WEBVTT - Invention Playlist II: Toothpaste 0:00:08.880 --> 0:00:12.399 Hey, welcome to Invention. My name is Robert Lamb and 0:00:12.440 --> 0:00:16.120 I'm Joe McCormick. Robert, have you ever had the misfortune 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:20.160 of going to work having forgotten to brush your teeth 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:23.800 in the morning. First, No, you've never done it. No, 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:27.040 I just don't. I don't remember having done it. I 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:30.000 might have done this earlier on. But I've I've really, 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:33.400 I've been on a care the last ten years or so, 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:37.920 um where I've I've really put a focus on maintaining 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:41.480 proper dental hygiene. Yeah, you keep the mouth regiment under 0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:43.920 the lash. Yeah. Like I'll go into to see my 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:47.120 dentist and the dentist will say, hey, what do you uh, 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:49.240 what's it like when you don't wear your mouth guard 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:50.680 at night? Because I wear a mouth guard at night 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:53.880 to keep from grinding my teeth. And and I when 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:55.800 they asked me this, they say, well, what do you 0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:57.680 mean you tell me to wear this every night? I 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:01.160 wear it every night. So um so yeah, I I 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:03.840 try and follow everything to the letter. You are like 0:01:03.880 --> 0:01:06.320 a monk. You are like a medieval monk with that 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:09.240 kind of discipline. I guess you know the fear of hell, 0:01:09.319 --> 0:01:11.959 but in this case, the hell that I that I 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:16.279 am uh fearful of is a hell of lost teeth 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:18.960 or decaying teeth, et cetera. Oh, nasty mouth is a 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:21.240 kind of hell. I mean, when this has happened to me, 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:26.280 it feels so disgusting, and my mouth feels nasty and unhealthy, 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:28.760 and I assume my breath must be terrible, and I 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:30.880 assume that, like my teeth are all going to fall 0:01:30.920 --> 0:01:33.720 out by six pm. It's it's just bad. And I 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:37.840 also feel like I have, I have made some seriously injurious, 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:41.160 irreparable mistake for my own dental health. I know that's 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:44.679 probably way over the line, but I I do feel 0:01:44.760 --> 0:01:48.400 that way sometimes, And and brushing one's teeth can sometimes 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:50.960 feel I don't know if you share this, feel as 0:01:51.040 --> 0:01:57.160 absolutely essential, as like biologically essential and primordial as sleeping 0:01:57.320 --> 0:01:59.760 or breathing. You know that like if you don't do it, 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:02.480 something is deeply wrong with your body and you're not 0:02:02.640 --> 0:02:06.200 living as you were meant to. Yeah, it's it's a 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:08.680 totally weird area that I've probably spent way too much 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:12.960 time contemplating. Because on one level, yes, when you're when 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:15.480 you're younger, older people tell you, hey, you need to 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:17.240 brush your teeth, you need to flash your teeth, you 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:19.440 need to do these things. And when you're young, you're 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:21.480 you're just kind of like, oh, yeah, yeah, I'll do 0:02:21.520 --> 0:02:23.120 those things. I'll do those things some of the time. 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:26.400 Um it's and oftentimes as only as you get older 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:28.680 that you realize, oh, I need a double down on that, 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:30.919 or worse, I really should have listened to them back 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:32.639 in the day, back when I was younger. Well, you 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:34.560 don't want to be looking back and saying, oh, if 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:37.680 only I've done things differently, I wouldn't have goblin shark mouth. 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:39.880 And it also doesn't help that so many of us 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:42.120 are pet owners. And if you get older pets, then 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:45.200 you know the experience of your your your pet outliving 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:49.520 its teeth um because or having to pay for for 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:52.040 brushings for your various animals, having to get in there 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:54.920 and brush their teeth yourself, that sort of thing. You know. 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:57.760 I was wondering what happens if you just don't brush 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:00.000 your teeth. I have this fear that the bad things 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:02.960 will happen if I don't. But what actually happens if 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:04.720 you just say let it go for a year. And 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:06.760 there are actually quite a few articles about this. There 0:03:06.800 --> 0:03:09.480 must be a thing people wonder pretty often. For example, 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:11.600 I was just reading an article in USA today that 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:15.400 interviewed a dentist and a spokesperson from the American Dental 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:18.600 Association named Matthew Messina about what would happen if you 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:21.320 stop brushing your teeth for a year, And for reference, 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:24.760 the the a DA, the American Dental Association recommends flossing 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:27.760 once a day and brushing twice a day. And that's 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:31.240 and that's what everyone should do um at least twice 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:33.600 a day. I say, do three if you can. But 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:37.520 everybody apparently has a different reaction to neglect of dental hygiene. 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:40.800 So there are probably some people out there, just depending 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:44.600 on your genes, your diet, your microbiome, various things about you, 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:47.640 that that could do this and wouldn't suffer all that 0:03:47.680 --> 0:03:50.840 many consequences. Probably there are other people who would have 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:55.200 very negative consequences. But generally, on average, people who stopped 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:57.360 brushing their teeth for a year would be a lot 0:03:57.400 --> 0:03:59.680 more likely to develop tooth decay in the form of 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:03.000 cab at ease, and more likely to develop periodontal disease 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:05.920 or gum disease, and both of these can be really bad, 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:08.640 They cause pain in the mouth, can cause tooth loss. 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:12.040 Uh So, a primary function of tooth brushing is to 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:16.720 just brush away bacterial formations on your teeth, and if 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:19.520 you don't brush that bacteria away, it can cause immune 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:22.760 system reactions, and the gums can potentially lead to a 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:25.800 host of other sort of secondary health problems in the 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:27.839 body which aren't even in the mouth. It can even 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:30.840 it's been linked to, say, pneumonia and heart attacks and 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:33.159 so forth. And then on the more esthetic side, you 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:35.640 of course have your teeth looking like you haven't brushed 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:38.479 them in a year, and chronic bad breath probably, But 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:41.640 sometimes I think about how my toothbrush, the toothpaste I use. 0:04:41.720 --> 0:04:45.240 These are products of twenty first century industry, and if 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:47.160 you go back a few hundred years, people didn't have 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:49.800 products exactly like these. They might have had some other 0:04:49.839 --> 0:04:52.839 things they did to their mouth, and we'll discuss those 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:56.000 in a bit. But what would it be like to be, say, 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:59.839 a fifteenth century peasant who just doesn't have a tooth 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:03.520 rush and toothpaste. Because our dental health and hygiene, as 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:07.400 we understand it is, is dependent upon this modern technology, 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:10.960 upon these inventions, and what did we do before those inventions, 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:13.920 because obviously there's like a base level, right of like 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:17.080 the animal level of maintaining your dental hygiene, in which 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:20.479 you use your tongue and maybe your nails to remove 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:25.440 and you know, dislodge bits of vegetable or flesh. But 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:27.840 but beyond that, what was there. That's one of the 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:29.800 things we're gonna talk about today, not only where does 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:33.599 modern toothpaste come from, but what past for toothpaste in 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:37.400 ages past and the relationship between why we use toothpaste 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:40.159 and what it actually does. I have to to admit 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:42.600 that the historical question here is something I always think 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:45.320 about whenever I'm watching a movie that's that has a 0:05:45.400 --> 0:05:49.279 historical setting, especially if it's a big budget, modern Hollywood production, 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:52.160 because you inevitably have just somebody with you know, they've 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:56.080 they've put grime on their face, they're wearing splendid outfits, 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:59.960 but then their their teeth just shine like like the sun, 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:03.440 and they're just so pearly white. And I'll often say, 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:05.560 often call them out on that. I'd be like, oh, 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:07.599 that that doesn't seem right at all, like the teeth 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:10.040 in Brave Heart, And yeah, you know, to go in 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:12.400 the other direction, if you look at post apocalyptic films, 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:15.280 especially bad post apocalyptic movies from the eighties, the kind 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:18.280 of Mad Max rip offs that like Cannon films did, 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:21.600 like a Cyborg, the gen Claude Van Damn movie, You'll 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:25.280 get people living in this squalid future and they do 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:27.680 the thing where they take people who have normal, healthy 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:30.800 looking teeth and they just kind of rub grime on it, 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:33.920 like they've got these streaks of black across their teeth. 0:06:34.080 --> 0:06:37.160 Like in the future, everybody just eats shoe polish. Well, 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:39.440 who knows. I mean, that's actually gonna gonna line up 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:43.400 in interesting ways with some of the earlier dental hygiene 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:46.800 inventions that will be discussing. That's true. I didn't even 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:50.279 think about that. People in Cyborg, those those black and 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:53.719 teeth could be a product of their their tooth cleaning regimen, 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:56.200 not a product of decay, right or you know that 0:06:56.240 --> 0:06:59.000 has to do with their their tobacco usage. Who knows. 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:01.920 But another question and I have is, Okay, so if 0:07:02.040 --> 0:07:05.080 we don't brush our teeth for a year or even longer, 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:08.200 some bad things can happen to our mouth. Which makes 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:10.440 me think that if you go back to prehistoric life, 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:14.880 people didn't really have much of anything, toothbrushes, toothpaste. Uh, 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:17.800 they probably didn't really brush their teeth much anyo. They 0:07:17.840 --> 0:07:20.000 had fingers and like they had twigs to chew on. 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:22.120 They could probably rub around in their in their mouth 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:24.440 with their fingers if they felt like it. We don't 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:27.640 know how much they did that, but did prehistoric people's 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:31.119 just always have nasty mouth syndrome with teeth rotten away 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:33.840 by the time they were teenagers? Like, how did teeth 0:07:33.880 --> 0:07:37.840 survive before we had modern dental care and dental hygiene equipment. 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:40.840 And I actually found a really interesting paper about this. 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:44.280 This was a paper published in Nature Genetics in by 0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:47.600 Christina J. Adler at All a bunch of authors called 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:52.239 Sequencing Ancient calcified dental plaque shows changes in oral microbiota 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:56.680 with dietary shifts of the Neolithic and Industrial revolutions. And 0:07:56.720 --> 0:07:59.800 so the takeaway of this paper is, despite not having 0:07:59.840 --> 0:08:04.120 the dental hygiene methods that we do, prehistoric hunter gatherers 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:07.600 had pretty good teeth. They could probably pick at their 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:10.320 teeth with twigs and so forth, But they didn't have toothpaste, 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:13.480 they didn't have toothbrushes, they didn't have dentists, So how 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:16.960 did their teeth survive And the answer appears to be 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:19.840 their teeth were pretty healthy because they survived on a 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:23.200 totally different diet than we do now. Yeah. Indeed, think 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:26.560 of all the coffee and sugary sodas that they were 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:29.840 not consuming. I think it seems like sugar is a 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:32.880 big part of this equation because much of our oral 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:36.360 health depends on the relationship with the microbial organisms that 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:38.880 live in our mouths. It's kind of fun to think 0:08:38.880 --> 0:08:42.840 about the fact that your mouth is an ecosystem. Yeah. Yeah, 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:45.200 And and sugar is something that you're you're only really 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:48.839 supposed to find so much of in the wild. Our 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:51.440 modern candy bars just throw all that out of whack. 0:08:51.720 --> 0:08:54.400 And my my father, I should mentioned, was a dentist 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:57.200 and u in. One of the things he always told 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:00.559 my sisters and me was was, if you eat that 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:02.320 candy bar, it's just gonna write your teeth own, Like, 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:04.040 don't don't eat that candy bar. Don't eat it. We 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:05.800 still ate a lot of candy, but the message was 0:09:05.840 --> 0:09:10.880 always there, like it's eating consuming too much sugar is 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:14.559 a road to garbage mouth. Well that you can assume 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:16.960 that that might be like one of those kind of 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:20.960 just uninformed parental warnings is just to scare you, the 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:23.000 same way they say, like don't if you watch too 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:25.480 much TV, you'll go cross eye. There's something like that. 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:28.080 You know, that's not really based in fact, but but 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:31.200 it does appear that that piece of advice is somewhat 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:33.240 based in fact that there does appear to be a 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:37.920 relationship between sugar consumption and poor oral health. Because if 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:40.480 you change what you eat, you also change what the 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:44.400 organisms in your mouth eat. It's an ecosystem. You're changing 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:47.480 what chemical energy profile is going into that ecosystem in 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:51.680 your mouth, and different microbes eat different things, change your diet, 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:54.400 and you might encourage a different crowd to take up 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:58.800 shop in your teeth. And so the prehistoric hunter gatherer 0:09:58.840 --> 0:10:03.400 diet favored things like meat, vegetables, and nuts, and apparently 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:06.320 that is pretty friendly to your teeth. One of the 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:08.840 important things to keep in mind yeah here is that 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:13.800 inventions do not occur within a vacuum, and inventions are 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:17.520 affected by other inventions. And there's a pretty key invention 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:21.400 involved here. That invention, of course, would be agriculture. About 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:24.280 ten thousand years ago, Neil with the humans began the 0:10:24.360 --> 0:10:28.320 farming Revolution, which caused a massive shift in the human diet. 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:30.680 If you were in one of these regions that was 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:34.439 sustained by farming, suddenly your diet would shift from things 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:37.840 like you know, meats, wild growing fruit and vegetables and 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:42.439 nuts and roots and all that into carbohydrate rich grains, 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:46.880 grain based breads and porridges and things like that. So 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:51.000 you're you're suddenly shifting your diet to this mainly carbon 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:55.240 driven thing. And then there's another shift that happens again 0:10:55.720 --> 0:10:59.240 once again due to technology. Uh, the Industrial Revolution brings 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:03.040 about the wide spread availability of processed flour and sugar 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:06.640 around say eighteen fifty or so. And so this study 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:08.720 that I mentioned a minute ago, it looked at thirty 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:12.000 four early European skeletons to show that the transition from 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:15.760 the hunter gatherer diet to farming quote, shifted the oral 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:22.320 microbial community to a disease associated configuration. And apparently around 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:26.840 the Industrial Revolution, carryogenic bacteria, which is bacteria that causes 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:31.719 tooth decay, became dominant in our mouths, and mouth microbiota 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:34.280 are much less diverse now, which may be the cause 0:11:34.559 --> 0:11:37.079 of all the chronic oral disease we see in wealthy 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:41.720 industrial societies today. It's a case where innovations and innovations 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:44.960 unbalanced things, and then we have to create other inventions. 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:47.360 We have to come up with with with various schemes 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:51.600 to try and rebalance everything. Yeah, exactly. So one of 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:54.320 the authors of that paper was Alan Cooper, director of 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:59.120 the Australian Center for Ancient DNA, and so, speaking to NPR, 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:02.719 he said, quote, what you've really created is an ecosystem 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:06.000 which is very low and diversity and full of opportunistic 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:09.600 pathogens that have jumped in to utilize the resources which 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:12.760 are now free. And as a result, of course, what 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:16.560 happens is that the mouth is constantly fighting these microbes 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:19.520 that live inside it. Uh to quote Cooper again, quote 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:23.240 you're walking around with a permanent immune response, which is 0:12:23.280 --> 0:12:26.240 not a good thing. It causes problems all over the place. 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:28.760 This reminds me of of of of one of my 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:32.520 favorite quotes from Tina Fey that was in her her autobiography. 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:36.120 She's talking about the experience of growing older and waking 0:12:36.160 --> 0:12:38.600 up in the morning and just having this horrible taste 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:42.440 in your mouth, and she uh surmised that quote the 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:45.640 mouth dies first, and it makes sense that it would 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:48.200 be of them. The mouth is just this constantly just 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:51.240 ground zero for this war against pathogens. Well, this is 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:54.240 just one front on which we're seeing more and more 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:58.839 evidence that our microbiome, the microbes that live within us 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:02.240 and on us, really do affect our health in in 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:06.280 pretty extreme ways that we haven't really recognized until very 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:09.360 recent times. But anyway, what all this so far tells 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:13.720 us is that it's not necessarily a fact of nature 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:17.880 that animals just have to brush their teeth with toothpaste 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:21.400 and floss and stuff. I mean, it can be good 0:13:21.440 --> 0:13:24.240 for animals to clean their mouths, right, Oh yeah, I 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:26.400 mean it's it's worth noting that cleaning your teeth is 0:13:26.440 --> 0:13:29.040 not merely a human thing. I mean, you just think 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:31.360 about how we might again dislodge food with you with 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:34.320 a tongue or or a nail in some cases. And 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:37.400 certainly there are other creatures that may do the same. Uh. 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:41.800 Tooth grooming even with tools has been observed among chimpanzees. 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:45.440 So they might use twigs for close work when fingers 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:47.760 won't cut it. But do they stand outside the olive 0:13:47.760 --> 0:13:49.840 garden with that twig hanging out of their mouth in 0:13:49.880 --> 0:13:52.959 the parking lot holding a styrofoam clamshell. Uh no, I 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:55.240 don't believe they do. But but they're not there yet 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:58.000 as a species. But from these results, it seems pretty 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:01.600 clear that what what's going on is that we have 0:14:01.880 --> 0:14:07.000 created through our technology a need for an oral hygiene 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:10.400 regime that was that was not necessarily there in our 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:13.560 wild existence. And so how how do we cope with 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:18.120 this new microbiome in our mouths, this new more hostile 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:21.160 ecosystem between the teeth and the gums. Yeah, when we 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:23.600 look into the look back into the deeper history of 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:27.600 toothpaste itself, um, it seems pretty clear that that people 0:14:27.640 --> 0:14:31.960 were figuring out things they could do pretty early on. Um, 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:35.800 in terms of recorded history. Uh, it's thought that Egyptians 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:40.280 probably started using uh something like toothpaste is as long 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:43.840 ago is maybe five thousand uh BC. And also we 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:46.920 see evidence for this among the ancient Greeks, the Romans, 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:50.960 the ancient Chinese, the ancient Indians. Yeah, there there is 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:53.640 a long tradition of I mean, one of one of 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:56.160 the things you see if you go back into the 0:14:56.200 --> 0:15:00.920 ancient world as medical manuals and and like more magical 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:04.840 edging kind of potion manuals and these things may sometimes 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:07.840 give you recipes for what to do with the mouth. 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:09.680 A lot of times there will be like a powder 0:15:09.760 --> 0:15:12.240 or something it'll tell you to grind up and you 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:15.000 rub that on the teeth to clean them. Yeah. I 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:19.160 was actually reading in a book, uh title Clean, a 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:22.080 History of Personal Hygiene Impurity by Virginia Smith, which is 0:15:22.160 --> 0:15:25.160 a really excellent book that I've referred to on podcasts 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:28.160 in the past. But she mentions that the ancient Egyptians 0:15:28.200 --> 0:15:31.520 indeed had to deal with dental problems and that this 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:35.080 is ultimately one of the quote problems of civilization. Uh, 0:15:35.120 --> 0:15:37.240 you know, getting back again to the the idea that 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:42.040 the the agricultural revolution created some of these problems for us. 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:45.560 She says that it's likely that excess consumption of honey 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:48.640 and sugar likely impacted that at least the wealthy in 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:52.680 Egyptian society, but that many ancient Egyptians had teeth that 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:55.920 were also worn down to the quick due to poorly 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:59.840 milled flour. Oh yeah, so if you have flower the 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:02.640 it's got like um, it's got like sand or grit 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:05.360 and mixed in it can actually wear down your teeth 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:07.760 from chewing on it. Yeah, So all you kids out 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:09.800 there that love to eat sand, and we're looking for 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:13.200 an excuse to stop eating sand. There you go, yeah, yeah, 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:15.400 if you get sand in your mouth of the beach, 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:18.800 do wash it out if it all possible, because it 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:21.040 gives me the olivers to think about the alternative fear. 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:24.800 So thinking about tooth what does toothpaste actually do? In fact, 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:28.480 toothpaste does something sort of like the sand and the bread, 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:31.520 except hopefully not as harsh on the teeth. Uh. It 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:35.840 fulfills functions related to both health and aesthetic. So on 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:39.120 the health side, it removes the build up of dental plaque, 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:42.720 which is a bacterial biofilm that grows on surfaces inside 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:45.280 the mouth, such as on teeth and around the gum line, 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:48.640 and that helps prevent tooth decay and gum disease. But 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:51.000 then the aesthetic side, of course, is that it also 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:54.000 helps prevent bad breath, It prevents you know, stinky mouth, 0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:57.240 It helps keep the teeth appearing white and healthy, and 0:16:57.280 --> 0:17:00.440 it also sometimes just provides a pleasant taste, which is 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:04.120 actually I think a more important factor in why people 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:07.119 use toothpaste than many of them realize. Now, back on 0:17:07.160 --> 0:17:08.680 the health side, there are a couple of different things 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:11.720 that it does. On one hand, it's an abrasive kind 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:14.280 of like the sand or the grid or something that 0:17:14.400 --> 0:17:17.840 helps rub the stuff away in the mouth. And on 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:20.440 the other hand, sometimes it has chemical aids as well, 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:24.399 Like an ingredient might be something like fluoride. Yes, fluoride, 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:26.960 that's an essential one as well. Well, we'll get back 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:28.880 to the importance of fluoride in a bit. Well, yeah, 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:30.960 that that'll be in the modern section. First, we gotta 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:33.440 tell you about what people used to do to their teeth, right, 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:35.080 And before we do that, we should probably take our 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:38.200 first break. But yeah, when we come back, we will. 0:17:38.600 --> 0:17:41.600 We will jump in the time machine and brush our 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:50.520 teeth among the denizens of history. Robert, would you like 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:53.760 to go on a journey with me to twelveth century 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:57.760 Italy to find out what toothcare looked like? Then let's 0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:00.920 do it, Okay. So I want to quote from the Trotula, 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:04.240 which is a famous collection of treatises on women's health 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:08.200 from medieval Italy. Translated this is a translation by Professor 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:11.960 Monica H. Green, And there are several entries in the 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:15.160 Trotula about what to do about problems with the teeth. 0:18:16.200 --> 0:18:19.280 First of all, here's one for black teeth. Off to 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:22.760 a good start. Quote for black and badly colored teeth. 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:26.760 Take walnut shells well cleaned, if their interior rind, which 0:18:26.800 --> 0:18:30.120 is green. And we rubbed the teeth three times a day. 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:32.760 And when they have been well rubbed, we washed the 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:36.560 mouth with warm wine and with salt mixed in if desired. 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:39.760 Do you swallow the wine? I would think not, not 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:42.280 with the salt thrown in there. But you know this, 0:18:42.280 --> 0:18:45.120 this reminds me of episodes that we've recorded for Stuff 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:47.840 to About Your Mind, where we've talked about the history 0:18:47.840 --> 0:18:51.159 of well cocktails, but also things that we're sort of 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:54.159 like cocktails that at least involved alcohol being mixed with 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:59.200 other substances, and very often those were magic potions or 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:02.200 some sort of medi snol mixture that was supposed to 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:04.600 aid you, and very often they did involve wine or 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:08.800 some other alcohol. It is striking how many of the 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:14.040 treatments of the past involved alcoholic beverages. It almost makes 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:17.000 you think that, like in some cases, the alcoholic beverage 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:19.520 may have been a sort of consolation prize for the 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:22.800 fact that the treatment does not generally work, or if 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:25.119 it had some kind of placebo effects. The placebo effect 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:27.320 might have been linked to the fact that the alcohol 0:19:27.400 --> 0:19:29.399 gets you a little bit drunk. Yes, And and I 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:32.520 can't think about the salt aspect of this without thinking 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:34.639 of about some of the saltwater treatments that have been 0:19:34.640 --> 0:19:37.160 employed in the past, where you're essentially you're you are 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:40.399 just drinking saltwater, maybe saltwater mixed with honey or milk 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:43.880 or something, but but just drinking a bunch of saltwater 0:19:43.960 --> 0:19:45.800 to try and cure some ailment. Oh yeah, some of 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:48.920 the ancients actually thought that that could heal you of problems. Yeah, 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:51.800 and they're not so ancients, And I recall correctly. Uh, 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:54.240 here's another one. This is also from the trotula. This 0:19:54.280 --> 0:19:56.399 one sounds more like this is for rich people. I 0:19:56.440 --> 0:20:00.720 think quote for whitening black teeth and strengthen in corroded 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:04.240 or rotting gums, and for a bad smelling mouth. This 0:20:04.280 --> 0:20:07.919 works the best. Take some each of cinnamon, clove, spike, 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:14.639 nord mastic, Frankinson's grain, wormwood, crab foot, date pits, and olives. 0:20:15.800 --> 0:20:17.880 I'm not sure I know what crabfoot is. I think 0:20:18.080 --> 0:20:20.520 crabfoot is a plant. I was looking it up. There 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:22.639 appears to be a plant that, at least in the 0:20:22.680 --> 0:20:26.040 modern world, that is some kind of plant that may 0:20:26.080 --> 0:20:28.439 be a parasitic plant that grows on the tea tree 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:32.159 or something that it's some modern people on the Internet 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:34.199 I've seen referred to as crab foot, But as to 0:20:34.280 --> 0:20:37.080 this medieval reference, I don't know if it refers to 0:20:37.119 --> 0:20:40.359 the same thing or something else, or to just crabs feet. 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:42.440 I would hope they would say foot of crab if 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:45.120 it were, if it were an actual foot of a crab. Yeah, 0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:46.639 all right, we get all these together. What do we 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:49.439 do with them? Well, you grow, So, to resume the quote, 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:52.360 grind all of these and reduce them to a powder. 0:20:52.400 --> 0:20:55.760 Then rub the affected places. Likewise, in order to make 0:20:55.760 --> 0:20:59.520 black teeth white, take tin DRAMs of roasted pummice, tin 0:20:59.640 --> 0:21:03.120 DRAMs of salt, two DRAMs each of cinnamon and cloves, 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:06.199 and honey as needed. Mix the pumice and salt with 0:21:06.240 --> 0:21:08.840 a sufficient amount of honey, then place them on a 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:12.000 plain dish upon the coals until they burn, and reduce 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:14.959 the other spices to a powder. And when there is need, 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:18.760 rub the teeth. Well that doesn't sound all that bad. Well, yeah, 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:21.199 they're putting honey in there. I was like, wait a second, 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:25.239