least the wealthy in

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Speaker 1: Egyptian society, but that many ancient Egyptians had teeth that

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Speaker 1: were also worn down to the quick due to poorly

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Speaker 1: milled flour. Oh yeah, so if you have flower the

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Speaker 1: it's got like um, it's got like sand or grit

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Speaker 1: and mixed in it can actually wear down your teeth

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Speaker 1: from chewing on it. Yeah, So all you kids out

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Speaker 1: there that love to eat sand, and we're looking for

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Speaker 1: an excuse to stop eating sand. There you go, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: if you get sand in your mouth of the beach,

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Speaker 1: do wash it out if it all possible, because it

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Speaker 1: gives me the olivers to think about the alternative fear.

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Speaker 1: So thinking about tooth what does toothpaste actually do? In fact,

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Speaker 1: toothpaste does something sort of like the sand and the bread,

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Speaker 1: except hopefully not as harsh on the teeth. Uh. It

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Speaker 1: fulfills functions related to both health and aesthetic. So on

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Speaker 1: the health side, it removes the build up of dental plaque,

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Speaker 1: which is a bacterial biofilm that grows on surfaces inside

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Speaker 1: the mouth, such as on teeth and around the gum line,

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Speaker 1: and that helps prevent tooth decay and gum disease. But

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Speaker 1: then the aesthetic side, of course, is that it also

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Speaker 1: helps prevent bad breath, It prevents you know, stinky mouth,

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Speaker 1: It helps keep the teeth appearing white and healthy, and

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Speaker 1: it also sometimes just provides a pleasant taste, which is

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Speaker 1: actually I think a more important factor in why people

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Speaker 1: use toothpaste than many of them realize. Now, back on

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Speaker 1: the health side, there are a couple of different things

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Speaker 1: that it does. On one hand, it's an abrasive kind

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Speaker 1: of like the sand or the grid or something that

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Speaker 1: helps rub the stuff away in the mouth. And on

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Speaker 1: the other hand, sometimes it has chemical aids as well,

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Speaker 1: Like an ingredient might be something like fluoride. Yes, fluoride,

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Speaker 1: that's an essential one as well. Well, we'll get back

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Speaker 1: to the importance of fluoride in a bit. Well, yeah,

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Speaker 1: that that'll be in the modern section. First, we gotta

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Speaker 1: tell you about what people used to do to their teeth, right,

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Speaker 1: And before we do that, we should probably take our

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Speaker 1: first break. But yeah, when we come back, we will.

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Speaker 1: We will jump in the time machine and brush our

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Speaker 1: teeth among the denizens of history. Robert, would you like

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Speaker 1: to go on a journey with me to twelveth century

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Speaker 1: Italy to find out what toothcare looked like? Then let's

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Speaker 1: do it, Okay. So I want to quote from the Trotula,

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Speaker 1: which is a famous collection of treatises on women's health

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Speaker 1: from medieval Italy. Translated this is a translation by Professor

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Speaker 1: Monica H. Green, And there are several entries in the

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Speaker 1: Trotula about what to do about problems with the teeth.

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Speaker 1: First of all, here's one for black teeth. Off to

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Speaker 1: a good start. Quote for black and badly colored teeth.

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Speaker 1: Take walnut shells well cleaned, if their interior rind, which

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Speaker 1: is green. And we rubbed the teeth three times a day.

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Speaker 1: And when they have been well rubbed, we washed the

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Speaker 1: mouth with warm wine and with salt mixed in if desired.

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Speaker 1: Do you swallow the wine? I would think not, not

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Speaker 1: with the salt thrown in there. But you know this,

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Speaker 1: this reminds me of episodes that we've recorded for Stuff

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Speaker 1: to About Your Mind, where we've talked about the history

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Speaker 1: of well cocktails, but also things that we're sort of

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Speaker 1: like cocktails that at least involved alcohol being mixed with

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Speaker 1: other substances, and very often those were magic potions or

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Speaker 1: some sort of medi snol mixture that was supposed to

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Speaker 1: aid you, and very often they did involve wine or

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Speaker 1: some other alcohol. It is striking how many of the

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Speaker 1: treatments of the past involved alcoholic beverages. It almost makes

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Speaker 1: you think that, like in some cases, the alcoholic beverage

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Speaker 1: may have been a sort of consolation prize for the

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Speaker 1: fact that the treatment does not generally work, or if

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Speaker 1: it had some kind of placebo effects. The placebo effect

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00:19:25,200 --> 00:19:27,320
Speaker 1: might have been linked to the fact that the alcohol

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00:19:27,400 --> 00:19:29,399
Speaker 1: gets you a little bit drunk. Yes, And and I

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Speaker 1: can't think about the salt aspect of this without thinking

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Speaker 1: of about some of the saltwater treatments that have been

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Speaker 1: employed in the past, where you're essentially you're you are

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Speaker 1: just drinking saltwater, maybe saltwater mixed with honey or milk

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Speaker 1: or something, but but just drinking a bunch of saltwater

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Speaker 1: to try and cure some ailment. Oh yeah, some of

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Speaker 1: the ancients actually thought that that could heal you of problems. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and they're not so ancients, And I recall correctly. Uh,

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Speaker 1: here's another one. This is also from the trotula. This

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Speaker 1: one sounds more like this is for rich people. I

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Speaker 1: think quote for whitening black teeth and strengthen in corroded

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Speaker 1: or rotting gums, and for a bad smelling mouth. This

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Speaker 1: works the best. Take some each of cinnamon, clove, spike,

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Speaker 1: nord mastic, Frankinson's grain, wormwood, crab foot, date pits, and olives.

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Speaker 1: I'm not sure I know what crabfoot is. I think

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00:20:18,080 --> 00:20:20,520
Speaker 1: crabfoot is a plant. I was looking it up. There

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Speaker 1: appears to be a plant that, at least in the

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00:20:22,680 --> 00:20:26,040
Speaker 1: modern world, that is some kind of plant that may

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00:20:26,080 --> 00:20:28,439
Speaker 1: be a parasitic plant that grows on the tea tree

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Speaker 1: or something that it's some modern people on the Internet

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Speaker 1: I've seen referred to as crab foot, But as to

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Speaker 1: this medieval reference, I don't know if it refers to

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Speaker 1: the same thing or something else, or to just crabs feet.

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00:20:40,400 --> 00:20:42,440
Speaker 1: I would hope they would say foot of crab if

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00:20:42,440 --> 00:20:45,120
Speaker 1: it were, if it were an actual foot of a crab. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: all right, we get all these together. What do we

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00:20:46,680 --> 00:20:49,439
Speaker 1: do with them? Well, you grow, So, to resume the quote,

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Speaker 1: grind all of these and reduce them to a powder.

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Speaker 1: Then rub the affected places. Likewise, in order to make

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00:20:55,760 --> 00:20:59,520
Speaker 1: black teeth white, take tin DRAMs of roasted pummice, tin

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00:20:59,640 --> 00:21:03,120
Speaker 1: DRAMs of salt, two DRAMs each of cinnamon and cloves,

395
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Speaker 1: and honey as needed. Mix the pumice and salt with

396
00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:08,840
Speaker 1: a sufficient amount of honey, then place them on a

397
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Speaker 1: plain dish upon the coals until they burn, and reduce

398
00:21:12,080 --> 00:21:14,959
Speaker 1: the other spices to a powder. And when there is need,

399
00:21:15,200 --> 00:21:18,760
Speaker 1: rub the teeth. Well that doesn't sound all that bad. Well, yeah,

400
00:21:18,760 --> 00:21:21,199
Speaker 1: they're putting honey in there. I was like, wait a second,

401
00:21:21,200 --> 00:21:25,239
Speaker 1: you're brushing your teeth with honey. That sounds counterproductive. Well,

402
00:21:25,280 --> 00:21:27,520
Speaker 1: I think one possibility here and uh and I believe

403
00:21:27,520 --> 00:21:29,719
Speaker 1: I read this in reference to the ancient Egyptians is

404
00:21:29,760 --> 00:21:32,160
Speaker 1: that if you were to use honey in your toothpaste,

405
00:21:32,160 --> 00:21:35,560
Speaker 1: you would help hold everything together because if because with

406
00:21:35,600 --> 00:21:37,800
Speaker 1: all these ingredients like it sounds like it's coming together

407
00:21:37,880 --> 00:21:40,639
Speaker 1: as a powder. And certainly powders were employed, but the

408
00:21:40,640 --> 00:21:42,639
Speaker 1: difference between a powder and a paste is kind of

409
00:21:42,680 --> 00:21:45,479
Speaker 1: the the addition of some sort of viscous substance. Right

410
00:21:45,840 --> 00:21:49,520
Speaker 1: right now, For a few other recipes for ancient toothpaste

411
00:21:49,680 --> 00:21:55,480
Speaker 1: um which again various paste washes, toothpicks were used throughout Eurasia,

412
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Speaker 1: we have the ancient Egyptian evidence as well as pointed

413
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Speaker 1: out by a teen National Geographic article a fourth century

414
00:22:02,720 --> 00:22:06,080
Speaker 1: see recipe. Uh and I believe this was a This

415
00:22:06,160 --> 00:22:10,040
Speaker 1: was an Egyptian recipe called for a paste made from salt, peppermint,

416
00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:14,480
Speaker 1: and dried iris flower. Dennist Hines Newman actually tried this

417
00:22:14,560 --> 00:22:17,400
Speaker 1: out in two thousand three and reported that it made

418
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Speaker 1: his mouth feel clean and fresh, though it also made

419
00:22:20,280 --> 00:22:23,520
Speaker 1: his gums bleed. Still He said that this was probably

420
00:22:23,800 --> 00:22:25,919
Speaker 1: this probably would have been an improvement over some of

421
00:22:25,960 --> 00:22:29,360
Speaker 1: the the soap toothpaste that were used prior to World

422
00:22:29,400 --> 00:22:33,200
Speaker 1: War Two soap toothpastes. Yeah, And basically it's just a

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00:22:33,480 --> 00:22:36,760
Speaker 1: reminder and we'll get into this uh as we progress

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Speaker 1: here that that really toothpaste as we know it. Uh,

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00:22:40,840 --> 00:22:43,760
Speaker 1: the dental dental hygiene products as we know it are

426
00:22:43,840 --> 00:22:46,840
Speaker 1: really a post War War two phenomenon. Like that is

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00:22:46,920 --> 00:22:49,760
Speaker 1: really where we enter the more or less modern age

428
00:22:49,840 --> 00:22:53,399
Speaker 1: of of dental hygiene. Fourteenth and fifteenth century England, you

429
00:22:53,440 --> 00:22:57,560
Speaker 1: had toothpaste made from honey, salt rye flour meal. Uh.

430
00:22:57,640 --> 00:22:59,879
Speaker 1: And the honey, as I mentioned earlier, this held it

431
00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:03,200
Speaker 1: all together and gave it flavor. Also from the from

432
00:23:03,200 --> 00:23:05,800
Speaker 1: the time period, you have toothpowder made from the burnt

433
00:23:05,840 --> 00:23:09,840
Speaker 1: branches of a broom plant mixed with burnt alum black.

434
00:23:09,880 --> 00:23:12,840
Speaker 1: And this is in a black, ashy substance that had

435
00:23:12,880 --> 00:23:16,879
Speaker 1: a likely just horrid taste. But maybe that's where you

436
00:23:16,880 --> 00:23:21,160
Speaker 1: know the black and teeth of post apocalyptic societies come from. Okay,

437
00:23:21,520 --> 00:23:23,679
Speaker 1: for some reason, this is the only the only thing

438
00:23:23,720 --> 00:23:26,040
Speaker 1: they know to go back to that they skip all

439
00:23:26,080 --> 00:23:28,120
Speaker 1: the other dental hygiene products, and they just go back

440
00:23:28,160 --> 00:23:30,879
Speaker 1: to this ashen mixture. We're out of guzzline. Time to

441
00:23:30,880 --> 00:23:34,560
Speaker 1: get out the blackened album. Now I mentioned the book

442
00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:39,520
Speaker 1: Clean earlier, and she concludes some interesting material on eighteenth

443
00:23:39,560 --> 00:23:43,199
Speaker 1: century Paris. In Clean, Smith writes that you kind of

444
00:23:43,240 --> 00:23:46,120
Speaker 1: had a perfect storm of bad teeth at the time

445
00:23:46,160 --> 00:23:49,400
Speaker 1: because you had the existing problems of dental hygiene again

446
00:23:49,480 --> 00:23:54,120
Speaker 1: sort of the problems of civilization, compounded by poverty and

447
00:23:54,480 --> 00:23:59,800
Speaker 1: increased access to sugars, sticky fruits, and sweetmeats that traditional

448
00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:03,480
Speaker 1: teeth cleaning methods just couldn't contend with. You couldn't just

449
00:24:03,520 --> 00:24:06,679
Speaker 1: scrape or wipe your mouth clean with sticks and cloth

450
00:24:07,200 --> 00:24:10,119
Speaker 1: like one might have been able to for uh in

451
00:24:10,200 --> 00:24:13,000
Speaker 1: previous ages. Uh. You know, suddenly these these methods that

452
00:24:13,040 --> 00:24:15,760
Speaker 1: we had that were, you know, pretty good, we're suddenly

453
00:24:15,800 --> 00:24:18,399
Speaker 1: just ineffective. On top of that, you had a lot

454
00:24:18,440 --> 00:24:22,720
Speaker 1: of additional damage done by course and badly ground powders,

455
00:24:22,800 --> 00:24:27,240
Speaker 1: ashes and whiteners. So the the the very products that

456
00:24:27,280 --> 00:24:30,399
Speaker 1: are being rolled out to help within all hygiene or

457
00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:34,320
Speaker 1: also contributing to some of the problems. Worn enamel and

458
00:24:34,359 --> 00:24:38,280
Speaker 1: irritated gums end up resulting from these products, and teeth

459
00:24:38,280 --> 00:24:41,679
Speaker 1: could also be destroyed by overuse of cleansing sticks and

460
00:24:41,760 --> 00:24:44,159
Speaker 1: irons that were used to you know, to get in

461
00:24:44,200 --> 00:24:47,199
Speaker 1: there and uh scrape them clean. But towards the end

462
00:24:47,200 --> 00:24:51,200
Speaker 1: of the century, she notes increased understanding and vastly improved

463
00:24:51,200 --> 00:24:54,879
Speaker 1: brushes and pace were beginning to make an impact. Robert,

464
00:24:54,920 --> 00:24:57,119
Speaker 1: this is this has given me vibes from like a

465
00:24:57,280 --> 00:25:01,600
Speaker 1: marathon man. Oh yes, is safe? Well, over use of

466
00:25:01,600 --> 00:25:04,040
Speaker 1: cleansing sticks and irons. It sounds like it is not safe.

467
00:25:04,840 --> 00:25:07,640
Speaker 1: We do not recommend the use of irons now. One

468
00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:09,840
Speaker 1: of the common features you're seeing in many of these

469
00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:14,440
Speaker 1: ancient toothpaste and toothpowder recipes is that there is, uh,

470
00:25:14,640 --> 00:25:17,560
Speaker 1: there's a common need for some kind of abrasive powder

471
00:25:17,800 --> 00:25:20,560
Speaker 1: something that would be also useful and say scrubbing a

472
00:25:20,640 --> 00:25:23,280
Speaker 1: pot clean or something like that. You know. Sometimes they

473
00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:26,920
Speaker 1: might use salt like rock salt, or that might use uh,

474
00:25:26,960 --> 00:25:29,600
Speaker 1: sand or ash or something like that. What we've seen

475
00:25:29,640 --> 00:25:33,240
Speaker 1: references to powders that that used ox hoofs, or that

476
00:25:33,400 --> 00:25:37,560
Speaker 1: use something like egg shells, which look that sounds really awful,

477
00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:40,480
Speaker 1: or as we mentioned several times earlier, pummice. You could

478
00:25:40,480 --> 00:25:42,960
Speaker 1: look to the Greeks and Romans, who occasionally used a

479
00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:47,679
Speaker 1: crushed bone and oyster shells powdered charcoal and bark, and

480
00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:51,159
Speaker 1: the Romans also added flavoring to assist with with bad breath.

481
00:25:51,359 --> 00:25:55,160
Speaker 1: So many terrible stories of the ancient Roman period involved

482
00:25:55,200 --> 00:25:59,040
Speaker 1: oyster shells. Thinking about like the murder of Hypatia. That

483
00:25:59,119 --> 00:26:02,640
Speaker 1: that that's suppose believe they like killed her with oyster shells. Huh,

484
00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:04,840
Speaker 1: like a bunch of them are just just like one

485
00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:08,200
Speaker 1: really sharp one. Well, this might not be a historical anecdote.

486
00:26:08,240 --> 00:26:10,000
Speaker 1: It might just be the legend, but the story is

487
00:26:10,080 --> 00:26:13,200
Speaker 1: that Hypatia was killed by a mob who like scraped

488
00:26:13,200 --> 00:26:16,280
Speaker 1: her to death with oyster shells. Just horrible. Yeah, well,

489
00:26:16,320 --> 00:26:18,719
Speaker 1: I guess that'll get the get the job done though. Um.

490
00:26:18,840 --> 00:26:21,359
Speaker 1: The Chinese are said to have had a wide variety

491
00:26:21,359 --> 00:26:24,800
Speaker 1: of toothpastes over time, which included the use of gen

492
00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:28,440
Speaker 1: sing herbal mints, and salt. And this makes sense given

493
00:26:28,480 --> 00:26:33,359
Speaker 1: the robust nature of Chinese traditional medicine. But before eighteen fifty,

494
00:26:33,480 --> 00:26:37,360
Speaker 1: most toothpaste were not paste. They were powders. They were

495
00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:40,159
Speaker 1: again some sort of powdery substance that you would you

496
00:26:40,160 --> 00:26:41,880
Speaker 1: would put in your mouth and kind of rub into

497
00:26:41,920 --> 00:26:44,120
Speaker 1: your teeth and your your gums to clean things up.

498
00:26:44,280 --> 00:26:49,400
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm thinking traditional comet scrub. Oh yeah, isn't

499
00:26:49,400 --> 00:26:52,320
Speaker 1: there a song about that makes your mouth tearing green? No?

500
00:26:52,480 --> 00:26:56,520
Speaker 1: I don't know this song. We're getting sidetracked. All right, Well,

501
00:26:56,560 --> 00:26:58,960
Speaker 1: let's take another break, and when we come back, we're

502
00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:01,240
Speaker 1: gonna spend the rest of the episode of talking about

503
00:27:01,800 --> 00:27:12,280
Speaker 1: modern tooth phase. Alright, we're back. So we mentioned World

504
00:27:12,280 --> 00:27:14,919
Speaker 1: War Two earlier. Uh and and that's that's really where

505
00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:18,280
Speaker 1: we're heading to in this portion of the episode, because

506
00:27:18,280 --> 00:27:20,879
Speaker 1: we see improved dental powder's paste and brushes during the

507
00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:23,680
Speaker 1: nineteenth century, but the modern age of dentistry doesn't really

508
00:27:23,760 --> 00:27:27,280
Speaker 1: kick in until after World War Two. You had um

509
00:27:27,359 --> 00:27:30,520
Speaker 1: in the United States, you had army dentists that championed

510
00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:34,439
Speaker 1: a modern dental health practice of biennial checkups, a healthy diet,

511
00:27:34,720 --> 00:27:37,480
Speaker 1: and twice a day brushing and uh. And then they

512
00:27:37,800 --> 00:27:40,840
Speaker 1: bring this back to the civilian world with them that

513
00:27:41,080 --> 00:27:45,480
Speaker 1: they bring this back to private practice and the resulting

514
00:27:45,560 --> 00:27:49,399
Speaker 1: high standards in US hygiene and cosmetics, which is always

515
00:27:49,480 --> 00:27:51,399
Speaker 1: key because with I mean, we see this in the

516
00:27:51,560 --> 00:27:56,600
Speaker 1: some of these early examples too. Dentistry involves both hygiene

517
00:27:56,720 --> 00:28:00,400
Speaker 1: and cosmetics. It's some of these these efforts are about out, yes,

518
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:02,439
Speaker 1: let's keep the let's make the mouth healthy, let's keep

519
00:28:02,480 --> 00:28:04,880
Speaker 1: the teeth where they are. But others are about let's

520
00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:06,879
Speaker 1: make the let's make the breath smell nice, let's make

521
00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:09,160
Speaker 1: the teeth look shiny. Well, I mean, I would say

522
00:28:09,160 --> 00:28:14,679
Speaker 1: that oral hygiene dental hygiene products are an area where

523
00:28:14,840 --> 00:28:17,920
Speaker 1: there is a lot of blurring of the line between

524
00:28:18,520 --> 00:28:22,240
Speaker 1: health and aesthetics. Yeah, and it can I mean, honestly,

525
00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:25,560
Speaker 1: it can be frustrating when you go to the dentist

526
00:28:26,040 --> 00:28:28,120
Speaker 1: and you have to ask this question, like you want

527
00:28:28,200 --> 00:28:34,080
Speaker 1: to trust yourself completely over to healthcare professional, and I

528
00:28:34,119 --> 00:28:37,399
Speaker 1: certainly um suggest people do that. But but at the

529
00:28:37,440 --> 00:28:39,120
Speaker 1: same time, sometimes in the back of your head, you

530
00:28:39,240 --> 00:28:41,400
Speaker 1: you you want to ask, wait, is the is this

531
00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:44,400
Speaker 1: service that is being offered me? Is this is this

532
00:28:44,480 --> 00:28:47,080
Speaker 1: aligned with hygiene? Or is this about cosmetics? Is this

533
00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:52,200
Speaker 1: about improving the uh, you know, the the the subjective

534
00:28:53,400 --> 00:28:57,080
Speaker 1: appeal of my smile, or is it about more objective

535
00:28:57,520 --> 00:29:00,600
Speaker 1: health benefits? And of course most modern tooth we mentioned

536
00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:05,360
Speaker 1: earlier that toothpaste in general it serves both functions usually right, So,

537
00:29:05,400 --> 00:29:09,400
Speaker 1: the ingredients of modern toothpaste usually include things like mild

538
00:29:09,400 --> 00:29:12,959
Speaker 1: abrasives and that's just gonna be to help scrub things away.

539
00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:15,600
Speaker 1: But then of course you've got flavors, things that maybe

540
00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:17,960
Speaker 1: taste sweet or taste minty and fresh. And I would

541
00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:22,240
Speaker 1: say the mintiness of toothpaste is in the modern world,

542
00:29:22,320 --> 00:29:26,400
Speaker 1: a very very important part of the package. It is

543
00:29:26,400 --> 00:29:29,040
Speaker 1: a crucial part of what you're paying and why you

544
00:29:29,160 --> 00:29:32,720
Speaker 1: use the product. Now here's something interesting. Uh, So many

545
00:29:32,760 --> 00:29:35,680
Speaker 1: other products are marketed, especially in the United States, are

546
00:29:35,720 --> 00:29:40,280
Speaker 1: marketed towards either male consumers or female consumers. But I

547
00:29:40,320 --> 00:29:43,920
Speaker 1: don't think we really see this with with toothpaste, and uh,

548
00:29:44,080 --> 00:29:48,960
Speaker 1: and and mouthwash. Oh no, gendered marketing of toothpastes. Yeah, well,

549
00:29:48,960 --> 00:29:52,400
Speaker 1: what's like the the ax body spray brand of toothpastes,

550
00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:56,360
Speaker 1: like the hardest, toughest mouth I mean, I guess to

551
00:29:56,440 --> 00:29:58,719
Speaker 1: a limited stent extent, maybe you could say something like

552
00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:04,120
Speaker 1: arm and Hammer is like maybe accidentally marketing towards a

553
00:30:04,200 --> 00:30:07,920
Speaker 1: like a hyper masculine audience because it's arm and hammer, right.

554
00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:11,800
Speaker 1: But at the same time, for the most part, adult

555
00:30:11,840 --> 00:30:14,400
Speaker 1: toothpastes are kind of all the same. It's only like

556
00:30:14,480 --> 00:30:17,600
Speaker 1: you basically have kids toothpaste who have tastes like you know,

557
00:30:17,680 --> 00:30:21,560
Speaker 1: sickeningly sweet mango sherbet or something or that that blue

558
00:30:21,560 --> 00:30:25,120
Speaker 1: stuff with the sparkles in it. And then most adult toothpastes,

559
00:30:25,160 --> 00:30:27,400
Speaker 1: at least the the main toothpaste, not talking about some

560
00:30:27,400 --> 00:30:29,880
Speaker 1: of the ones you might acquire only at health food stores,

561
00:30:29,920 --> 00:30:31,800
Speaker 1: but like the kind you can get to the grocery store.

562
00:30:31,880 --> 00:30:33,240
Speaker 1: I feel like most of those are going to be

563
00:30:33,320 --> 00:30:36,760
Speaker 1: more or less in the same realm our mild abrasives

564
00:30:36,760 --> 00:30:40,000
Speaker 1: are made of eagle claws. No, I'm sorry, I don't

565
00:30:40,040 --> 00:30:43,040
Speaker 1: mean to encourage all you advertising brains out there to

566
00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:46,480
Speaker 1: try gendered marketing of toothpaste. Leave it be. We don't

567
00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:52,080
Speaker 1: need more gendered marketing. I mean, unless it encouraged improvedental hygiene.

568
00:30:52,080 --> 00:30:54,560
Speaker 1: I mean then I guess you know if. But but

569
00:30:54,600 --> 00:30:58,600
Speaker 1: I don't think there's any like gender based messaging against

570
00:30:58,600 --> 00:31:00,760
Speaker 1: brushing your teeth, Like what are you doing brushing your teeth?

571
00:31:00,840 --> 00:31:04,480
Speaker 1: Don't be a girl? Like nobody's saying that other common

572
00:31:04,600 --> 00:31:08,320
Speaker 1: ingredients in toothpaste would be things called humectants, which sort

573
00:31:08,320 --> 00:31:11,360
Speaker 1: of prevent the paste in the mouth from getting too

574
00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:14,440
Speaker 1: dry or all the water leaving it that you've got

575
00:31:14,520 --> 00:31:18,320
Speaker 1: usually some kind of binder thickener, somewhat the role that

576
00:31:18,360 --> 00:31:20,720
Speaker 1: honey might have played in these older toothpaste kind of

577
00:31:20,760 --> 00:31:24,560
Speaker 1: holding everything together. You've got foaming agents that make it

578
00:31:24,640 --> 00:31:27,200
Speaker 1: foam in the mouth, and that's an important aesthetic part

579
00:31:27,200 --> 00:31:29,720
Speaker 1: of the process. If you brush your teeth with a

580
00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:32,880
Speaker 1: toothpaste that doesn't foam, you might be wondering is it

581
00:31:32,920 --> 00:31:35,280
Speaker 1: working right? Right? You want to get a good froth

582
00:31:35,360 --> 00:31:37,480
Speaker 1: going in there because it's then I think also that

583
00:31:37,520 --> 00:31:40,160
Speaker 1: it reminds one of scrubbing one's body with soap, right.

584
00:31:40,640 --> 00:31:43,200
Speaker 1: But then, of course there might also be chemical agents

585
00:31:43,280 --> 00:31:47,160
Speaker 1: in the toothpaste that do something in particular, say like

586
00:31:47,240 --> 00:31:51,840
Speaker 1: a whitening formula, or say it might contain fluoride. Ye,

587
00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:53,680
Speaker 1: And we'd be remiss if we didn't point out that

588
00:31:53,680 --> 00:31:57,280
Speaker 1: that water of fluoridation is one of the top medical

589
00:31:57,320 --> 00:32:00,680
Speaker 1: achievements of the twentieth century. Do not believe your local

590
00:32:00,720 --> 00:32:05,440
Speaker 1: conspiracy theory about the fluoride and your drinking water, I mean,

591
00:32:05,520 --> 00:32:07,560
Speaker 1: unless you just want to end up rubbing your teeth

592
00:32:07,560 --> 00:32:11,960
Speaker 1: with pummice. Now, speaking of conspiracy theories and whatnot, I

593
00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:14,200
Speaker 1: do think it is worth reminding everyone out there that

594
00:32:14,320 --> 00:32:18,480
Speaker 1: just because we've reached a certain point in the evolution

595
00:32:18,760 --> 00:32:22,240
Speaker 1: of of dental hygiene and dental hygiene products, it doesn't

596
00:32:22,280 --> 00:32:26,480
Speaker 1: mean that we can't slip back and fall into into

597
00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:31,000
Speaker 1: pseudo science, into conspiracy theory, or even into uh, like

598
00:32:31,040 --> 00:32:35,360
Speaker 1: to put an optimistic spin on it, traditional medical practices,

599
00:32:35,360 --> 00:32:38,800
Speaker 1: alternative medical practices that have not yet been completely vetted

600
00:32:39,440 --> 00:32:43,360
Speaker 1: by modern science. Are you referring to the oil pulling

601
00:32:43,400 --> 00:32:46,920
Speaker 1: craze of several years ago. Oh? Yeah, that's a good example,

602
00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:49,920
Speaker 1: oil pulling, which is an oil dental rents based on

603
00:32:50,040 --> 00:32:53,680
Speaker 1: air vated practices. I don't really know anything about whether

604
00:32:53,760 --> 00:32:56,960
Speaker 1: that's supposed to be actually efficacious or not. Does it

605
00:32:57,080 --> 00:32:59,840
Speaker 1: do anything good. It's definitely one of these practices that

606
00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:02,680
Speaker 1: some people swear by and some people have very strong

607
00:33:02,720 --> 00:33:06,920
Speaker 1: opinions about. But generally speaking, those individuals are not going

608
00:33:06,960 --> 00:33:09,360
Speaker 1: to be dentists, uh, and it's not going to be

609
00:33:09,520 --> 00:33:11,400
Speaker 1: They're not gonna be representatives of the say the American

610
00:33:11,480 --> 00:33:14,720
Speaker 1: Dental Association. Okay, so would you say if it provides

611
00:33:14,760 --> 00:33:17,520
Speaker 1: any benefit? The evidence is not really in right. I

612
00:33:17,760 --> 00:33:19,880
Speaker 1: saw one source that was saying there was kind of

613
00:33:19,880 --> 00:33:24,320
Speaker 1: speculating on ways that it could work if it was working.

614
00:33:24,520 --> 00:33:26,800
Speaker 1: That that's kind of the answer one tends to to

615
00:33:26,840 --> 00:33:29,880
Speaker 1: come across. That being said, they pointed out that there

616
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:32,280
Speaker 1: wasn't necessarily a reason why you couldn't do it in

617
00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:37,360
Speaker 1: addition to um more modern dental practices, but that this

618
00:33:37,440 --> 00:33:39,280
Speaker 1: is also a great question for any listeners out there,

619
00:33:39,280 --> 00:33:41,160
Speaker 1: because I'm sure there's somebody listening to this has a

620
00:33:41,240 --> 00:33:43,960
Speaker 1: very strong opinion about oil pulling, and I wouldn't mind

621
00:33:43,960 --> 00:33:46,120
Speaker 1: listening to to what you have to say. We also

622
00:33:46,160 --> 00:33:49,080
Speaker 1: they'll have to remember what we said earlier about the

623
00:33:49,160 --> 00:33:53,400
Speaker 1: other factors that play into one's overall dental hygiene. Uh,

624
00:33:53,440 --> 00:33:55,800
Speaker 1: this one person on the left might be able to

625
00:33:55,960 --> 00:33:59,320
Speaker 1: fall back on a more traditional or alternative method of

626
00:33:59,360 --> 00:34:02,040
Speaker 1: maintaining the all hygiene and it will work for them,

627
00:34:02,280 --> 00:34:05,040
Speaker 1: where the person on the other side it will just

628
00:34:05,240 --> 00:34:07,680
Speaker 1: it will fail miserably. Like you know, even with with

629
00:34:07,800 --> 00:34:11,200
Speaker 1: modern dental hygiene methods, they might be kind of having

630
00:34:11,200 --> 00:34:13,800
Speaker 1: an uphill battle. Yeah, it depends on a lot of things.

631
00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:18,000
Speaker 1: Your genes, your microbiome, your diet and all of that contributes. Now,

632
00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:20,000
Speaker 1: on the other hand, I want to point out we've

633
00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:24,680
Speaker 1: been talking about a sort of modern science based dental hygiene.

634
00:34:25,080 --> 00:34:28,200
Speaker 1: But as best I can tell, it is apparently the

635
00:34:28,239 --> 00:34:32,480
Speaker 1: case to me that toothpaste is not strictly necessary to

636
00:34:32,520 --> 00:34:36,359
Speaker 1: get many of the health benefits from tooth brushing. From

637
00:34:36,360 --> 00:34:40,239
Speaker 1: what I've read, toothpaste essentially can help, but it's not

638
00:34:40,320 --> 00:34:44,160
Speaker 1: like brushing your teeth without toothpaste is useless. Brushing teeth

639
00:34:44,160 --> 00:34:47,640
Speaker 1: without toothpaste appears to be much better than not brushing

640
00:34:47,680 --> 00:34:50,160
Speaker 1: at all, And there might be cases where the toothpaste

641
00:34:50,239 --> 00:34:53,200
Speaker 1: isn't even providing all that much of a benefit on

642
00:34:53,280 --> 00:34:56,200
Speaker 1: top of just brushing. So if you're in a situation

643
00:34:56,239 --> 00:34:58,000
Speaker 1: where you have, I don't know, you've gone out to

644
00:34:58,040 --> 00:35:00,120
Speaker 1: a cabin in the middle of the woods and and

645
00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:02,880
Speaker 1: you're you're there for the night, there's no leaving that

646
00:35:02,920 --> 00:35:06,160
Speaker 1: the monsters are prowling in the forest, and you realize

647
00:35:06,160 --> 00:35:08,479
Speaker 1: that you you brought your tooth brush, but you didn't

648
00:35:08,480 --> 00:35:12,080
Speaker 1: bring any toothpaste. You you're you're not that bad off, right,

649
00:35:12,160 --> 00:35:14,719
Speaker 1: You might not get some of the aesthetic benefits such

650
00:35:14,760 --> 00:35:17,680
Speaker 1: as like the mintiness, you know, the breath cleaning, and

651
00:35:17,760 --> 00:35:19,759
Speaker 1: especially if if you're trying to get some kind of

652
00:35:19,840 --> 00:35:23,160
Speaker 1: chemical benefit out of your toothpaste, like whitening, or if

653
00:35:23,200 --> 00:35:26,879
Speaker 1: your toothpaste provides fluoride. But also if you're simply just

654
00:35:27,040 --> 00:35:30,319
Speaker 1: brushing away as you would normally brush with with you know,

655
00:35:30,360 --> 00:35:33,280
Speaker 1: the bristles of a toothbrush, you will succeed in removing

656
00:35:33,280 --> 00:35:35,359
Speaker 1: a lot of the bacterial coating on your teeth, which

657
00:35:35,400 --> 00:35:38,000
Speaker 1: is one of the primary health reasons for brushing your teeth.

658
00:35:38,160 --> 00:35:40,200
Speaker 1: You want to try to get the bacteria off of

659
00:35:40,239 --> 00:35:43,520
Speaker 1: the surfaces in your mouth so they don't build up. Now,

660
00:35:43,560 --> 00:35:45,800
Speaker 1: of course, if you are using toothpaste, one of the

661
00:35:46,320 --> 00:35:49,520
Speaker 1: key rules out there is that you do not swallow

662
00:35:49,560 --> 00:35:53,040
Speaker 1: it as you are brushing your teeth or after you've brushed.

663
00:35:53,080 --> 00:35:55,080
Speaker 1: You know, you spit in the sink and then you

664
00:35:55,120 --> 00:35:56,800
Speaker 1: wash your mouth out and you spit that in the

665
00:35:56,840 --> 00:36:00,280
Speaker 1: sink as well. Yeah, our our researcher, Scott, was looking

666
00:36:00,320 --> 00:36:04,279
Speaker 1: at this and apparently toothpaste swallowing can be a really

667
00:36:04,320 --> 00:36:07,200
Speaker 1: big deal. Yeah. Now, I had looked into this a

668
00:36:07,200 --> 00:36:09,640
Speaker 1: little bit because I have a six year old and

669
00:36:09,719 --> 00:36:12,920
Speaker 1: so in in in teaching him to brush his teeth,

670
00:36:13,560 --> 00:36:15,600
Speaker 1: you know, we were we were told, you know, don't

671
00:36:15,680 --> 00:36:17,399
Speaker 1: let him swallow the toothpaste. You know, that's just one

672
00:36:17,400 --> 00:36:20,279
Speaker 1: of the parental rules that you you pass on. And

673
00:36:20,320 --> 00:36:21,840
Speaker 1: so I looked into it a little bit. I'm like,

674
00:36:21,880 --> 00:36:24,680
Speaker 1: why why why not? And then you see some of

675
00:36:24,680 --> 00:36:26,600
Speaker 1: these these reasons are like, Okay, it's just a it's

676
00:36:26,600 --> 00:36:29,000
Speaker 1: a bad idea for them to swallow at the toothpaste.

677
00:36:29,040 --> 00:36:32,399
Speaker 1: Just really encourage them not to. But yeah, Scott brought

678
00:36:32,480 --> 00:36:35,399
Speaker 1: up some of these specific things that can happen if

679
00:36:35,440 --> 00:36:40,640
Speaker 1: you even have a toothpaste overdose. A toothpaste overdose. What's

680
00:36:40,640 --> 00:36:45,359
Speaker 1: a regular dose, that's a recommended dose. I guess there'd

681
00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:48,720
Speaker 1: be none, right, none? Yeah, as absolutely little as possible.

682
00:36:48,719 --> 00:36:51,200
Speaker 1: I mean, that's why you're spitting, uh, you know, rinsing

683
00:36:51,200 --> 00:36:53,839
Speaker 1: out your mouth, spitting again. There's no just you know,

684
00:36:54,440 --> 00:36:58,440
Speaker 1: there's no swallowing a little toothpaste as part of your breakfast. Um.

685
00:36:58,520 --> 00:37:01,759
Speaker 1: In fact, Scott to point it out a page on

686
00:37:01,920 --> 00:37:06,000
Speaker 1: meadline plus dot gov that pointed out the following quote,

687
00:37:06,040 --> 00:37:08,960
Speaker 1: Swallowing a large amount of regular toothpaste may cause stomach

688
00:37:08,960 --> 00:37:13,919
Speaker 1: pain and possible intestinal blockage. Quote. These additional symptoms may

689
00:37:14,000 --> 00:37:18,600
Speaker 1: occur when swallowing a large amount of toothpaste containing fluoride. Uh.

690
00:37:18,760 --> 00:37:23,800
Speaker 1: They this include The list includes convulsions, diarrhea, difficulty breathing, drooling,

691
00:37:23,880 --> 00:37:26,960
Speaker 1: heart attack, salty or soapy taste in the mouth that

692
00:37:27,080 --> 00:37:29,600
Speaker 1: seems kind of mild compared to these others U but

693
00:37:29,719 --> 00:37:34,720
Speaker 1: also slow heart rate, shock tremors, vomiting, and weakness. So again,

694
00:37:35,360 --> 00:37:38,800
Speaker 1: don't swallow your toothpaste, and if you have been doing

695
00:37:38,840 --> 00:37:41,880
Speaker 1: so for some reason, please stop. But why do they

696
00:37:41,920 --> 00:37:45,840
Speaker 1: make it so delicious? I look, for instance, I brush

697
00:37:45,880 --> 00:37:48,560
Speaker 1: my teeth at work here sometimes, and you know, it

698
00:37:48,600 --> 00:37:51,960
Speaker 1: means having to spit into a sink in the men's

699
00:37:52,040 --> 00:37:55,839
Speaker 1: room or spitting into a water fountain. And sometimes I'm

700
00:37:55,880 --> 00:37:58,120
Speaker 1: thinking of somebody's gonna walk by, or they'll you know,

701
00:37:58,160 --> 00:38:00,000
Speaker 1: they'll be washing their hands and they'll think I'm discussed

702
00:38:00,040 --> 00:38:02,920
Speaker 1: thing for spitting. But clearly the alternative is that I

703
00:38:02,960 --> 00:38:05,960
Speaker 1: poisoned myself. So I am going to continue to spit.

704
00:38:06,200 --> 00:38:08,120
Speaker 1: Do you ever meet that guy who carries around like

705
00:38:08,160 --> 00:38:11,800
Speaker 1: an empty gatorade bottle that he spits his his dip

706
00:38:11,960 --> 00:38:15,120
Speaker 1: dip mouth in, or the chewing tobacco. No, there is

707
00:38:15,120 --> 00:38:17,520
Speaker 1: there's such a person here. Yeah, I've met guys like that,

708
00:38:17,680 --> 00:38:19,600
Speaker 1: but this is this is a Tennessee thing. Oh, I

709
00:38:19,600 --> 00:38:21,920
Speaker 1: think you meant here at work thing. No, no, no,

710
00:38:21,920 --> 00:38:23,799
Speaker 1: I remember this from Tennessee. Yeah, they'd be like a

711
00:38:23,800 --> 00:38:26,200
Speaker 1: guy's got an empty power aid bottle, he already drank

712
00:38:26,200 --> 00:38:27,640
Speaker 1: all the power Aide out of it. He's got a

713
00:38:27,680 --> 00:38:30,560
Speaker 1: mouthful of tobacco product, and he walks around at some

714
00:38:30,600 --> 00:38:32,920
Speaker 1: point needs to spit the bacco juice out somewhere, and

715
00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:34,960
Speaker 1: just goes right into the bottle that he carries in

716
00:38:35,080 --> 00:38:38,359
Speaker 1: his hand. Oh well, that's better than I remember being

717
00:38:38,360 --> 00:38:41,359
Speaker 1: in study hall in high school in Tennessee, and there

718
00:38:41,400 --> 00:38:43,239
Speaker 1: was a desk at the back of the room, like

719
00:38:43,280 --> 00:38:48,000
Speaker 1: an old like teacher's desk made of wood kind of uh,

720
00:38:48,040 --> 00:38:50,919
Speaker 1: you know, it was on unsteady footing. And and that's

721
00:38:50,920 --> 00:38:53,799
Speaker 1: for for some ungodly reason, me and a few friends

722
00:38:53,840 --> 00:38:55,640
Speaker 1: would hang out and like do our homework at the

723
00:38:55,719 --> 00:38:59,960
Speaker 1: last minute. But in some other class, clearly a stud

724
00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:04,200
Speaker 1: sudents were chewing tobacco and then spitting into the desk.

725
00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:08,279
Speaker 1: So most of the drawers were filled with like you know,

726
00:39:08,400 --> 00:39:12,560
Speaker 1: scraps of paper and uh, and tobacco spit. And occasionally

727
00:39:13,080 --> 00:39:15,520
Speaker 1: the desk would leak a little. There would be like

728
00:39:15,560 --> 00:39:19,040
Speaker 1: a foul brown substance that we begin dripping out of

729
00:39:19,080 --> 00:39:22,160
Speaker 1: some corner of the desk and pooling on the floor. Um,

730
00:39:22,200 --> 00:39:26,040
Speaker 1: it was. It was disgusting, Robert. That is a wretched,

731
00:39:26,360 --> 00:39:31,160
Speaker 1: wretched story. Thanks for sharing. You're welcome courtesy of Lincoln

732
00:39:31,160 --> 00:39:34,160
Speaker 1: County High School. So here's another question we should address

733
00:39:34,239 --> 00:39:38,520
Speaker 1: before we leave, because we've established that throughout history. You know,

734
00:39:38,600 --> 00:39:42,400
Speaker 1: since the the agricultural Revolution, people have needed to clean

735
00:39:42,480 --> 00:39:44,560
Speaker 1: their teeth much more than they did when in a

736
00:39:44,600 --> 00:39:49,120
Speaker 1: hunter gatherer state. Especially since the Industrial Revolution, people's oral

737
00:39:49,200 --> 00:39:52,040
Speaker 1: health has been a bigger concern. You're more at risk

738
00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:55,160
Speaker 1: given the kinds of diets people eat, with refined sugar

739
00:39:55,239 --> 00:39:58,080
Speaker 1: and flour and all that kind of stuff. And so

740
00:39:58,320 --> 00:40:02,879
Speaker 1: we know at some point tooth brushing became an extremely

741
00:40:02,960 --> 00:40:06,640
Speaker 1: common thing in the Western world. But how did that happen?

742
00:40:06,760 --> 00:40:09,680
Speaker 1: When did when did that come about? And the American

743
00:40:09,760 --> 00:40:13,680
Speaker 1: journalist and author Charles do Higg wrote about how toothpaste

744
00:40:13,680 --> 00:40:17,000
Speaker 1: took hold of American culture in a book called The

745
00:40:17,080 --> 00:40:19,759
Speaker 1: Power of Habit, Why we do what we do in

746
00:40:19,840 --> 00:40:23,360
Speaker 1: life and business? Uh So, in this book, do Higg

747
00:40:23,440 --> 00:40:26,879
Speaker 1: tells a story about sort of the toothpaste revolution. It's

748
00:40:26,920 --> 00:40:30,080
Speaker 1: the story of a man named Claude C. Hopkins who

749
00:40:30,239 --> 00:40:32,160
Speaker 1: was one of the great and perhaps one of the

750
00:40:32,520 --> 00:40:37,000
Speaker 1: great diabolical minds in the history of modern advertising. Hopkins

751
00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:41,560
Speaker 1: wrote a book called Quote Scientific Advertising. It does sound sinister.

752
00:40:42,360 --> 00:40:45,520
Speaker 1: So around the turn of the twentieth century, apparently almost

753
00:40:45,560 --> 00:40:48,839
Speaker 1: nobody in America brush their teeth, at least not with toothpaste.

754
00:40:49,040 --> 00:40:52,880
Speaker 1: Do Higgs sites consumer research claiming that only seven percent

755
00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:56,080
Speaker 1: of people had toothpaste in their medicine chests around the

756
00:40:56,120 --> 00:40:58,840
Speaker 1: turn of the twentieth century. But then one day a

757
00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:02,480
Speaker 1: friend of Claw Hopkins came to him for help promoting

758
00:41:02,480 --> 00:41:04,839
Speaker 1: a new product that he was selling. He was an

759
00:41:04,880 --> 00:41:10,600
Speaker 1: industrial manufactured toothpaste called PEPSIDENTT. And the pure aesthetics of

760
00:41:10,640 --> 00:41:13,880
Speaker 1: this name sounds so disgusting to me. It makes me

761
00:41:13,920 --> 00:41:18,440
Speaker 1: think of dyspepsia. Like the only toothpaste endorsed by a dyspeptic,

762
00:41:18,480 --> 00:41:24,320
Speaker 1: Jodan Baker defined dyspeptid well, dyspepsia means indigestion. You bad,

763
00:41:24,400 --> 00:41:28,680
Speaker 1: bad digestion. But they think Jodan Baker has bad digestion.

764
00:41:28,880 --> 00:41:31,520
Speaker 1: That's a line from Mystery Science Theater three thousands, starring

765
00:41:31,560 --> 00:41:35,200
Speaker 1: a dyspeptic Joe Don Baker, which which Jodan Baker movie was?

766
00:41:35,239 --> 00:41:39,400
Speaker 1: It I think it was Final Justice. Is that the

767
00:41:39,400 --> 00:41:43,200
Speaker 1: one where he's running around Malta? Yes, But anyway, there

768
00:41:43,280 --> 00:41:45,319
Speaker 1: is actually a common thread in the names here. So

769
00:41:45,680 --> 00:41:49,120
Speaker 1: dyspepsia is indigestion. The root is pepsis, which is the

770
00:41:49,160 --> 00:41:52,560
Speaker 1: ancient Greek word for digestion, and this was apparently a

771
00:41:52,560 --> 00:41:55,799
Speaker 1: clue to the chemical formula of Pepsident. It contained a

772
00:41:55,920 --> 00:42:00,000
Speaker 1: chemical digestive agent to help break down or quote digest

773
00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:02,560
Speaker 1: best food stuck in the teeth. Okay, what's a little

774
00:42:02,600 --> 00:42:04,920
Speaker 1: disgusting when need to put it that way, But a

775
00:42:04,920 --> 00:42:07,160
Speaker 1: lot of things about dental hygiene or disgusting if you

776
00:42:07,239 --> 00:42:10,880
Speaker 1: looked too closely. So Hopkins signed on to spearhead and

777
00:42:10,960 --> 00:42:15,040
Speaker 1: advertising strategy for Pepsident, and it was a huge success.

778
00:42:15,160 --> 00:42:18,239
Speaker 1: Do Higg writes that just a decade after the first

779
00:42:18,320 --> 00:42:22,120
Speaker 1: Pepsident ad campaign, uh, that tiny fraction of Americans who

780
00:42:22,120 --> 00:42:25,960
Speaker 1: had toothpaste in their medicine chest jumped to six and

781
00:42:25,960 --> 00:42:28,480
Speaker 1: we went so we went from almost no Americans brushing

782
00:42:28,480 --> 00:42:31,400
Speaker 1: their teeth with toothpaste to more than half in a

783
00:42:31,560 --> 00:42:34,560
Speaker 1: very short span of time. And do Higg writes also

784
00:42:34,680 --> 00:42:37,680
Speaker 1: that the advertising campaign wasn't just successful in America by

785
00:42:37,760 --> 00:42:43,200
Speaker 1: nine thirty, Pepsident was on store shelves in China, South Africa, Brazil, Germany,

786
00:42:43,280 --> 00:42:47,680
Speaker 1: among other markets. So the question is what made Pepsident

787
00:42:48,040 --> 00:42:52,920
Speaker 1: such a successful advertising and marketing campaign. And so Hopkins

788
00:42:52,920 --> 00:42:55,560
Speaker 1: had a strategy that he always used. It wasn't just

789
00:42:55,640 --> 00:42:58,440
Speaker 1: for this product, it was something he'd used on other products.

790
00:42:59,000 --> 00:43:02,760
Speaker 1: And the strategy she was to create a repeated daily

791
00:43:02,960 --> 00:43:06,920
Speaker 1: routine using the product. And the system might go something

792
00:43:06,960 --> 00:43:10,880
Speaker 1: like this oatmeal gives you energy for twenty four hours,

793
00:43:10,880 --> 00:43:13,000
Speaker 1: but you have to eat it first thing in the morning.

794
00:43:13,560 --> 00:43:16,040
Speaker 1: So this gets people into the habit of having it

795
00:43:16,120 --> 00:43:18,560
Speaker 1: every day when they wake up. There's a queue, there's

796
00:43:18,600 --> 00:43:21,400
Speaker 1: like a time of day Q that signals time to

797
00:43:21,440 --> 00:43:25,160
Speaker 1: consume this product. And then if you consume it every day,

798
00:43:25,360 --> 00:43:27,480
Speaker 1: you keep buying it because you're in a habit. And

799
00:43:27,520 --> 00:43:29,760
Speaker 1: in fact, we still see this kind of strategy used

800
00:43:29,760 --> 00:43:32,319
Speaker 1: in marketing all the time today. Right, try trying to

801
00:43:32,400 --> 00:43:34,920
Speaker 1: encourage you not just to try a product, but to

802
00:43:35,040 --> 00:43:38,200
Speaker 1: make a product a repeated routine in your life, a

803
00:43:38,239 --> 00:43:41,919
Speaker 1: complete part of your daily breakfast, right, exactly right. So

804
00:43:42,440 --> 00:43:44,640
Speaker 1: Hopkins wanted to find a way to to find that

805
00:43:44,719 --> 00:43:47,440
Speaker 1: kind of trigger that would get people using pepsin like

806
00:43:47,480 --> 00:43:50,520
Speaker 1: this every single day. And so he was reading through

807
00:43:50,600 --> 00:43:54,080
Speaker 1: dental textbooks and according to his own autobiography, he he

808
00:43:54,160 --> 00:43:55,799
Speaker 1: was doing this, and he was reading these books and

809
00:43:55,840 --> 00:43:59,440
Speaker 1: he found references to the fact that bacteria in your

810
00:43:59,440 --> 00:44:03,000
Speaker 1: mouth form mucin plaques on your teeth. And you can

811
00:44:03,080 --> 00:44:05,600
Speaker 1: feel this plaque with your tongue if you let it grow.

812
00:44:06,320 --> 00:44:10,000
Speaker 1: And here's his idea to quote one of the ads, quote,

813
00:44:10,440 --> 00:44:14,680
Speaker 1: just run your tongue across your teeth. You'll feel a film.

814
00:44:14,719 --> 00:44:19,200
Speaker 1: That's what makes your teeth look off color and invites decay.

815
00:44:19,560 --> 00:44:23,320
Speaker 1: Another ad, note, how many pretty teeth are seen everywhere.

816
00:44:23,600 --> 00:44:26,799
Speaker 1: Millions are using a new method of teeth cleansing. Why

817
00:44:26,800 --> 00:44:30,200
Speaker 1: would any woman have dingy film on her teeth? Pepsident

818
00:44:30,400 --> 00:44:34,640
Speaker 1: removes the film. So the fact is, of course that

819
00:44:34,800 --> 00:44:38,759
Speaker 1: pepsidint the product was by no means the only way

820
00:44:38,800 --> 00:44:41,320
Speaker 1: to get rid of this film. Right, You could brush

821
00:44:41,320 --> 00:44:44,719
Speaker 1: your teeth without pepsident and do it. According to do Hig,

822
00:44:44,880 --> 00:44:47,279
Speaker 1: one of the top dental authorities of the day, explicitly

823
00:44:47,320 --> 00:44:51,240
Speaker 1: said that the toothpaste was worthless. It did not add

824
00:44:51,280 --> 00:44:54,719
Speaker 1: anything to this process. But it didn't matter because Hopkins

825
00:44:54,719 --> 00:44:59,040
Speaker 1: had found a queue to use the product feeling the film,

826
00:44:59,080 --> 00:45:01,800
Speaker 1: and the film is always is reforming, so you always

827
00:45:01,840 --> 00:45:05,000
Speaker 1: have a new queue to use the product again. And

828
00:45:05,040 --> 00:45:07,800
Speaker 1: so this was hopkins model and how to sell something.

829
00:45:07,880 --> 00:45:11,120
Speaker 1: It was you have a queue, a routine, and a reward.

830
00:45:11,360 --> 00:45:14,319
Speaker 1: And hopkins original idea was the queue is you run

831
00:45:14,360 --> 00:45:16,440
Speaker 1: your tongue across your teeth, and when you do that,

832
00:45:16,560 --> 00:45:19,279
Speaker 1: you will happen to feel a film. It's just biology.

833
00:45:19,360 --> 00:45:23,040
Speaker 1: It just happens. That triggers the routine, which is brushing

834
00:45:23,040 --> 00:45:26,080
Speaker 1: with pepsident, and then there is a reward that comes

835
00:45:26,120 --> 00:45:29,200
Speaker 1: after that, which is feeling that your mouth is now beautiful.

836
00:45:29,640 --> 00:45:32,080
Speaker 1: But do Hig points out that this was actually enhanced

837
00:45:32,080 --> 00:45:33,800
Speaker 1: by the fact that there was a much more direct

838
00:45:33,840 --> 00:45:36,920
Speaker 1: and sensory reward. You didn't just have to rely on

839
00:45:37,000 --> 00:45:40,239
Speaker 1: the cognitive idea of like, ah, now I'm more beautiful.

840
00:45:40,719 --> 00:45:44,080
Speaker 1: You had a very crucial part of the recipe of

841
00:45:44,080 --> 00:45:47,360
Speaker 1: pepsident that contributed to the cycle, and that part of

842
00:45:47,400 --> 00:45:51,040
Speaker 1: the recipe was the mintiness. There was a clean tingling

843
00:45:51,200 --> 00:45:54,080
Speaker 1: left in the mouth after the brushing had been done,

844
00:45:54,160 --> 00:45:56,239
Speaker 1: and that, in fact has been cited as the main

845
00:45:56,360 --> 00:45:59,319
Speaker 1: reward that people feel. You feel your mouth your mouth

846
00:45:59,320 --> 00:46:01,920
Speaker 1: feels dirty, so you brush your teeth and then it

847
00:46:01,960 --> 00:46:05,600
Speaker 1: feels tingly. The tingle lets you know it's working. It does.

848
00:46:05,640 --> 00:46:08,160
Speaker 1: And once the tingle is gone and your mouth feels

849
00:46:08,200 --> 00:46:10,200
Speaker 1: kind of hot and nasty again, don't you want to

850
00:46:10,239 --> 00:46:14,080
Speaker 1: brush your teeth again? This also, you know, I imagine

851
00:46:14,120 --> 00:46:16,920
Speaker 1: this also factors into into some various reasons that one

852
00:46:16,920 --> 00:46:20,160
Speaker 1: could neglect one's stental health, because all you really want

853
00:46:20,280 --> 00:46:23,400
Speaker 1: is the feel of something working. I mean that alone

854
00:46:23,440 --> 00:46:25,400
Speaker 1: is one of the reasons that you have various pseudoscientific

855
00:46:25,400 --> 00:46:29,359
Speaker 1: medical practices that have been pushed by by hoaxters over

856
00:46:29,560 --> 00:46:33,160
Speaker 1: over the the ages. Just if something feels like it's happening,

857
00:46:33,239 --> 00:46:35,399
Speaker 1: then you can you can, you can you can get

858
00:46:35,440 --> 00:46:38,399
Speaker 1: caught up in that alone, like, oh, you just drink

859
00:46:38,400 --> 00:46:40,880
Speaker 1: a little bit of poison of so that's what you're feeling.

860
00:46:41,120 --> 00:46:44,480
Speaker 1: But no, you're feeling something and that is the cure. Yeah. Well,

861
00:46:44,480 --> 00:46:47,279
Speaker 1: I mean we talked earlier about why so many of

862
00:46:47,360 --> 00:46:50,799
Speaker 1: these quack medical cures from the past involved alcohol. Right,

863
00:46:51,080 --> 00:46:54,120
Speaker 1: You're feelings something's happening, right, So I mean you could

864
00:46:54,120 --> 00:46:56,720
Speaker 1: fall into the trap of say thinking, wellhy I have mouthwashed,

865
00:46:56,719 --> 00:46:58,520
Speaker 1: why should I brush my teeth. Why should I flash

866
00:46:58,560 --> 00:47:00,320
Speaker 1: my teeth? Because if I just take a swig of

867
00:47:00,400 --> 00:47:03,239
Speaker 1: this stuff, I feel a little tingle and uh, and

868
00:47:03,239 --> 00:47:06,040
Speaker 1: then I'm minty afterwards, I'm good to go. That, of course,

869
00:47:06,120 --> 00:47:09,440
Speaker 1: is is inaccurate because we've discussed here you're not gonna

870
00:47:09,680 --> 00:47:12,439
Speaker 1: you're not gonna actually get the effects of brushing on

871
00:47:12,560 --> 00:47:15,120
Speaker 1: your teeth and gums that way. But Yeah, one of

872
00:47:15,160 --> 00:47:17,200
Speaker 1: the big takeaways for me at the end of this

873
00:47:17,360 --> 00:47:22,200
Speaker 1: is that, um, while to toothpaste has come to feel

874
00:47:22,640 --> 00:47:26,520
Speaker 1: like an invention that is the central part of modern

875
00:47:26,600 --> 00:47:30,719
Speaker 1: dental health, I think my takeaway from this research is

876
00:47:30,760 --> 00:47:33,480
Speaker 1: that it's it's not that it's bad. Toothpaste is good,

877
00:47:33,920 --> 00:47:36,920
Speaker 1: but it's not the central part of modern dental health.

878
00:47:36,960 --> 00:47:39,200
Speaker 1: That would be brushing and flossing and going to a

879
00:47:39,280 --> 00:47:43,040
Speaker 1: dentist regularly, right, Yes, And that toothpaste is sort of

880
00:47:43,080 --> 00:47:45,680
Speaker 1: like a little bonus it helps a little bit more.

881
00:47:46,160 --> 00:47:49,200
Speaker 1: That being said, I find myself I find myself oddly

882
00:47:49,239 --> 00:47:53,440
Speaker 1: okay with someone using the dark science of of marketing.

883
00:47:54,000 --> 00:47:56,719
Speaker 1: H If it results in people brushing their teeth more like,

884
00:47:56,760 --> 00:47:59,520
Speaker 1: if it if it actually results an improved dental hygiene,

885
00:48:00,000 --> 00:48:01,960
Speaker 1: it's good. Yeah, I guess you're right. I mean, as

886
00:48:02,000 --> 00:48:04,319
Speaker 1: long as it is as long as people retain the

887
00:48:04,360 --> 00:48:07,600
Speaker 1: idea that brushing is important whether you have toothpaste or not.

888
00:48:07,760 --> 00:48:10,319
Speaker 1: But toothpaste can help. Still at the end of the day,

889
00:48:10,719 --> 00:48:13,960
Speaker 1: I'm very pro toothpaste. Oh, I mean me too. Without it,

890
00:48:14,120 --> 00:48:17,759
Speaker 1: I can only imagine how I would spend the day

891
00:48:18,160 --> 00:48:21,360
Speaker 1: just thinking of the horrors of hell lurking under my tongue.

892
00:48:21,960 --> 00:48:24,799
Speaker 1: I am one of the people who's been affected by this, uh,

893
00:48:24,880 --> 00:48:27,640
Speaker 1: this this tingling cycle, the queue and the routine and

894
00:48:27,680 --> 00:48:30,120
Speaker 1: the reward. I've got to feel the minty tingle in

895
00:48:30,200 --> 00:48:32,920
Speaker 1: my mouth. And in fact, I have actually used toothpaste

896
00:48:32,920 --> 00:48:36,520
Speaker 1: before that did not have the minty tingle after I

897
00:48:36,600 --> 00:48:39,479
Speaker 1: was done brushing. I'm sure it helped clean my mouth

898
00:48:39,560 --> 00:48:41,759
Speaker 1: just as good as as a minty toothpaste died. But

899
00:48:41,840 --> 00:48:44,680
Speaker 1: my mouth didn't feel like it was clean. Yeah. The

900
00:48:44,840 --> 00:48:47,600
Speaker 1: whole business of clean is is a complex one, and

901
00:48:47,640 --> 00:48:50,600
Speaker 1: this is one of the topics of Virginia. Smith comes

902
00:48:50,640 --> 00:48:52,920
Speaker 1: back to time and time again in the book, is

903
00:48:52,960 --> 00:48:57,000
Speaker 1: that throughout human history we have hygiene like and then

904
00:48:57,040 --> 00:49:00,120
Speaker 1: we have we have this idea of cleanliness that that

905
00:49:00,280 --> 00:49:03,319
Speaker 1: is detached from the body and these two things just

906
00:49:03,400 --> 00:49:08,160
Speaker 1: become intertwined in human culture and very difficult to to

907
00:49:08,239 --> 00:49:11,759
Speaker 1: pull apart. So the things that are are things that

908
00:49:11,800 --> 00:49:14,000
Speaker 1: are hygienic and things that are clean. It's often that

909
00:49:14,080 --> 00:49:16,840
Speaker 1: they're complicated and they're intertwined to the point that you

910
00:49:17,080 --> 00:49:19,439
Speaker 1: just really can't separate them. Again, well, I think there's

911
00:49:19,440 --> 00:49:22,400
Speaker 1: a case to be made psychologically and sort of theoretically

912
00:49:22,480 --> 00:49:26,160
Speaker 1: that the the cleanliness drive, the hygiene drive is sort

913
00:49:26,200 --> 00:49:31,279
Speaker 1: of part of the over of the overarching orderliness mindset,

914
00:49:31,880 --> 00:49:34,839
Speaker 1: which is a powerful part of of human psychology and

915
00:49:34,920 --> 00:49:37,359
Speaker 1: can be deployed for for great good and great ill.

916
00:49:37,880 --> 00:49:40,840
Speaker 1: I think some people would say that the orderliness drive

917
00:49:41,040 --> 00:49:44,000
Speaker 1: gives us civilization and and all that, but it also

918
00:49:44,080 --> 00:49:47,239
Speaker 1: gives people, uh, I don't know, fascism and all that

919
00:49:47,320 --> 00:49:51,640
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. So uh so, hey, keep your mouth clean,

920
00:49:51,719 --> 00:49:54,440
Speaker 1: but don't practice fascism of the mouth. I don't know,

921
00:49:54,480 --> 00:49:57,239
Speaker 1: I'd say, go practice fascism of the mouth. At least

922
00:49:57,239 --> 00:49:58,960
Speaker 1: it's going to be a very orderly state in there.

923
00:49:59,760 --> 00:50:01,520
Speaker 1: But we can we'll just have to agree to disagree

924
00:50:01,520 --> 00:50:05,120
Speaker 1: on that, all right. So there you have another episode

925
00:50:05,160 --> 00:50:08,719
Speaker 1: of invention. In the books, we looked at toothpaste. Who

926
00:50:08,719 --> 00:50:10,520
Speaker 1: knows what we'll look at next. We didn't even talk

927
00:50:10,560 --> 00:50:12,799
Speaker 1: about flossing all that much, but dental floss is another

928
00:50:12,800 --> 00:50:16,680
Speaker 1: invention of the post War War two uh dental world.

929
00:50:16,840 --> 00:50:20,239
Speaker 1: If dental floss is independently interesting, we will revisit it,

930
00:50:20,400 --> 00:50:23,200
Speaker 1: all right. So that's it for this week's episode of Invention.

931
00:50:23,320 --> 00:50:24,719
Speaker 1: If you want to learn more about the show and

932
00:50:24,800 --> 00:50:27,719
Speaker 1: check out other episodes, head on over to our website

933
00:50:27,880 --> 00:50:32,160
Speaker 1: invention pod dot com. Big thanks to Scott Benjamin for

934
00:50:32,320 --> 00:50:35,720
Speaker 1: research assistance with this episode, thanks to our audio producer

935
00:50:35,760 --> 00:50:38,200
Speaker 1: Tari Harrison. If you would like to get in touch

936
00:50:38,239 --> 00:50:41,160
Speaker 1: with us directly with feedback on this episode or any other,

937
00:50:41,360 --> 00:50:43,560
Speaker 1: to suggest a topic for the future, or just to

938
00:50:43,640 --> 00:50:45,560
Speaker 1: say hi, let us know how you found out about

939
00:50:45,560 --> 00:50:48,600
Speaker 1: the show where you listen from all that kind of stuff,

940
00:50:48,600 --> 00:50:53,000
Speaker 1: you can email us at contact at invention pod dot

941
00:50:53,040 --> 00:51:03,000
Speaker 1: com the rep day and your pearlier with your da