History of oral health: the origins of fruitcare (2024)

FAQs

What is the history of oral health? ›

Roman medical writers were penning how-to manuals on oral care in 100 BC, and the Etruscans utilized gold crowns to restore teeth around 200 AD. In 700 AD, the Chinese began using a silver paste to correct tooth decay. In 1210, the Guild of Barbers was established in France.

According to some archaeologists, Ancient Egyptians were visiting early versions of dental hygienists back around 2600 B.C.E. for teeth cleanings.

The father of oral hygiene: Robert Bunon (1702-1748)

For most of its history, toothpaste came in a powder form. As late as the 1850s, toothpastes remained in powder form, commonly containing chalk and soap. It would take another 20 years for toothpaste to begin to resemble its modern counterpart when, in 1873, Colgate began mass-producing toothpaste, not powder, in jars.

How did it start? Oral history in the modern form of audio recordings had its origins in the work of Allan Nevins at the University of Columbia in the USA. He began to record the memories of 'persons significant in American life' in 1948.

Oral health is the state of the mouth, teeth and orofacial structures that enables individuals to perform essential functions such as eating, breathing and speaking, and encompasses psychosocial dimensions such as self-confidence, well-being and the ability to socialize and work without pain, discomfort and ...

Dentistry is one of the oldest medical professions, dating back to 7000 B.C. with the Indus Valley Civilization.

The emblem of dentistry is taken from Asclepius, a Greek god of medicine and healing.

A woman becomes the first licensed dental hygienist

Irene Newman became the first licensed dental hygienist in 1917 — and Connecticut became, the first state to pass a dental hygiene licensure law. Within three years, six more states created dental hygiene programs.

Salt and charcoal were often rubbed across the teeth and then rinsed away. However, the most common way of taking care of teeth involved taking a birch twig and fraying the end, making a primitive brush. Dental powders were also used. They were made from strange concoctions of burned eggshells ashes and animal hooves.

What did ancient people use instead of toothpaste? ›

Ancient Times

Although toothbrushes hadn't quite been invented yet, Egyptians used a paste made of soot, gum arabic (a naturally-occurring gum made from the hardened sap of an acacia tree), and water. The result was probably a little bit more abrasive than our modern-day Colgate or Crest.

Bark or long chew sticks with frayed ends were a common way to improve dental health before toothbrushes were created. William Addis is believed to have produced the first toothbrush available to the masses.

Oral history is a field of study and a method of gathering, preserving and interpreting the voices and memories of people, communities, and participants in past events.

1732. In Alloa, Scotland, local surgeon William Tossach uses mouth-to-mouth breaths to revive a suffocated coal-pit miner. Dr. Tossach documents the success 12 years later, in what may be the first clinical description of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in medical literature.

The real record of history is found in the lives of the ordinary people who lived it. Collecting, preserving and sharing oral histories not only transmits knowledge from one generation to the next, it enhances our understanding of the past by illuminating personal experience.

In oral history, the material is collected by an external observer and is mainly used to focus on delimited past sequences. Life history involves an examination of self-written accounts, such as autobiographies (memoirs), letters, or diaries.