While it took thousands of years for the modern toothbrush to be invented, since then innovation in oral hygiene has taken off like a wildfire. But even in the face of all that innovation, some people still choose to utilize boar bristle toothbrushes—often to great effect.
Which just goes to show that brushing your teeth with whatever means available has always been a good idea. If gaps from missing teeth make you feel ashamed to smile, you may benefit from a dental bridge. These artificial tooth replacements restore normal function and form when teeth are lost. Learn about the three types of bridges and how they work.
Ancient toothpastes were used to treat some of the same concerns that we have today — keeping teeth and gums clean, whitening teeth and freshening breath. The ingredients of ancient toothpastes were however very different and varied. Ingredients used included a powder of ox hooves', ashes and burnt eggshells that was combined with pumice.
The Greeks and Romans favored more abrasiveness and their toothpaste ingredients included crushed bones and oyster shells. The Romans added more flavoring to help with bad breath, as well as powdered charcoal and bark. The Chinese used a wide variety of substances in toothpastes over time that have included ginseng, herbal mints and salt. The development of toothpastes in more modern times started in the s.
Early versions contained soap and in the s chalk was included. Betel nut was included in toothpaste in England in the s, and in the s a home encyclopedia described a home-made toothpaste that used ground charcoal.
Prior to the s, 'toothpastes' were usually powders. Colgate introduced its toothpaste in a tube similar to modern-day toothpaste tubes in the s. Until after , toothpastes contained soap. After that time, soap was replaced by other ingredients to make the paste into a smooth paste or emulsion - such as sodium lauryl sulphate, a common ingredient in present-day toothpaste. In the second half of the twentieth century modern toothpastes were developed to help prevent or treat specific diseases and conditions such as tooth sensitivity.
Fluoride toothpastes to help prevent decay were introduced in Toothpastes with very low abrasiveness were also developed and helped prevent the problems caused by overzealous brushing.
The most recent advances in toothpastes have included the development of whitening toothpastes, and toothpastes such as Colgate Total which includes a Dual-Zinc and Arginine formula providing excellent protection against plaque, gingivitis, stains, tartar and cavities. Toothpastes today typically contain fluoride, colouring, flavouring, sweetener, as well as ingredients that make the toothpaste a smooth paste, foam and stay moist.
Toothpaste in tubes is used throughout the world and has been a very successful invention. Mass production of toothbrushes started a few decades later, around These brushes were still of the pig hair and wooden handle variety. Which brings us to DuPont had created and manufactured the first synthetic fiber—nylon. They used it to manufacture the first plastic and nylon modern toothbrush.
The brushes had several advantages over the older animal hair variety, particularly that the bristles lasted longer and were more hygienic. Another practice was to just rub baking soda sodium bicarbonate, still an ingredient in toothpastes directly onto the teeth.
Greek and Roman texts refer to people using toothpicks to clean their teeth. If you had the money, you could buy yourself a brass or silver toothpick, often with elaborate or even ostentatious handles. Into all this came Chinese ingenuity.
Take the stiff, coarse bristles from the back of a hog's neck, set them at right angles into a piece of bone or bamboo, and you can really brush those difficult-to-reach crevices. News of the invention reached Europe. It didn't catch on right off, perhaps because the local horsehair or feathers that were used there just weren't stiff enough to do the job.
0コメント