What Ancient Humans Used Instead of a Toothbrush

Before there were toothbrushes, there were sharpened sticks, medicine trees, and flint-tipped dentists. So when did ancient humans actually start taking care of their teeth? The answer goes back much further than you think. In this video we follow the evidence from early Homo toothpick grooves, to a Neanderthal who may have chewed natural medicine, to 14,000-year-old cavity treatment, Neolithic drilling, beeswax fillings, and the first bristle brush. ⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 The Neanderthal by the fire 0:35 What "brushing" really means 0:55 The oldest toothpick clues 1:35 The toothless skull from Dmanisi 2:05 Krapina: a Neanderthal's toothpick grooves 2:55 The Neanderthal who chewed medicine 3:55 Why hunter-gatherers got cavities too 4:25 The first cavity treatment 5:00 How farming changed our mouths 5:35 Stone Age drills and a beeswax filling 6:30 Chew sticks, Rome and the first toothpaste 8:00 The bristle brush and modern habits 9:00 The full timeline 🔔 Subscribe to Before History for new videos on ancient humans, survival, and the origins of everyday life. 📚 SOURCES & RESEARCH Ungar et al. (2001). Interproximal wear grooves on fossil hominin teeth, with new evidence from Olduvai Gorge. Archives of Oral Biology 46(4):285-292. https://researchconnect.stonybrook.ed... Lordkipanidze et al. (2005). The earliest toothless hominin skull (Dmanisi). Nature 434:717-718. https://www.nature.com/articles/434717b Frayer et al. (2017). Toothpick grooves in Krapina Dental Person 20. Bulletin of the International Association for Paleodontology. https://news.ku.edu/2017/06/23/analys... Weyrich et al. (2017). Neanderthal behaviour, diet, and disease inferred from ancient DNA in dental calculus. Nature 544:357-361. https://hdl.handle.net/2440/106116 Humphrey et al. (2014). Caries in Pleistocene hunter-gatherers from Morocco. PNAS 111(3):954-959. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles... Oxilia et al. (2015). Earliest evidence of dental caries manipulation in the Late Upper Palaeolithic. Scientific Reports 5:12150. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles... Adler et al. (2013). Ancient dental plaque and oral microbiota shifts. Nature Genetics 45(4):450-455. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles... Coppa et al. (2006). Early Neolithic tradition of dentistry. Nature 440:755-756. https://www.nature.com/articles/440755a Bernardini et al. (2012). Beeswax as dental filling on a Neolithic human tooth. PLoS ONE 7(9):e44904. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.... Catullus, Carmen 39 (Egnatius): https://cts.perseids.org/read/latinLi... Toothbrush history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toothbrush Floss history (Parmly, 1819): https://time.com/4435267/dental-floss... Duhigg, C. (2012). The Power of Habit. ⚠️ Some findings are debated, including the oldest toothpick grooves, whether the Slovenian filling was made during life, and the purpose of the Mehrgarh drilling. The video says so where it applies. This channel is for education and entertainment, not dental or medical advice. 📩 Business inquiries: skyboot.co@email.com #AncientHumans #Prehistory #BeforeHistory