They Lied to You About Ancient Toothpaste (It Was Grosser Than You Think)

Did Romans really brush their teeth with urine? The answer at 2:21. What did people use before toothpaste? For thousands of years, people cleaned their teeth with ash, crushed shells, burnt bread and even urine. This is the gross history of toothpaste, told in stick figure animation 🦷 From 5,500-year-old chew sticks to a toothpaste recipe on an ancient Egyptian papyrus, an empress's secret tooth powder, a queen who "cleaned" her teeth with honey and sugar, the toothbrush invented in a prison cell, and the ad campaign that finally got Americans to brush. Time Stamps: 0:00 – Your morning routine, without toothpaste 0:22 – The first toothbrush grew on a tree 1:04 – The Egyptian toothpaste recipe 1:55 – Rome: antlers, shells… and urine 3:01 – When black teeth were fashionable 3:55 – The toothbrush invented in jail 5:01 – The jar, the tube and the tingle 6:11 – Fluoride, and what's in your toothpaste today 📚 RESEARCH & SOURCES ▸ Catullus, Poem 39 (on Egnatius and his white teeth) ▸ Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5.33; Strabo, Geography 3.4.16 ▸ Scribonius Largus, Compositiones (Messalina's dentifrice) ▸ Pliny the Elder, Natural History (on toothpicks) ▸ Vienna papyrus toothpaste recipe, Austrian National Library (reported 2003) ▸ Paul Hentzner, Travels in England (1598) ▸ Pierre Fauchard, Le Chirurgien Dentiste (1728) ▸ Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit (the Pepsodent story) ▸ Wikipedia: Toothpaste; Toothbrush; Teeth-cleaning twig; Dentistry in ancient Rome; Washington Sheffield; Crest (toothpaste) ▸ Historic UK: Tudor Health & Dentistry PEOPLE & CONCEPTS MENTIONED Chew stick · Miswak · Neem · Ancient Egyptian tooth powder · Pumice · Myrrh · Messalina · Scribonius Largus · Pliny the Elder · Catullus · Egnatius · Celtiberians · Ziryab · Queen Elizabeth I · Paul Hentzner · William Addis · Pierre Fauchard · Colgate · Washington Sheffield · Claude Hopkins · Pepsodent · Fluoride · Crest 🎨 Animation #history #stickfigurehistory #toothpaste #animatedhistory #weirdhistory