1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:06,720 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey 2 00:00:06,800 --> 00:00:09,600 Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren bubble Boum here with a classic brain 3 00:00:09,640 --> 00:00:13,160 Speaker 1: Stuff episode. I don't know about you, but I often 4 00:00:13,200 --> 00:00:16,600 Speaker 1: take for granted the everyday hygiene products that I use 5 00:00:16,960 --> 00:00:21,480 Speaker 1: hand soap, toothpaste, toilet paper, that is, unless I unexpectedly 6 00:00:21,560 --> 00:00:25,760 Speaker 1: run out. But of course, although hygiene has been around forever, 7 00:00:26,239 --> 00:00:30,319 Speaker 1: the specific formulations of products that we use are pretty new. 8 00:00:30,680 --> 00:00:36,680 Speaker 1: Today's classic gets into the history of toothpaste. Hey brain Stuff, 9 00:00:36,760 --> 00:00:41,239 Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum Here without teeth, life is tough. Sure we 10 00:00:41,320 --> 00:00:44,040 Speaker 1: have all sorts of fancy dentistry tricks these days, but 11 00:00:44,320 --> 00:00:47,520 Speaker 1: nothing tops the Choppers were born with. In fact, when 12 00:00:47,640 --> 00:00:50,360 Speaker 1: rocker Patti Smith gave the commencement address at the Pratt 13 00:00:50,400 --> 00:00:54,240 Speaker 1: Institute in New York, she gave those graduating seniors some 14 00:00:54,360 --> 00:00:58,200 Speaker 1: incredibly sound advice. She said, now that I'm here, my 15 00:00:58,280 --> 00:01:00,840 Speaker 1: greatest urge is to speak to you of dental care. 16 00:01:01,200 --> 00:01:04,040 Speaker 1: My generation had a rough go dentally. Our dentists were 17 00:01:04,040 --> 00:01:06,360 Speaker 1: the Army dentists who came back from World War Two 18 00:01:06,560 --> 00:01:08,800 Speaker 1: and believed that the dental office was a battle ground. 19 00:01:09,319 --> 00:01:12,920 Speaker 1: You have a better chance at dental health, and it 20 00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:16,120 Speaker 1: may be true that our big dental procedures are considerably 21 00:01:16,120 --> 00:01:18,520 Speaker 1: better than they were in the middle of the last century. 22 00:01:18,560 --> 00:01:21,440 Speaker 1: But it's the maintenance that Smith was probably talking about. 23 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:24,199 Speaker 1: We've got to scrub our teeth each and every day, 24 00:01:24,480 --> 00:01:27,800 Speaker 1: or else bacteria will calcify into tartar, which is where 25 00:01:27,800 --> 00:01:31,160 Speaker 1: the tooth troubles really begin. Keeping all your teeth in 26 00:01:31,200 --> 00:01:34,839 Speaker 1: your head and avoiding life threatening infection has always required 27 00:01:34,920 --> 00:01:39,920 Speaker 1: constant vigilance, which is where toothpaste comes in. Now, nobody 28 00:01:39,959 --> 00:01:43,640 Speaker 1: knows who invented the toothbrush. Most ancient civilizations seem to 29 00:01:43,680 --> 00:01:46,440 Speaker 1: have had some variation of a frayed choo stick that 30 00:01:46,480 --> 00:01:49,600 Speaker 1: they used to keep their teeth clean. But don't teeth 31 00:01:49,640 --> 00:01:53,120 Speaker 1: also need some sort of well cleaning agent. Is that 32 00:01:53,320 --> 00:01:56,360 Speaker 1: minty plaster like goo that we smear on our modern 33 00:01:56,440 --> 00:02:00,280 Speaker 1: chewing sticks just capitalist snake oil? Not of his story 34 00:02:00,280 --> 00:02:03,840 Speaker 1: has anything to say about it. Toothpaste might actually predate 35 00:02:03,920 --> 00:02:07,280 Speaker 1: the tooth brush. While there's evidence that ancient Egyptians were 36 00:02:07,320 --> 00:02:10,160 Speaker 1: using toothbrushes as far back as three thousand, five hundred 37 00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:13,600 Speaker 1: b CE, recipes for tooth powder have been found the 38 00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:17,560 Speaker 1: date back to five thousand BC, the earliest Egyptian tooth 39 00:02:17,560 --> 00:02:21,040 Speaker 1: powder recipe contained plenty of abrasives to scrape off all 40 00:02:21,120 --> 00:02:24,360 Speaker 1: the sticky residue. The ashes of burnt eggshells and oxen 41 00:02:24,400 --> 00:02:27,840 Speaker 1: hoofs mixed with pumice seemed to be popular. By the 42 00:02:27,880 --> 00:02:30,840 Speaker 1: fourth century, Egyptians had fancied up their tooth powder with 43 00:02:30,880 --> 00:02:34,359 Speaker 1: abrasives like rock salt and flavorings like mint and peppercorns. 44 00:02:34,680 --> 00:02:37,560 Speaker 1: They even added dried iris flower, perhaps because it was 45 00:02:37,600 --> 00:02:41,600 Speaker 1: associated with purification. Good thing are tooth enamel is harder 46 00:02:41,639 --> 00:02:44,919 Speaker 1: than bone or even iron or steel. If it wasn't 47 00:02:44,960 --> 00:02:47,560 Speaker 1: those Egyptians would have brushed their teeth right down to nubs. 48 00:02:48,080 --> 00:02:50,440 Speaker 1: But when this recipe was revealed in two thousand three 49 00:02:50,480 --> 00:02:53,840 Speaker 1: at a dental conference in Vienna, Austrian dentist Heinz Newman 50 00:02:53,960 --> 00:02:56,440 Speaker 1: told the Telegraph that he tried it and it wasn't 51 00:02:56,480 --> 00:02:59,880 Speaker 1: half bad. He said, I found that it was not unpleasant. 52 00:03:00,200 --> 00:03:02,280 Speaker 1: It was painful on my gums and made them bleed 53 00:03:02,320 --> 00:03:04,760 Speaker 1: as well, but that's not a bad thing, and afterwards 54 00:03:04,760 --> 00:03:07,280 Speaker 1: my mouth felt fresh and clean. I believe that this 55 00:03:07,320 --> 00:03:09,480 Speaker 1: recipe would have been a big improvement on some of 56 00:03:09,520 --> 00:03:13,400 Speaker 1: the soap toothpastes used much later around the world. Different 57 00:03:13,400 --> 00:03:17,040 Speaker 1: cultures continued mixing crushed abrasives like oyster shell or bone, 58 00:03:17,280 --> 00:03:20,040 Speaker 1: and nice tasting herbs like mint and jin sing together 59 00:03:20,120 --> 00:03:24,239 Speaker 1: to clean teeth and keep hallatosis that's bad breath at bay. 60 00:03:24,440 --> 00:03:27,720 Speaker 1: But as with literally everything else, the Middle Ages didn't 61 00:03:27,800 --> 00:03:32,040 Speaker 1: really do much for toothpaste technology. During this time, Europeans 62 00:03:32,040 --> 00:03:35,160 Speaker 1: settled on a mixture of honey, salt, and drye flour, 63 00:03:35,360 --> 00:03:38,000 Speaker 1: which they supplemented by giving their teeth a good scrubbing 64 00:03:38,040 --> 00:03:41,080 Speaker 1: with the bark of certain trees. It wasn't until the 65 00:03:41,160 --> 00:03:43,960 Speaker 1: nineteenth century that the toothpaste biz as we know it 66 00:03:44,080 --> 00:03:47,560 Speaker 1: really started heating up. Recipes for tooth powders and pastes 67 00:03:47,640 --> 00:03:51,160 Speaker 1: that included abrasives like charcoal, chalk, and burned bread crumbs, 68 00:03:51,320 --> 00:03:54,320 Speaker 1: as well as incense like dragon's blood were popular in 69 00:03:54,320 --> 00:03:59,320 Speaker 1: England until eighteen fifty, when Coalgate introduced its first krem dentifrie, 70 00:03:59,400 --> 00:04:02,520 Speaker 1: which came in a jar. Mass production of this product 71 00:04:02,560 --> 00:04:05,400 Speaker 1: started in the eighteen seventies, and twenty years later they 72 00:04:05,440 --> 00:04:09,360 Speaker 1: introduced the collapsible tube, and from then on toothpaste was 73 00:04:09,440 --> 00:04:12,960 Speaker 1: a thing. Before World War Two, most toothpastes on the 74 00:04:12,960 --> 00:04:16,280 Speaker 1: market were sold in a lead tube. They also contained soap, 75 00:04:16,520 --> 00:04:20,839 Speaker 1: which was unnecessary and in some cases even counterproductive, but 76 00:04:21,040 --> 00:04:23,440 Speaker 1: we humans seem to have a hang up about wanting 77 00:04:23,440 --> 00:04:28,080 Speaker 1: our cleansers to foam. Toothpastes today still tend to contain soap, 78 00:04:28,279 --> 00:04:32,680 Speaker 1: namely sodium laurel sulfate, because it's not clean unless it's foamy, 79 00:04:32,880 --> 00:04:36,160 Speaker 1: but soap also helped maintain an even creamy texture. We 80 00:04:36,200 --> 00:04:39,560 Speaker 1: can also get this smooth texture with humicants like sorbitol 81 00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:43,160 Speaker 1: glycerin and propylene glycol, which have the added bonus of 82 00:04:43,200 --> 00:04:46,960 Speaker 1: being a little bit sweet. Fluoride was first added toothpaste 83 00:04:46,960 --> 00:04:50,080 Speaker 1: in nineteen fourteen, but it wasn't until the nineteen sixties 84 00:04:50,120 --> 00:04:53,320 Speaker 1: that it was proven to fight cavities, and modern toothpaste 85 00:04:53,360 --> 00:04:56,240 Speaker 1: no longer uses chalk as an abrasive. We most often 86 00:04:56,360 --> 00:04:59,400 Speaker 1: use hydrated silica, which is exactly the same stuff you 87 00:04:59,440 --> 00:05:01,840 Speaker 1: find in the little packets in your vitamin bottles and 88 00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:05,880 Speaker 1: shoe boxes. So that's the story of toothpaste. I'm gonna 89 00:05:05,920 --> 00:05:13,880 Speaker 1: go brush my teeth. Today's episode is based on the 90 00:05:13,960 --> 00:05:17,000 Speaker 1: article Rinse and Spit the History of toothpaste on how 91 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:20,280 Speaker 1: Stuffworks dot com, written by Jesslyin Shield brain Stuff is 92 00:05:20,279 --> 00:05:22,680 Speaker 1: production by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff works 93 00:05:22,680 --> 00:05:25,240 Speaker 1: dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang and Ramsay Yung. 94 00:05:25,720 --> 00:05:28,039 Speaker 1: Four more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i 95 00:05:28,080 --> 00:05:30,800 Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 96 00:05:30,839 --> 00:05:31,640 Speaker 1: your favorite shows.