If there is one thing we all love doing here at the office, it’s researching dentistry and dental practices throughout history. This might seem odd at first, but you might be surprised by the number of patient’s dental implant provider Dr. Hoos gets here in Stratford, CT who want to know how people took care of their mouths before modern dentistry revolutionized the world. It comes up more often than you might think in conversation.
Due to the above-mentioned facts, we have made gathering historical dental facts a kind of office-wide mini-hobby. Now, whenever any of us come across a fun fact, web and magazine article, or blog referring to the history or oral health we make an effort to save it and bring it into the office for everyone to share. You could say we’re are our own little group of teeth historians.
Bearing the above in mind we thought today, in the spirit of fun, we have decided to share a few of our favorite fun facts about dentistry throughout the ages with you. Let’s take a closer look at some interesting things you might not have known about teeth through history.
The Wealthy Used to Have Worse Teeth Than the Poor
In 16th century England, sugar was a status symbol. It was new, exotic, and being imported from India. It was also wildly expensive. This meant that the more sugar you could afford to buy and eat also meant the higher up in society’s ranks you were. Eating sweets and candy was a display of wealth and power at this time in history. That being said, the wealthy of course made a point to eat as much of it as they could.
Unfortunately, oral hygiene was not really a think yet. Likewise, the commonwealth of society lived off of a diet that consisted mainly of the vegetables they grew, lots of stew, and what little meat they could afford or catch. This particular diet is ideal for maintaining healthy teeth. Because of these two paradigms, if was very normal for the wealthy to have missing and rotted teeth while the poor held onto their chompers for much longer in Tudor society.
Queen Elizabeth I Had Black Teeth from Decay
This fact also dates back to Tudor society. Queen Elizabeth I was reportedly so fond of sweets that she demanded they be served with every meal she ate. As we all know, a queen gets what a queen wants and so she ate sweets with each meal, every day. She also refused to use anything but the most expensive products in her beauty regimes, so the queen actually made a tooth polish from sugar and rubbed it on her teeth.
By the time she had gotten older, the queen’s teeth had turned black from rot. The funny part about this is during her reign she was considered to be the epitome of fashion and beauty. Because of this, ladies in court started staining their teeth black with soot and other ingredients in order to copy the queen’s black teeth.
We hope you enjoyed these fun historical facts about dentistry. We would be glad to share some more with you when you stop by next time.
Until next time readers, keep smiling.