Since the beginning of civilization, dental care has been changing, something we have seen from archeological evidence exposing how people used to solve dental problems like dental filling. The first evidence of dental practice ever recorded was in 500 BC in the Sumerian text. There have been references to diseases of the teeth even in the Egyptian culture dating back to 3700 BC. In these Egyptian texts, there have been descriptions of how some substances were applied to the mouth to relieve tooth pain. In 1300 BC Greece, some dental history documents describe how Greek physicians extracted teeth from patients.
When you talk about the dental history of toothpaste, we tend to think that it was discovered around 150 years; but in China, India, and Rome, toothpaste has been in existence ever since 500 BC. It was not called toothpaste for sure; its mixture was different as it was composed of honey, crushed eggshells, soot, and ground ox hooves. If you think that was the first evidence of toothpaste, you better check on Egyptian dental history; Egyptians had the oldest recipe for making toothpaste from salt, mint, pepper, iris flower and grains. The Egyptian mixture has been tried and tested in the modern days, and it works quite well according to some dentists.
In medieval times, the educated minds were keen to keep their teeth clean. There were home remedies that people used, and when things got worse, people went to barber-surgeons who provided various services. Some of these services included cutting hair, pulling out of teeth and filling cavities. In these times, the poor had good teeth because they never had access to sugary foods. In Europe, people believed in traditional remedies. An example is in Germany, where people believed in kissing donkeys to cure a toothache.
In China, the stiff hairs from the neck of a pig were used as bristles to make toothbrushes, until 1938 when they discovered nylon to be better alternatives to pig’s hair. In our modern age, the regular toothbrush has more than 2,500 bristles that are made from nylon that is grouped in tufts of forty.
There is a lot to learn about dental history. We would like to get in touch with you through our website, where you can get all the information you need about your dental care plan and other modern ways of tooth care.
We would like to hear from you through our email address acadiandental@gmail.com, or our phone number 713 681-7885. We are just a phone call away to help you improve your dental care.