WEBVTT - What's the History of Toothpaste?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, Lauren bubble Boum here with a classic brain

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff episode. I don't know about you, but I often

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<v Speaker 1>take for granted the everyday hygiene products that I use

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<v Speaker 1>hand soap, toothpaste, toilet paper, that is, unless I unexpectedly

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<v Speaker 1>run out. But of course, although hygiene has been around forever,

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<v Speaker 1>the specific formulations of products that we use are pretty new.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's classic gets into the history of toothpaste. Hey brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren Vogelbaum Here without teeth, life is tough. Sure we

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<v Speaker 1>have all sorts of fancy dentistry tricks these days, but

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<v Speaker 1>nothing tops the Choppers were born with. In fact, when

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<v Speaker 1>rocker Patti Smith gave the commencement address at the Pratt

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<v Speaker 1>Institute in New York, she gave those graduating seniors some

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<v Speaker 1>incredibly sound advice. She said, now that I'm here, my

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<v Speaker 1>greatest urge is to speak to you of dental care.

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<v Speaker 1>My generation had a rough go dentally. Our dentists were

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<v Speaker 1>the Army dentists who came back from World War Two

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<v Speaker 1>and believed that the dental office was a battle ground.

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<v Speaker 1>You have a better chance at dental health, and it

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<v Speaker 1>may be true that our big dental procedures are considerably

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<v Speaker 1>better than they were in the middle of the last century.

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<v Speaker 1>But it's the maintenance that Smith was probably talking about.

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<v Speaker 1>We've got to scrub our teeth each and every day,

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<v Speaker 1>or else bacteria will calcify into tartar, which is where

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<v Speaker 1>the tooth troubles really begin. Keeping all your teeth in

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<v Speaker 1>your head and avoiding life threatening infection has always required

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<v Speaker 1>constant vigilance, which is where toothpaste comes in. Now, nobody

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<v Speaker 1>knows who invented the toothbrush. Most ancient civilizations seem to

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<v Speaker 1>have had some variation of a frayed choo stick that

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<v Speaker 1>they used to keep their teeth clean. But don't teeth

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<v Speaker 1>also need some sort of well cleaning agent. Is that

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<v Speaker 1>minty plaster like goo that we smear on our modern

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<v Speaker 1>chewing sticks just capitalist snake oil? Not of his story

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<v Speaker 1>has anything to say about it. Toothpaste might actually predate

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<v Speaker 1>the tooth brush. While there's evidence that ancient Egyptians were

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<v Speaker 1>using toothbrushes as far back as three thousand, five hundred

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<v Speaker 1>b CE, recipes for tooth powder have been found the

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<v Speaker 1>date back to five thousand BC, the earliest Egyptian tooth

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<v Speaker 1>powder recipe contained plenty of abrasives to scrape off all

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<v Speaker 1>the sticky residue. The ashes of burnt eggshells and oxen

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<v Speaker 1>hoofs mixed with pumice seemed to be popular. By the

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<v Speaker 1>fourth century, Egyptians had fancied up their tooth powder with

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<v Speaker 1>abrasives like rock salt and flavorings like mint and peppercorns.

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<v Speaker 1>They even added dried iris flower, perhaps because it was

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<v Speaker 1>associated with purification. Good thing are tooth enamel is harder

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<v Speaker 1>than bone or even iron or steel. If it wasn't

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<v Speaker 1>those Egyptians would have brushed their teeth right down to nubs.

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<v Speaker 1>But when this recipe was revealed in two thousand three

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<v Speaker 1>at a dental conference in Vienna, Austrian dentist Heinz Newman

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<v Speaker 1>told the Telegraph that he tried it and it wasn't

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<v Speaker 1>half bad. He said, I found that it was not unpleasant.

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<v Speaker 1>It was painful on my gums and made them bleed

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<v Speaker 1>as well, but that's not a bad thing, and afterwards

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<v Speaker 1>my mouth felt fresh and clean. I believe that this

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<v Speaker 1>recipe would have been a big improvement on some of

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<v Speaker 1>the soap toothpastes used much later around the world. Different

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<v Speaker 1>cultures continued mixing crushed abrasives like oyster shell or bone,

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<v Speaker 1>and nice tasting herbs like mint and jin sing together

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<v Speaker 1>to clean teeth and keep hallatosis that's bad breath at bay.

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<v Speaker 1>But as with literally everything else, the Middle Ages didn't

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<v Speaker 1>really do much for toothpaste technology. During this time, Europeans

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<v Speaker 1>settled on a mixture of honey, salt, and drye flour,

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<v Speaker 1>which they supplemented by giving their teeth a good scrubbing

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<v Speaker 1>with the bark of certain trees. It wasn't until the

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<v Speaker 1>nineteenth century that the toothpaste biz as we know it

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<v Speaker 1>really started heating up. Recipes for tooth powders and pastes

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<v Speaker 1>that included abrasives like charcoal, chalk, and burned bread crumbs,

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<v Speaker 1>as well as incense like dragon's blood were popular in

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<v Speaker 1>England until eighteen fifty, when Coalgate introduced its first krem dentifrie,

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<v Speaker 1>which came in a jar. Mass production of this product

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<v Speaker 1>started in the eighteen seventies, and twenty years later they

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<v Speaker 1>introduced the collapsible tube, and from then on toothpaste was

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<v Speaker 1>a thing. Before World War Two, most toothpastes on the

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<v Speaker 1>market were sold in a lead tube. They also contained soap,

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<v Speaker 1>which was unnecessary and in some cases even counterproductive, but

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<v Speaker 1>we humans seem to have a hang up about wanting

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<v Speaker 1>our cleansers to foam. Toothpastes today still tend to contain soap,

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<v Speaker 1>namely sodium laurel sulfate, because it's not clean unless it's foamy,

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<v Speaker 1>but soap also helped maintain an even creamy texture. We

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<v Speaker 1>can also get this smooth texture with humicants like sorbitol

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<v Speaker 1>glycerin and propylene glycol, which have the added bonus of

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<v Speaker 1>being a little bit sweet. Fluoride was first added toothpaste

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<v Speaker 1>in nineteen fourteen, but it wasn't until the nineteen sixties

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<v Speaker 1>that it was proven to fight cavities, and modern toothpaste

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<v Speaker 1>no longer uses chalk as an abrasive. We most often

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<v Speaker 1>use hydrated silica, which is exactly the same stuff you

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<v Speaker 1>find in the little packets in your vitamin bottles and

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<v Speaker 1>shoe boxes. So that's the story of toothpaste. I'm gonna

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<v Speaker 1>go brush my teeth. Today's episode is based on the

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<v Speaker 1>article Rinse and Spit the History of toothpaste on how

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<v Speaker 1>Stuffworks dot com, written by Jesslyin Shield brain Stuff is

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<v Speaker 1>dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang and Ramsay Yung.

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