Although the toothbrush, as we know it today, was invented by William Addis in Newgate prison (England), the act of cleaning your teeth must be as old as eating… imagine how annoying it must be to carry a tooth bone mammoth between the teeth all day. Leaving aside the tool used, we will focus on the toothpaste. The Egyptians made a toothpaste by mixing burnt and crushed ox hooves, myrrh, powdered eggshell, and pumice stone. The amounts of each of these ingredients are unknown, but it is known that they rubbed their teeth with their fingers or with a stick. It is also known that the Chinese used some mixture of various ingredients to clean their teeth. And coming to Rome we see how the mixture was perfected there.
The toothpaste of the Romans had an abrasive product - the one used to tear off the remains of food – shells also burned and crushed, they also added honey, wine and aromatic plants to refresh the mouth and combat bad breath. With this, we would have solved the hygienic part but the Romans did not leave aside the aesthetic part . Let us remember that in Rome urine was used in the fullonicas (Laundries) to whiten clothes, thanks to the ammonia that is part of its composition. So, they decided to add urine to whiten teeth. And this is where Hispania comes into play. I don't know if it was because of our privileged diet (garum, oil, Serrano ham...), but the fact is that the wealthy classes of Rome demanded that the urine in their toothpaste be from Hispania.
Poem of Gaius Valerius Catullus :
[…] in the country of Celtiberia,
what each man pees, he uses to brush
his teeth and his red gums, every morning,
so that the fact that your teeth are so polished
it just shows that you are fuller of pee.
But since not everyone could have access to this gourmet-type toothpaste, other more accessible toothpastes were also used and more... well, let each one decide:
powdered mouse brains .
Sources and image:BBC, The History of Teeth Cleaning, Teeth White, DentPrive