Teeth cleaning agents date as far back as 5,000 B.C. Egypt, the Roman Empire, Greece and China used various formulas over thousands of years. The first commercial toothpaste didn't appear until the 1800s, however, and it was quite a bit different than our modern versions of toothpaste.
History
Egyptians in ancient times were cleaning their teeth with a cream made of eggshells and powdered ashes of oxen hooves, mixed with myrrh, pumice, and water. By 500 B.C., people in China, Greece and Rome were using crushed oyster and crab shells, along with crushed bones, hooves and horns of various animals in tooth powders. They added charcoal or bark powder for breath-freshening. Over time, the Chinese people added ginseng, mint, and salt, and the Romans mixed a formula of salt, mint leaves and iris.
The ingenious Romans added hartshorn for its ammonia bleaching properties, then added human urine, which was also used in laundering. The Roman Emperor Nero even levied a tax on urine in the first century A.D. People either used sticks, frayed twigs or their fingers as brushes.
Ancient writings indicate that people used all these sorts of mixtures to clean their teeth and make them white, fix loose teeth, strengthen their gums and bring relief for toothaches.
Warning
Persian writings from around 1,000 A.D. cautioned people to stop using such hard abrasives in their tooth powders. These writers recommended hartshorn, snail shells and gypsum, along with honey and various herbs and minerals.
Features
Commercial tooth cleaning powder was introduced in Great Britain in the late 1700s, and was sold in ceramic jars. More powders quickly appeared on the scene, all very abrasive, including ingredients such as crushed brick and pulverized china. Bicarbonate of soda was usually the main ingredient.
Significance
By the early to mid-1800s, homemade and patented tooth powders had become popular throughout Europe, and were typically made of chalk, soap and salt. Eventually, borax powder was added because it foamed, and glycerine to make the substances taste better.
A dentist named Dr. Washington Wentworth Sheffield probably invented the first toothpaste somewhere around 1850, although the Colgate Company also makes claims to being the first. Colgate began mass-producing toothpaste in the 1870s, packaged in a jar like the powders. Sheffield had been using his toothpaste in his practice, and after a positive response from his clients, he constructed a small factory to manufacture Dr. Sheffield's Creme Dentrifice.
Function
Both Sheffield and Colgate introduced collapsible toothpaste tubes in the late 1890s. Colgate called their product Colgate Ribbon Dental Creme. The tube was made of tin and lead, and remained basically the same until a shortage of lead during World War II forced the manufacture of tubes made of aluminum and plastic. In the 1990s, plastic tubes without metal were introduced.
Time Frame
Commercial toothpaste gained mass popularity in Europe in the early 1900s, and finally took off in the United States after World War I, replacing tooth powder for the most part by the end of World War II. Eventually ingredients such as sodium lauryl sulfate replaced soap as foaming and emulsifying agents. Fluoride was added in the 1950s, and for the first time, toothpaste provided a formidable agent against tooth decay.
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