Teeth Through Time
YAC Attack 136! Marvellous Medieval Mouthwash
Hopefully you visit your dentist regularly and brush your teeth twice a day, but what about our ancestors?
- Find out about brushes with pig bristles and excruciating extractions.
In the past, there were no big dental companies like today. ‘Tooth-drawers’ and later dentists made their own mouthwashes and dentifrices (toothpowders).
Some of these mouthwashes had very strange ingredients. Lots of dentists recommended urine (wee) as a mouthwash, and the Ancient Greeks suggested the head of a hare in toothpaste.
Not all the old toothache cures are weird and useless. People used a spice called cloves to numb the pain. It works so well they made a proper medicine called ‘oil of cloves’, which can still be found as an ingredient in dentists’ cupboards today.
ACTIVITY: Why not you have a go at making a mouthwashes?
One mouthwash is a Medieval example and one is from 1924. The two mouthwashes mentioned here don’t use such weird ingredients.
