Why the Romans had Better Teeth than Modern Europeans
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 มิ.ย. 2024
- Despite chronic bad breath, underwhelming dentistry, and nothing resembling a toothbrush, the Romans had better teeth than you might think...
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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:09 Toothpicks and tooth powders
2:49 Dealing with bad breath and toothache
3:47 Established Titles
5:13 Roman dentistry
6:28 Dentures
7:05 The evidence from Pompeii
8:25 Worn enamel and plaque
I'm a dental assistant and this is incredibly fascinating to me! That bit about how extractions were done does sound very similar(at least in a basic form) to how I see extractions done every day. Even down to the fact that they were aware of the risk of injury to the jaw; one of my jobs as an assistant is to help support the head or jaw while the dentist wiggles the tooth out. I wonder if Roman dentists had assistants as well.
I’m in the profession as well and am guessing that assistants were probably very common as they are vital to treating patients.
Not so many blond one's I would say.
I’m guessing that it was like a business in any other era. It starts with a location (permanent or traveling) and somebody to man the location. I’m guessing that they had one person to maintain everything, including holding down the patient. Were there business licenses? Taverns would be similar, I think. One person to open the doors and put everything ready for the day. Then the boss saunters in mid morning. I’m guessing. ⏳🗝🧹🛠🏺💈
Apprenticeships were the main way skills were passed on generationally in that age so there was probably an apprentice at least plus if Roman dentists were paid well they may have had slave or wage workers as well.
Imagine the pain! But, in that era, "You hurt me and i will disembowel you!".
"He showed his empty teeth with a disgusting grin as citizens cheered his name through the streets. At that moment, all Rome questioned whether it was a good idea to replace Nero with him..."
*Description of Emperor Galba's triumphal entry into Rome*
Galba was very based all things considered.
Some things never change.
This is hilarious
Dude where do you get these awesome quotes???
He didn't survive long, nor did the two who followed, Otha and Vitellus.
I took Latin in high school, and I remember Catullus writing about some people who smiled all the time because they were so proud of their teeth, and that they used urine to clean their teeth, so that you knew that the more they smiled, the more piss they had drunk.
They didn't necessarily drink their urine but rinsed their mouths in it. Have myself been cured of gum disease by rinsing my mouth in my own urine, having read about it in one of many testimonies in a book about urine therapy. In all cases, their doctor/dentist adamantly and without any evidence refused to accept that urine could do what it had done. Standard procedure with alternative treatments. The predictable drivel they come up with is 'the placebo effect'.
@@castelodeossos3947 yummy
I suppose ammonia kills germs
Romans used urine for drying cleaning clothes too. Internet: "Dec 12, 1995 - Urea has been used in cleaning and sanitizing compositions as a hardener and solubility modifier in organic rinse aids, "
@@raylopez99
Urea is also an important element used in the cosmetics industry.
I think smiles are just difficult to carve
I doubt that, have you seen the muscles of tendons that they could sculpt? Not to mention the eyes and facial gestures, features and hair. A smile seems elementary in comparison.
@@leggonarm9835 ehh good argument but I’d say a smile is still much harder. Imagine how many tiny details make up a person’s smile, especially in how tiny of a space they’d have to put those details
Check out “archaic smile”, pretty interesting
@@davidec.4021
Archaic sculptures look like aliens. Very terrifying.
@@tacidian7573 mmm never found them creepy or alien-like except some more "primitive" ones...
Nero shortly after having a tooth pulled: "Oh, how humiliating for an artist like me! NO ONE SHOULD EVER SUFFER SUCH PAIN!!!"
Tigellinus: "Excuse me, Caesar, but you have to sign the orders for the execution by crucifixion and burning of the Christians..."
Nero: "Oh, finally! I've been waiting for them all day!" 😊
At least they didn't pull out the Christians' teeth.
Small mercies.
That sounds like something he would've said😂😂😂
Aw those poor innocent Christians destabilizing the basis of society and taking up subversive foreign customs, why shouldn’t the empire embrace them? Nothing will change!
Ugh
Nero did a lot of bad things, but regarding the persecutions his problem was not going far enough.
Brushing your teeth with powders was common 80 years ago in the US and not unknown even 50 years ago, usually baking soda and whatever consumer products. You'd mash your toothbrush into the powder and as soon as you'd use it, it'd become the paste we're all familiar with now.
Huh!
heh my mom would brush her teeth with baking soda when I was a bambino, in the late 80's, I thought it was just a poor as dirt hillbilly thing.
@@funkbungus137 Traditional thing. Not brushing your teeth is a hillbilly thing.
🧐 I choose to stick with the "traditional" teeth powders, including a tried and true ingredient from the ancient world. That's right, "sheep's head ash" does a marvelous job, especially when blended with "snail sand". But make sure you purchase the right brand. I prefer "Pliny's Choice" dental care products.
Hell yeah
Usually people romanticize the narratives of ancient people as if forgetting they had to deal with very human matters. Thank you fo bringing it to light, thats why i watch this channel
So? They lived a better life, because their life was a daily struggle, they had a value system devoid of materialism and were not fed mass data every day.
Even the word "Romanticize" comes from the word "Roman" 😀
Yeah but they didn't have smoking and obesity problems like we do. Myopia is also a modern problem.
@@biggibbs4678 Good point. Sometimes people go the opposite direction with the past--thinking everyone died at 30, and life was horrible all the time.
@@Jabberwockybird admittedly that's how I view most of the past. On top of the fact that most people were slaves.
Hi Garrett, this is what I always understood. The ancients did not have access to the refined sugars that we have today. Thus, they had fewer dental problems.
8:55 omg this fresco with the child bothering the parents for a piece of just bought food is so relatable of modern times 😳
A skeleton in an early medieval northern European monastery had bad teeth so it was deduced he was a monk with access to honey, which was an expensive luxury to the laity, who generally had better teeth than the 'upper classes'.
Are you named after the Jim Crow era in the US South lmao
@@chrisdiaz9011 In the US? Never heard of it.
Fascinating stuff! Thanks!
I guessed the answer to this question kind of correctly after Modern History TV talked about how medieval people didnt have terrible teeth bc of the lack of sugar.
What about honey?
Sugar not needed. Any food stuck in teeth will decay teeth. Also, natural fruit sugar is just as bad.
@@miketheyunggod2534 The how do you explain why ancient peoples had less tooth decay than our contemporaries?
@@r3conwoo not sure there is enough data from large samples of skeletons to make such a generalization. As for the video, it mentioned that the issue was complex, after 7 minutes in, when citing skeletons recovered from Pompeii and Herculaneum. Later on, the term was "better than one might expect" ..followed by a comparison to early modern Europe ... I think a lot more skeletons from different periods, different regions, different backgrounds, etc. need to be studied - the sample sizes need to be vastly expanded I suspect ...
@@r3conwoo they had less decay because they had no teeth. There was so much sand in the bread they ate, by their mid twenties their teeth were ground to nothing. Ima talking about the Egyptians.
Your videos are always so interesting, I love binging them whenever I'm bored! I also really appreciate the subtitles you add to videos. As a non-native English speaker, sometimes I have trouble understanding without them.
There might be something to using urine to clean teeth since the ammonia might kill the bacteria. And Romans did use urine but to clean clothes, which is only slightly less disgusting.
Could it have been apple cider vinegar and there was just a Roman not understanding what the barbarians were doing?
@Adam No. You are wrong.
@@Atomhaz Anything's possible but if fermented urine kills bacteria, it's a viable option.
@@525Lines thanks for the reply! I didn’t know that about fermented urine. Seems like urine is more likely then.
@@007Hutchings just throwing ideas out there. I’m happy to be proven wrong.
This is one of your best videos so far, what a great topic you chose.
I make my own tooth powder by placing a wolf's head in a 55-gallon drum and burning it to ashes with a flamethrower. My family always packs a picnic lunch and we make a day of it.
It sounds very scientific. Tell me more
Wolves are endangered
I read once that the ancient Egyptians had terrible teeth -not because of bad diet but because there was a lot of sand and grit in their bread which wore the teeth down-there would be less sand and grit around in Italy!
Worn out teeth are not bad teeth from a medical and functional point of view. They only look bad.
@@kacperwoch4368 Teeth worn down to the roots are quite comparable to most serious cavities. I once attended a dentist's lecture about Merowingian (6th / 7th century) teeth. Most of his lecture dealt with worn out teeth because cavities were extremely rare.
This also happens to Elephants
@@kacperwoch4368 wrong.
You are correct. They have found a lot of mummies that showed tooth abscesses caused by worn teeth and concluded that many died from sepsis caused by the infections.
"I conquered the whole world, but I could never get any damn Colgate for my mouth...
*Last words of Augustus...presumably*
It wasn't until the reign of Claudius that Colgate was in Roman hands... along with the rest of Britain.
"Alas. The search for the Holy Gates of Col nearly bankrupted his house. Even his will demanded his estate continue the futile Cascade for the 'Pearly Whites' as he was known to call out in delirium during his last lucid days.
Was there truly a black rot that followed the Crest of the Emperor. Who's to say? The failure of Nero to find the Trident within the cavities of the earth does lend to some possible supernatural urge falling upon at least some rulers."
I remember when I lived in Africa, we would visit little villages and all the people had nice teeth. When my dad asked, they said it was because they chewed on sugar cane. I don't know if they were joking or not, but they did all have good teeth and never saw a dentist!
He’s right. Chewing on sugar cane keeps the teeth straight (no need for braces), keeps the jaws perfectly aligned and strong, makes the face properly develop and cleans out the teeth (mostly the molars) from plaque and tartar.
Uruguayan scientist discover a cure for tooth decay in the 80s claiming that is was just another virus imported from Europe by the conquistadores and other Europeans to the Americas as the inhabitants of the Americas did not suffer from tooth decay and the good dental health of the pass indigenous people of the Americas had proven so , they did not suffer from tooth decay , no long after his discovery and when he was trying to create a vaccine against tooth decay the scientist died in very suspicious circumstances
Like many things in the world today, sugar cane is natural - refined sugar is not.
Back to Nature is a good direction to head to.
@@kellikelli4413 not everything natural is good ......lead and abestos are natural........
@@MiguelGarcia-vj7oo natural as opposed to processed not just everything natural
Always look forward to your videos. Thanks.
Due to our modern much softer diets, our jaws are not correctly stressed in order to reach their correct alignment. "Mewing" is a present, conscious effort to forcibly correct this, placing the tongue against the roof of the mouth.
In the ancient world, you had what was local: usually unrefined grains, local vegetables/fruits, and whatever game could be trapped/hunted. We see this with current more rural/tribal/isolated peoples today. They rarely get misaligned teeth on par with sugar and mostly soft food eaters.
There's more surface DAMAGE from harder local foods, but there's less DECAY due to sugar's absence. And, they aligned well much more often.
*_NICE TRY, CHRIS. BUT I'M NOT EATING AN ENTIRE WEDGE OF PARMIGIANO-REGGIANO AGAIN._*
Not science :^)
Big Richard love ya
I was searching for a comment like this. This guy's spot on.
@@wauliepalnuts6134
Big ups to you for keeping it real.
Actually, there have been a number of direct forensic surveys of Roman dental health. In surveys of populations from Pompeii and Herculaneum, Roman dental health was noticeably better than modern peoples, in frequency of dental caries as well as periodontal (ie. gum) disease. Those populations however likely don't represent the norm, being more upper class and urban. Other surveys of smaller Roman towns in England see higher rates of caries, but still a significantly lower rate of gum disease, so most of these surveys conclude similarly, that there is a "major deterioration in oral health between Roman times and modern [times]". Back then they didn't have refined sugar, and honey was more for the elite, and infrequent. However they didn't floss, either. Systemic diseases, bad habits like smoking, and bad diet are blamed for the poor showing of oral health in modern people.
It's because the dentists are a scam. They'll pull teeth just to make money.
@@biggibbs4678 That doesn't actually make much sense because pain would be a constant in both modern and ancient times, and the cycle of pain for a tooth is what brought both ancients in for extraction AND what brings modern people. The only real difference would be modern dentistry can save some teeth which have pain, and ancient dentistry only extracted teeth. 2000 years ago, dentists were simply surgeons who extracted teeth....and they did quite expertly in fact, based on archeological discoveries of mounds of extracted teeth. The condition of the extracted teeth suggests a very high skill level of which many modern dentists would be jealous.
Ima guess soda. Highly acidic sugary drink wasnt so common back then
@@sortasurvival5482 it loses its acidic PH as the soda is being agitated. the gas in soda is a big factor in sodas ph.........
@@MiguelGarcia-vj7oo the co2 in soda is balancing the acids?
Something about seeing statues with teeth is unsettling
those three smiling ones gave me the heebeejeebees
Fantastic video, Garrett 👏
This is so interesting! Thanks for making this 😊 love your videos
I'm kinda surprised they thought of tooth care as primarily cosmetic. I loved the smiling statues at the end. Julius Caesar looks weird smiling and I just can't imagine the stoic Marcus Aurelius smiling.
THOSE ARE REAL?!
@@auraguard0212 I honestly don't know if you're serious but I'll assume you are. The statues are real, but the smiles are fake.
@@automaticmattywhack1470 oh, oops. I wasn't sure.
@@auraguard0212 you only learn by asking questions
@@automaticmattywhack1470 I suspected they had been photoshopped.
Very interesting, and I admire your use of amusing imagery!
This video came out at such a perfect time for me personally.
I just had a root canal and 3 fillings a few days ago and am still recovering, I may be in pain but this makes you appreciate the wonders of modern technology. Glad I’m not having to eat any boiled frogs.
I’d rather have them boiled than raw!
@@Sashazur not wrong lmao
Mmmm. Boiled frogs!!😃
Imagine not discovering basic dental hygiene and a good diet despite all the information and technology we have available to us in modernity.
@@kiuk_kiks imagine being an asshole on the internet, oh wait you don’t have to. 🖕❤️
Your videos are wonderful and enlightening.
I wanted to give a simple video suggestion, it was to talk about the process of discovering literary manuscripts from greece and rome. Sometimes I wonder how they managed to find the texts of Euripedes, of Ovid. In the case of the Romans they also had those notebooks with wax. It would be an honor to learn this from you. Thank you for teaching with such quality and generosity.
Thanks for the kind words! I hope to make a video on that topic in the relatively near future.
This is a question I really needed answering
I'm glad that this video mentions bad breath in ancient times. Bad breath is quite fascinating. Everyone except you knows that you have it. That is amazing when I think about it!
Genius.
This guy answers the questions we didn't even know we're dying to know.
This was a great video for me personally as I’m in the profession and ancient dentistry though archaic was certainly necessary for overall health.
Wow, I was just wondering about this the other day! Very interesting ☝🏼
A tooth extraction without anesthetics sounds like unimaginable agony, I am glad I live in a time where anesthetics are widely available
Have fun with forced hip replacements and painful chronic conditions and rotting away in a nursery home when you're 96. So much for that "High" average life expectancy.
Over the past few weeks i've been watching Rome on HBO for my first time. Fitting upload
hello toldinstone! your channel has quite joy become a favorite of mine. i’ve always loved history, but the way you humanize life in the ancient world is refreshing. i have a video suggestion - i’d love to see a video or series of videos covering the topics of menstruation, contraception, pregnancy, and birth in ancient rome. these aspects of young women’s lives tend to be ignored or forgotten, so i’d love if you could shed some light on it.
The "root cause of tooth decay"? Great pun of sorts!
My favorite website!
Thanks! I enjoyed this one
I wish you got a sponsorship from a toothpaste co for this episode
Quick answer:
Dental health tech was less good than it is today, so they didn’t have the ability to fix a lot of things the way we can today, however due to having a less sugar rich diet, people often have better teeth than you would expect.
I think it was due to less sugar, definitely, but also due to consuming more healthy vitamins/minerals in their organic, non-GMO foods.
@@annemurphy9339 what does GMO have to do with tooth health? Are you just throwing buzz words out of ignorance?
@@maalikserebryakov Sadly, the ignorance is your own. The minerals/vitamins in food have everything to do with health in general and it’s no different for one’s teeth. GMO foods are toxic and do not provide the necessary nutrients for health. Lab rats fed a diet of GMO corn soon became covered with tumors. They are frankenfoods.
I have an autistic grandson. Wondering… Are there records of autism in Roman times? Or did they just cast them aside?
It's thought that the Emperor Claudius may have been autistic, or at least had Asperger's.
People throughout history have cared for the disabled.
That is an interesting idea for a video.
I would have guessed that it’s depending on the autism. Some are high-functioning( like Elon Musk, Sir Isaac Newton) who might have adapted and even excelled at an occupation(given the opportunity)
While some Autistic people are low functioning who might be rowdy, loud or act weird at inappropriate places(like disturbing a holy ceremony at the temple of Jupiter)
And one thing is fairly certain, that children who cause trouble would get severely beaten.
And I’m even sure I read it somewhere that Roman fathers could kill their children if they disobeyed him. So that certainly could have happen.
Even right now a large portion of autistics go undiagnosed, so there's a good chance the majority who survived to adulthood would have just been viewed as eccentrics. More severe instances and those with combined ADHD/autism would probably be less likely to make it to adulthood.
In general societies aren't and haven't even been very well-suited to accommodating autistic individuals so I would anticipate the answer mostly involves casting aside and grinding down unfortunately.
There's a lot of evidence showing at least in the medieval ages; they wound up working in monasteries. There was one story of an individual obsessed with animals who knew all their names in Latin. One of the priests essentially went on to say how he helped him and how he would quietly be with his animals. For the Romans, I would say they probably did menial jobs. Perhaps even thrown into being gladiators. But that's just speculation on my part.
I am a Roman and, based on my terrible life experience with all but one dentist in my city, i am not surprised if they had 😬
You wouldn’t know a dental assistant named Elena would you?
My grandmother came to America, she loved the dentists here in USA.
Im super early, Im glad i could have this lecture all by myself ahha
Interesting. I assumed that their teeth would be crooked but have less cavities.
A dentist told me the human jaws have shrunk, especially over the last 500 years because we are generally eating much softer food and or overall more cooked and processed foods.
@@Thx1138sober So we're literally losing the chad jawline? Damn.
Great video.
For all of their innovations, chewing on mint leaves to freshen breath seemed to elude them.
haen se au don verdommi
You have no idea how common that was; their plant knowledge far exceeded the common man’s in modern society and they used plant derivatives as medicines, for cleaning, freshness, etc. It’s foolish to think otherwise.
Actually the Romans had all sorts of breath fresheners. . They used mint, honey, cinnamon and perfumes. Things called lozenges were created to both freshen breath and whiten teeth. I can't remember if it was Catullus or Juvenal who wrote about them.
Excited to watch this; I've read that many dentistry and surgical techniques we consider modern have actually been in use since at least 10k years. I hope you mention Byzantine dental surgery based on Greek teachings in this video!
The why (as in motivation) seems simple to me: An army marches on it's stomach, and this doesn't just refer to supply trains in general. Literally soldiers have to eat, dental health is important to longevity and soldiers with tooth infections are less-effective fighters. And in citizens it's a visible sign of the erudition of Rome, the continuation of 'civilization' through knowledge and wealth as well as the skills requisite in society (which do not arise of nothing, that requires continuing to educate people) to perform acts we take for granted as civilized.
ETA: It did not disappoint, though the moral of the story is so brutally obviously; listen to your dentist when they tell you to eat less sugar.
I don't have much of a sweet tooth, so I don't normally consume sweets or sugary drinks. I didn't have any cavities till I was in my late 30s. I did have one vice though, smoking, and I gave it up. But I went on a bit of a candy rampage for a few weeks when I did, and within a few months I had a filling. The refined sugar we eat now really is brutal to teeth!
Well taking in calcium is good for your teeth too
Oh man, listening to what dental care was like in the past makes me nauseous. I can’t even imagine how miserable life would have been with constant tooth issues.
Not established titles! I really liked this channel…
The abrasives contained in modern toothpastes are largely the same as those used in 19th century tooth powders, including ground seashells, which apparently go back even further than that.
Calcium Carbonate, also known as chalk and limestone, is what seashells are made of. It is also the abrasive ingredient in toothpaste. Basically rubbing tiny ground up rocks against your teeth helps scrape plaque off of them.
I like the way these videos aren't an hour long.
"The burnt heads of mad dogs" made me laugh 😂
Im a huge lover of ancient history if it is possible if you can talk about the old Roman City of Verulanium and some of the excavated items which csn now be seen in The Verulanium museum which is based in the Verulanium park in St Albans,Hertfordshire
Btw I love those gold rings in notifications pic. Ever since I saw the photo yrs ago I keep looking for rings like those
The crazies Roman tooth powder I have heard of is the one of crushed donkey teeth.
I guess it was used for abrasion and not cleaning.
"I used the teeth to clean the teeth."
@@auraguard0212
Xzibit brand toothpaste.
Better than replacing lost teeth with donkey teeth!🤣
Can't believe the sponsor wasn't dentally related. The Sponsorships have been so on point at the moment!
Thanks!
Garrett, what was medical care in general like in the Roman world?
his book has an entire chapter on surgery and the like.
the book is quite good.
Always seen documentaries where they inspect a skull and say the person suffered from huge abscesses in the mouth which would have made eating and every day life excruciating.
Bought your book. When's the next?
Lord Ryan do you ever go to the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago since you live on the south side? I haven't been in twenty years so should make a visit there again.
One factor for many people in Vesuvius having relatively decent teeth is the fluoride content in their drinking water.
"The occurrence of dental fluorosis from teeth of the Herculaneum victims of the 79 AD eruption and some individuals from Pompeii (14-37 AD) and Nocera Inferiore (Salerno, IV sec. AD) was detected by means of Particle Induced Gamma-ray Emission technique (PIGE). A clinical and analytical scenario of dental fluorosis resulted from the extreme high fluorine tooth content detected in teeth from Herculaneum and the Vesuvius area inhabitants."
"Rivers and lakes generally contain fluoride levels less than 0.5 mg/L, but groundwater, particularly in volcanic or mountainous areas, can contain as much as 50 mg/L."
Note that in the US, public water fluoride levels are capped at 4.0 mg/L (the "Maximum Contaminant Level", MCL). Too much fluoride is bad too, but for other reasons...
Iodine is better. Also calcium and vitamin k2
I have heard that urine was in use at least in Asia as a tooth cleaning agent. For what it is worth, healthy urine is virtually free of bacteria, and kills a lot of common germs.
Urine is not free of bacteria. Thats a myth. Urine gains bacteria in the bladder and genitalia
Hence the tax.
Also eww.
Okay, Bear Grylls
Urine being free of bacteria is pure myth
This is disturbing. I know why people hated the dentist in the very recent past.
I have shit dental care because my dad got scammed by a "friend" who was a dentist and drilled his teeth out when he didn't have cavities.
iwerall vegel
@@soukuw9146 American dentists can't be trusted they'll drill your teeth out because you'll look better with dentures. Look at the UK, they have better dental health statistics than the US yet almost never get braces or anything.
Interesting, thank you Garett. A question for another time, pehaps: the 'maniple swap'...could you please cover how the Roman army fought its rank systemt? I.e. front row solely engaging the enemy and 90% of the legionary manpower standing just behind, apparently doing nothing? How did this not lead to human avalanches? Always wondered about this...
Thank you
Fascinating
When you think of the good old days, think one word: dentistry. - P. J. O'Rourke
I think of sewage removal.
I was 100% expecting the sponsor to be some form of dental care business.
Living closer to the equator you have a more balanced expose to the magnetosphere which makes a huge difference eon the balance and posture of the human body. Also, you don’t have the cold environment that also contribute to congestion and sinus issue by living most of the year indoors. The aether/air motion and warm air makes a much better environment for the realities system and gives way to better tongue posture.
Interesting 👍🏼
And now a word from our sponsor, the Roman dental association 😂
9:27 those pictures are so weird; those are digitally altered, right?
I am a dentist and find it very interesting!
@Danny Al at least you have the luxury of anaesthetics :)
I feel better tho now about superglueing that filling back in the other day
(3:52) It is to be noted, that:
* Middle ages using _cloves_ was an improvement on antiquity, they are still or again used by French dentists in certain contexts;
* unmixed wine is not quite a bad option : alcohol kills bacteria.
Obviously, once there is an abcess, one needs to kill bacteria "from the inside" (not from mouth and tooth, but from roots) too, and unfortunately blue cheese was not invented back then.
Middle one on thumb nail is Dr. Cox
That guy on the right looks perfect for hosting a Roman gameshow :)
Sugar. Without even watching this, or knowing anything but the title, the answer is sugar.
Yup.
the title is a joke. romans had terrible teeth
01:45 Hail, Caesar?
Maybe they flushed and washed their mouth more often with just water. And used peppermint leaf for fresh breath. I heard they had soap in those times too. Perhaps they used that to clean their teeth with water.
Abrasive powders would definitely whiten teeth, but at the cost of wearing off the enamel. In the long term this would lead to far worse tooth damage.
Depends on how abrasive. Baking soda is an abrasive powder used to whiten teeth.
The domestication of starchy plants allows humans to survive and multiply, but in poorer health, and is therefore our original sin.
The emerald ring 8:05 looks as near as dammit to a ruby ring I own. I suppose there is not much to change about the shape.
and here I am waiting for a phone call about getting pain killers for a cracked tooth. Thought I would take my mind off the pain with some youtube and what shows up? lol
Well, we have to allow the ancients some leeway. The kind of tooth and gum care we have today is a post WWII phenomenon. And since they had far less sugar in their diet, they would have had fewer cavities I think. Interesting topic!
However, Thier bread often had bits of milling stones in it, like grit or aggregate, this would grind the teeth down through abrasion.
@@edmundprice5276 Saliva contains amylase which breaks down the starch in bread into sugar as we chew. If you chew a piece of bread for a while you will notice it become sweet as this happens. Hunter-gatherers had perfect teeth with no cavities, just a little wear from grit they accidentally ate. The first people in history with cavities were the first farmers in Mesopotamia, who lived mostly on grain. Thus, bread causes cavities, just as sugar does. Rice is a better form of starch because it's not chewed long enough to release much sugar in the mouth.
@@michelleeden2272 yes but we are talking about romans here, no amount of saliva will dissolve pieces of rock before ingestion
@@michelleeden2272 It may be true that rice is better than bread from a dental point of view, but both are full of sugar as far as your body is concerned.
The relatively healthy teeth of the skeletal remains at Pompeii and Herculaneum my not be typical of the same cross section of people in other areas of the Empire. I seem to remember reading that the ground water in the vicinity of Vesuvius is very high in fluoride with levels sometimes exceeding what it now considered healthy.
The level of fluoride that is healthy is zero.
I read that too, about the fluoride.
Amazing
9:15. Were you insinuating that Medieval Europe had processed sugar en Mass?
I know they identified rich people among the corpses of Pompeii by cavities.
They were the only one with access to honey, which was the only thing that caused cavities (via erosion and prevention of the natural re-enameling process) the way modern processed sugar does - they even figured out one girl with very simple, poorer, jewelry who died holding a child must have been his nanny, because she hadn't given birth and she had gotten a cavity from nipping at the rich mother's honey supply.
Actually honey is really good for you. Its natural, how can it hurt your teeth?
@@maalikserebryakov It can hurt your teeth if you lack proper hygiene
@@gratius8829 not having proper hygiene will damage your teeth regardless of honey consumption 🤡
@@maalikserebryakov Sugar damages your teeth more severily, honey contains quite a lot of sugar compared to other ancient food, that is why ancient people with rotten teeth had probably consumed honey. Poorer people had to feed themselves with low sugar food so they had better teeth, even though back then all people lacked proper dental hygiene.
@@maalikserebryakov even eating only fruit, which is “natural” can rot your teeth
what the hell is that updo on the statue on the right??? did you ever do a video on roman hair styles??
The condition of teth are tightly connected not only with calcium and vitamine " D" , but it depends on the blood , copper magnesium and so on , on hormons as well . Bad blood - bad teath, bad " horse"
For anyone actually interested in ESTABLISHED TITLES, it doesn’t quite work the way they tell you. By the Land Registration Act 2012, Section 22(a law made ad hoc for this phenomenon of ‘souvenir plots’), unserviceable plots of inconsiderable size are neither registered plots and neither do they allow for a legal lord/laird title. These are referred to by scottish law as “souvenir plots” with a subtext connotation of scam. “Ownership of a souvenir plot of land does not bring with it the right to any description such as ‘laird’, ‘lord’ or ‘lady’. ‘Laird’ is not a title but a description applied by those living on and around the estate…” (Law Society of Scotland, Court of Lord Lyon)
Furthermore, we have no way of proving that they in fact plant trees in ‘your’ ‘land’. That’s just hot air. What they do is only donate to TREES, an org on which I’ve personally yet to find proper indipendent data of their work in my research. If you want to get involved in Est.Titl. then by all means go for it, I don’t want to be the judge of anyone on the matter, just be ware of these facts I present you.
This made me go clean my teeth!!!
I read that the fermented urine mouth wash was also a thing in preColumbian Incas.
Can you make a video on the romans accounts and views on animals such as primates
You can receive a dram of the worlds finest whiskys along with your title from Laphroaig, you just have to visit the distillery!
It sounds like every ancient Roman had better teeth then I do. I’ve been a sugar addict my entire life. That explains that…