When George Washington was inaugurated, he had only one natural tooth left—a condition far more typical in the past than modern people realize. For thousands of years, tooth pain was simply part of human life. A primary reason for the problem: effective tooth-cleaning methods simply didn’t exist. Join Virginia and Charles as they celebrate two overlooked but vitally important technological innovations: the toothbrush and toothpaste.
As schoolchildren learn, the invention of agriculture 12,000 years ago was among the great turning points in the human story. Farming created reliable food surpluses that allowed for the creation of big cities and states.
It also wrecked humanity’s teeth.
The new agricultural diet—full of carbohydrate- and sugar-rich cereals and grains—triggered an explosion of tooth decay. Millennia of oral misery ensued. Painful jaws were an inescapable part of daily life, and nothing could be done about it. As recently as the 1970s, most American 70-year-olds didn’t have a single tooth in their head.
Then the dental outlook changed—slowly, at first, then rapidly.
In 1780, William Addis, an English rag trader, was thrown into jail, supposedly for inciting a riot. Confined in London’s infamous Newgate Prison, he carved a chicken bone into the prototype for a now-ubiquitous occupant of contemporary bathrooms: the toothbrush. He began selling them soon after he was released. Then, in 1873, came the first mass-produced commercial toothpaste: Colgate (yes, the same Colgate sold today). And the world began to change, or at least the world’s mouths did.
Subjects discussed include:
- The Grisly Dental Aftermath of the Battle of Waterloo
- Apparent Failures of Evolution
- Charles’s Astounding Dentists
- Early Modern English Prison Conditions
- Proper Stick Etiquette
- Origin of George Washington’s False Teeth
- Tidal Wave of Dental Exemptions from Second World War Draft
- Statistical Failures in Twentieth-Century Oral-Hygiene Testing
- The Fluoride War(s)
Listen, subscribe, and rate us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Visit the podcast homepage here.
Enjoying the show? Help us keep making it.
References, further reading, and credits:
From Mount Vernon (Washington’s home, now a museum), a full exploration of the president’s false teeth, replete with images and videos.
The story, surprisingly interesting, of how our teeth evolved: Peter Ungar’s The Excruciating History of Dentistry: Toothsome Tales & Oral Oddities from Babylon to Braces, 2018.
Scholarly history of the toothbrush: Aditya Tadinada, et al. The evolution of a tooth brush: from antiquity to present: a mini-review, Journal of Dental Health, Oral Disorders & Therapy, 2015.
The wince-inducing tale of dentistry: James Wynbrandt, The Excruciating History of Dentistry: Toothsome Tales & Oral Oddities from Babylon to Braces, 2000.
World War II military video in which the army instructs recruits on how to brush their teeth. “Whatever it is, the majority of you fellas simply refuse to look after your teeth.”
Virginia’s Bloomberg Opinion article on the invention of nylon (story told in more detail in The Fabric of Civilization).
Charles’s Atlantic article on fluoridation (gift link).