Madeline Martin

After reading the first post on Smiling Through History, you know that people cleaned their mouths/teeth on a regular basis. But sometimes having healthy teeth isn’t enough, sometimes we want more. Whether it be a straighter smile, a smile without teeth missing, a whiter smile or a blacker smile. Whoa…wait…a blacker smile???

Yup, in ancient Japan, it was common for people to blacken their teeth with a method called ohaguro. The Japanese thought black lacquered things were incredibly beautiful and teeth were no different. Married women, aristocrats, geishas and soldiers (before battle) typically painted their teeth black. The blend of acetic acid and dissolved iron was painted on the teeth either once a day or once every few days. Interestingly enough, those who painted their teeth black typically had healthier teeth as the dye acted as a sort of sealant over the teeth and prevented decay. This tradition was banned back in the late 19^th century, but some ignore the ban and still continue to blacken their teeth to this day.

Europeans and Romans, however, were not unlike us in their desire for brilliantly white teeth. Romans used to swish with urine on a daily basis for a whiter smile. This actually worked as the ammonia in urine helped to lift stains of recently consumed food/wine from their teeth. Don’t get me wrong, you will not find me swishing with pee any time soon – I’m just saying I’m surprised it worked is all.  Europeans had a much more effective method…though quite painful. If one wanted whiter teeth, they went to their local barber-surgeon who would file a layer or two of enamel away and drip acetic acid onto the freshly sanded teeth. The white would last for a while, several months or several years, depending on the person’s genes/diet, etc. But after a while, the thin enamel would not hold up and bacteria would start to seep into the teeth. Eventually, that brilliant white smile would turn into a mouthful of rotten teeth. Such was the price of vanity…

What happened if someone lost a tooth back in ancient times? Or worse…what if they lost all of their teeth? Believe it or not, there were solutions for all of this. As modern as we believe dental implants to be, the Mayans were implanting tooth shaped stone into the jaw all the way back in 600 A.D. as was uncovered in some remains. I’m sure they weren’t up to par with the impossible-to-tell-they’re-fake implants of today, but pretty darn incredible if you ask me.

Per dentures, these were originally made with teeth. Real teeth. Either those of dead animals or those of dead people. I shudder to even think of eating food with a mouthful of dead people’s teeth. But I guess if it comes to either starving to death or using corpse teeth, well… Earlier dentures were also made of wood. Several examples were found in Japan dating back to the 1500’s – unlike other dentures from around the world at that time frame, these suctioned onto the roof of the mouth like the dentures of today. In regards to wooden dentures, George Washington did not have them. His were most likely made of ivory. Unfortunately, he was just a few years shy of receiving a porcelain set that would have been affixed with springs and porcelain paste.

Efforts of early dentists were also applied to the correct of crooked teeth. The early model for braces was first invented in the mid 1700’s and looked more like a horseshoe than the braces of today. About 70 years later, a more modern-looking wire bracket style of braces was invented.

I’m not being wholly honest – Braces actually date way before that first horse-shoe shaped attempt. They just weren’t used for the living. Strands of gold/metal wire and even cat gut (which is string made of…yup, cat guts) were looped around the teeth of dead Romans and Etruscans to keep their teeth from coming loose in the afterlife.

Old school dentists even went above and beyond with dental bling than we do today. Yeah, we’ve got gold teeth, but the Mayans had gem-encrusted teeth. Nothing says gorgeous like a mouthful of precious stones glinting in the sun, right? These things were attached with a little drilling here and a little cramming there and voila! A dazzling smile.

So, next time you need to go to the dentist for a little cosmetic work, think back to the insanity of what you’ve read and be grateful for those sterile tools…and the use of Novocain. Lots and lots of Novocain.  J

How many of you hate going to the dentist? *raises hand*

Most of us don’t really enjoy going for dental work. In our minds, those little partitioned cubicles are sterile chambers of torture complete with tools specific for finely crafted cruelty. Unfortunately, we all crave that perfect smile of brilliant white, straight teeth where we can eat anything, hot, cold and in between, without ever having the slightest twinge of discomfort. Alas, that makes the dentist necessary.

This need for a healthy smile is not a new one, although it has become significantly less unpleasant throughout the years. While many believe dental hygiene is a modern convenience, I think you’ll be surprised at what I uncovered.

First of all, people have been cleaning their teeth for centuries. They may not have had access to ADA toothbrushes and fresh, minty toothpastes, but they did still brush their teeth and they did still swish with mouthwash. After all, how could one wake up with morning breath and be totally OK with that funk all day?

The most popular early toothbrush wasn’t a brush at all. It was a stick – a chew stick to be specific, which is exactly what it sounds like. A twig or stick with the end frayed. That end would be scraped across the teeth to brush away excess bits of food particles and that ‘tooth fuzz’. This was actually a pretty effective method of brushing the teeth and is still used today in some countries. Hard brushers be warned: you can do serious gum damage with chew sticks.

Toothbrushes were first invented in China and made with horsehair and ivory. They were brought back to England, but the trend didn’t really catch on. Why not, you wonder… Well, imagine if someone gave you a brush with pig hair in it and told you to put it in your mouth? Say you were daring enough to do it…and then you realized how the animal hair started falling out and sticking between your teeth and plastering to your tongue. A chew stick is looking significantly more hygienic at this point, isn’t it? And that’s exactly how the European nobles felt about it.

In addition to the chew stick, nobles also incorporated the use of tooth picks to clean their teeth. Not the cheap wooden bamboo stick things we all poke in cakes to make sure it cooked all the way through – these things were FANCY! They were made of silver and gold with little handles crusted with gems by the most skilled of craftsmen. After a 17^th century dinner, it would not be uncommon to see nobles cleaning their heavy meal from their teeth with these fancy picks.

Not only were there chew sticks and tooth picks, there were also tooth powders and mouthwashes. Mouthwashes were usually made of vinegar and/or wine/liquor. While it wouldn’t do much to make our mouth as feel clean by modern day standards, it was a decent method of combating bacteria back in the day.

Tooth powders were typically made of an abrasive material mixed with dried herbs to freshen the breath. The abrasive materials could be anything from ground up shell or pumice to bits of charcoal. These powders were rubbed onto the teeth either with the fingers or a cloth and then rinsed and spat out. The concept of toothpaste was introduced several times, but didn’t catch on until the end of the 19^th century. It probably seems strange that people would be opposed to toothpaste (which came in lead tubes – yikes!), but if you think about it, how weird would it be to switch our toothpaste to a tooth powder? I guess people just like to go with what they are familiar with. 

If you’re interested, I found a fascinating article on one person’s experiments with old tooth powders and mouth washes. If you’re a history dork like me and are curious, check it out here: http://www.gallowglass.org/jadwiga/herbs/teeth.html

Don’t get too excited about seeing anything on dental floss. That didn’t really come onto the markets for consumer use until the late 1800’s. Nor were there any methods for filling cavity ridden teeth or performing root canals. If you had a serious tooth ache back in the day, you went to a barber-surgeon who would wrench that tooth right out of your head. With no anesthetic, mind you. While the process was most likely incredibly uncomfortable, the tooth pain would cease almost immediately with the pulling of the tooth.

Now you know that people really were hygienic about their teeth back in the day, but what about cosmetics? Were white smiles desirable? What happened when people lost all their teeth? Guess you’ll have to find out in the part 2 edition I post later on this week. Bwhahahahaha!!

Trust me, you’ll want to come back – it’s fascinating.

If you rolled your eyes at this blog title, that’s OK – it was a crappy pun. >insert groan here<

Seriously though, who hasn’t wondered what people did before the modern conveniences of toilets, TP and even pads and tampons. I mean, just because those convenient items didn’t exist doesn’t mean the inconveniences didn’t either.

Considerable thought was actually put into historical commodes. Toilet artifacts have been found dating all the way back to the BC years, most of which look either like ornate chamber pots or stone slabs with circles cut into them. Several civilizations even came up with ways to funnel their rivers through pipes that ran under latrines as a means of removing waste (several civilizations, as in more than just the Romans). In fact the earliest level flush toilet was invented in 1206! How crazy is that??

English lavatories were typically narrow chambers with a wooden seat (padded with velvet if you were important) with a hole in it that emptied through a series of channels into a cesspit or some kind of water source. In London, facilities were even provided for the public. Kind of like an outhouse, but instead of a hole in the ground, it was the frigid Thames below. Can you imagine how cold that would be on a winter day? Even people who were fortunate enough to have commodes in their homes still had to deal with the icy temperatures in the winter because those tunnels leading out of their privy’s were not heated.

So, back to those cesspits. Those indoor latrines emptied into places like the back yard and beneath the cellar floors. Slatted sides ensured liquid escaped and left only solids behind. Which leads to the next question – what does one do with all that poo?

Enter the gong farmer. Bless his heart, this man did a job so foul he was only permitted to work during the hours of late night/super early morning. Though he was a laborer, he was paid a considerable amount for that period in time and would scoop out the cesspits and relocate the…um…loads…to an approved area. Trust me, they were super picky about where that stuff ended up.

Speaking of interesting jobs centered on toilets, there was one particular task all the noblemen were clamoring for. The Groom of the Stool. Yes, this was such a thing. And, yes, it was a huge honor. The Groom of the Stool was the most trusted person within the king’s Privy Chamber (AKA bedroom and stuff). He would keep the monarch company while the king answered the call of nature. While there, the king would discuss his private affairs and seek counsel. Ever hear of the phrase ‘being privy’ on a secret? Bet ya can figure out where that came from. At any rate, after the king finished his bodily business, the groom would have the esteemed honor of cleaning the royal hiney. Seriously.

Now we know where they went to the bathroom, but what did they use to wipe themselves? After all, toilet paper has only been around since 1857 and it was a bust at first. It wasn’t until the tissue sheets were placed on a roll and perforated did they become popular. Prior to that, people were all about the pages of magazines. Gives a whole new perspective to the bathroom reader, eh?  But back, back, back in the day before magazines, when books were crazy expensive and rare – what did they use? The answer is pretty much whatever was readily available. Obviously the rich had more comfortable/hygienic options like bits of fine cloth and lace (am I alone in feeling bad for the lace maker who slaved over that delicate masterpiece just so a nobleman could wipe his tuckus?). The poor had to make do with whatever they could find. Everything was used from grass, leaves, old scraps of cloth to seaweed and shells. Yeah that last one made me wince too. Romans were said to keep sponges soaked in saltwater that were used for the ol’ swiperoo and Greeks used clay (I’m kinda curious how that worked…) and early Americans used corn cob husks. Don’t worry, I’ll leave the corn comments to you guys. 

Let’s see, we’ve covered toilets, sh*tty jobs and toilet paper. Might as well throw in a lil history on what women did when menstruating. Why? Cuz I’m curious like that. And if you’re still reading, then you are too (or you just really love me enough to tolerate this post).

Would you believe me if I told you that tampons have been around since the 18^th century? Not shocked, huh? What if I told you tampons weren’t actually used for menstruating women until the 1940’s? Yup, the original purpose of a tampon was invented to staunch blood flow in bullet wounds. Nurses got their hands on them and put them to womanly purpose.

Going on that thread, we can thank nurses for pads too. Like the tampons, these were originally invented for medical purposes and were used to absorb blood from wounds. These caught on a little more quickly than tampons and were marketed toward women in 1888. The absorbent filler used to make them? Wood pulp. Kind of makes you wonder if anyone ended up with a splinter…OUCH!

Before tampons and pads, it was the TP concept all over again – whatever they could get their hands on. Sponges, scraps of fabric, knitted pads that could be washed and reused – oh, and nothing. Yup, nothing. Women didn’t wear underwear until the early 19^th century (meaning nowhere to tuck the scraps of cloth) and even when they did start, their underwear was split down the middle for ease of going to the bathroom (called a pantalette if you’re interested). Rumor has it women would just have their undergarments thoroughly washed while menstruating or they’d stay in bed (probably on top of a pile of clothes). And here I always thought they just used the cramps and headaches as an excuse to sleep all day…

I hope you enjoyed the info dump on toilet history…and hope it made up for the full month I’d failed to post.   See y’all next time!!