How Did Georgians Clean Their Teeth?

 "A French Dentist Shewing a Specimen of His Artificial Teeth and False Palates", drawing by Thomas Rowlandson, 1811.

Did Georgians clean their teeth at all? The answer is yes... well at any rate they tried to. People were already aware that keeping teeth clean made them look and feel better and slowed down the onset of decay. Doctors recommended doing so and books and magazines offered advice.

People who could afford it resorted to all sorts of methods to avoid toothache, early tooth loss, and dental misery. Toothpicks and mouth-washes were widely used in polite society and we also find references to tooth-brushes at quite an early date.

In 1746, Medicina Brittanica by Thomas Short M.D. offered this advice: "Wash the Mouth often with a Decoction of Mouse-ear in small Beer; often snuff up the Nose Vinegar, wherein Primrose roots were infused ... To fasten the Teeth, chew often Roots of Brook-lime ; or rinse the Mouth often with a Decoction of Wild Tansy in Vinegar ...[1]

This is not as horrifying as it sounds, as "mouse-ear" is a kind of chickweed with tiny white flowers - not the ear of a mouse! Tansy is another common flowering plant, and whatever its virtues, the vinegar cannot have done the teeth much good.

In the same year, Nicholas Culpepper's tome The English Physician claims that an infusion of the roots of the Golden-Rod plant will help to fix wobbly teeth in the gums. [2]

The Complete Housewife; Or, Accomplished Gentlewoman's Companion  recommends in 1773, "A Powder for the Teeth. TAKE half an ounce of cream of tartar, and a quarter of an ounce of powder of myrrh; rub the teeth with it two or three times a week. " [3]

Many cookery books or books of household management included concoctions for cleaning the teeth. The New British Jewel, Or, Complete Housewife's Best Companion (1754, reprinted 1788) includes the recipe for "Dr Bracken's Powder for the Teeth" .

"To make an admirable Powder for the Teeth ; by Dr. Bracken, of Preston in Lancashire. Get Tartar of Vitriol, two Drachms; best Dragon's-blood and Myrrh, of each Half a Drachm; Gumlac, one Drachm ; of Ambergrease, four Grains ; and those and those that like it may add two Grains of Musk; mix them well, and make a Powder to be kept in a Phial close stopp'd. The Method of using it is thus: Put a little of the Powder upon a Saucer, or a Piece of white Paper, then take a clean Linnen Cloth upon the End of your Finger, just moisten it in Water, and dip it in the Powder, and rub your Teeth well once a Day," [4] Well, don't try this at home, because tartar of vitriol (potassium sulphate) is highly poisonous and goodness knows how many people this tooth powder killed.

Many ingredients suggested for tooth powders were very fanciful. The Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure offered this recipe in 1772: "A Powder to clean the Teeth. Take dragons'-blood and Cinnamon, of each one ounce, and an half ; burnt alum one ounce; beat all together into a very fine powder, and rub a little on the teeth every other day."  Dragon's blood? Actually this was the name of a sort of resin from a South American tree, widely believed to have medicinal properties. 

The recipe that follows for a tooth-whitener, is so elaborate and requires so many ingredients that it seems impossible for anybody except an apothecary to make, yet it was copied time and again in books and magazines for fifty years after this time:

" IV. A Method to make the Teeth beautifully white. Take dried leaves of hyssop, wild thyme and mint, of each half an ounce, rock alum, prepared hartshorn, and salt, of each a drachm; calcine these ingredients in a pot placed on burning coals; when sufficiently calcined, add, of Pepper and Mastic, each half a drachm, and of Myrrh a scruple, reduce the whole to a fine powder, and make them into a proper consistence with storax dissolved in rose water. Rub the teeth with a small bit of this mixture every morning, and afterwards wash the mouth with warm Wine."[5]

The Toilet of Flora; Or, a Collection of the Most Simple and approved methods of preparing baths, essences, pomatums, powders, perfumes, sweet-scented waters: and opiates, for preserving the teeth and gums, and sweetening the breath. With receipts for cosmetics of every kind, (1784) offered a bewildering array of similar recipes, for cleansing teeth though few were quite so complicated as the one above. "Take an ounce of myrrh in fine powder, two spoonfuls of the best white Honey, and a little green Sage in fine powder ; mix them well together and rub the teeth and gum with a little of this Balsam every night and morning." Elsewhere it suggested cleaning the teeth with nettles or tobacco ashes, even vine ashes, mixed with a little honey.

For the health of your gums, it recommended dissolving "a drachm of Cachoe (an Indian perfume) in a Quart of red wine" and using it to rinse your mouth. Cachoe or cachou was an extract from the seeds of a mimosa plant found in the East Indies, and was reputed to cure bad breath, but must have been prohibitively expensive.

Simplest of all, you could rinse your mouth out every day with diluted lavender-water. "This simple and innocent remedy is a certain preservative, the success of which has been confirmed by long experience." Even if it didn't work, at least it was cheap.[6]  

Many ready-made preparations were sold for cleaning the teeth, and in 1755, The Bath and Bristol Guide advertised "Greenough's Tinctures; one for Preserving the Teeth and Gums, the other for the Tooth-Ach. Each 1s. a Bottle. The Bristol Tooth-Water, at 1s. the Bottle." As a shilling was a soldier's daily wage, this was clearly in the luxury bracket and only within reach of the gentry. [7]

The Lady's Magazine in 1803 advertised Amboyna tooth powder and mouthwash, each priced at 2s and 6d, making them a status symbol for the very wealthiest of the ton. Nevertheless, it is reassuring to know that Regency society people had such a concern for pristine smiles and fresh breath. The same magazine offers advice on "Improved Brushes" meaning ones that were made in a convenient shape for reaching the inside, not just the outside, of your teeth, and finally "from the prescription of a late eminent medical practitioner, a recipe for an excellent tooth-powder ...take of Jesuits' bark, one ounce, myrrh, one ounce; orris-root powder, half an ounce; coral powder, half an ounce calcined; oyster shells, quarter of an ounce. Let the ingredients be well mixed together, dry, and they are immediately fit for use." Jesuits' bark or cinchona is a tree bark from South America and is the source of quinine. These ingredients could be purchased from any decent pharmacy in towns.[8]
     

In 1756, one of the earliest serious treatises in the world on dentistry appeared: Friedrich Hoffmann's A Treatise on the Teeth: Their Nature, Structure, Formation, Beauty, Connection and Use. In which the Disorders They are Liable To, are Enumerated; and the Remedies Annexed. He warned of the dangers of many powders sold for cleaning the teeth. "The common Methods for preserving the Colour of the Teeth, serve rather to blacken and destroy them: And I would caution the Public against the Use of all Remedies fold with this Design. The Opiates, and many Medicines of different Titles, to my certain Knowledge, are composed of Brick, China, Rotten-stone, or other Ingredients of this Nature, powdered or levigated very fine, and coloured according to the Fancy of the Inventors. It is very natural to conceive, that these Powders must act upon the Teeth much in the same manner as a File, or the Dusts used in polishing Metals; by which means the enamel'd Substance will be worn away, and the long Part of the Tooth left bare, and defenceless... If Dentrifices must be used, let them be of Crabshells and Cuttle-bone, reduced to an impalpable Powder, and with these mix Nutmeg, Orris, Mastic, Alum, finely pulverized, and a little Musk. With such a Powder the Teeth may be gently rubbed without ill Effect:"
He recommended applying this powder with mallow roots. "This both cleanses and strengthens the teeth, and very agreeably sweetens the breath. With such a powder it would not be amiss to rub the teeth after every meal, but gently; and for this the best method is, to take large roots of either kind of mallows, throughly cleansed, bruised, and dipt in rose-vinegar; then sprinkling some of this powder on them, rub them against the teeth; and this will prove a corroborative detergent. What I have here offered will, I hope, meet with a suitable regard." [9]

The warning against harsh tooth powders was echoed in various periodicals, including The Scots Magazine and The Gentleman's Magazine, which suggests that the use of such powders must have been quite widespread among the gentry: "Rule for the Preservation of the Teeth, and Gums. The teeth are bones thinly covered over with a fine enamel, and this enamel is more or less substantial in different persons. Whenever this enamel is worn through, by too coarse a powder, or too frequent cleaning of the teeth, the tooth cannot long remain sound..." [10]

The term tooth-brush can be found as early as 1768, when Thomas Berdmore's Treatise on the Disorders and Deformities of the Teeth and Gums advised: "Let us now proceed to teach how the beauty of the Teeth may be preserved from infancy to old age, by such care and treatment as shall be free from all the dangers which belong to powders, electuaries [medicines mixed with honey], and tinctures. As soon as the second Teeth appear, the parents and governesses should take care to make the children wash their Teeth every morning with common water and a convenient Tooth-brush; and after meals they should be accustomed to rinse the mouth and rub the Teeth with their fingers, when a brush cannot be conveniently used".[ 11 ] 
The sort of brushes then available, made of horse-hair or pig's bristle, were not very hygienic, and of course the early morning is not the best time to clean your teeth, but here we have the first inklings of a routine of dental hygiene that would be improved and made more scientific in future centuries. 

[1] Medicina Britannica: or, A treatise on such physical plants, as are ...

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=zU9iAAAAcAAJ

Thomas SHORT (M.D., of Sheffield.) - 1746

[2] The English Physician Enlarged with Three Hundred and Sixty-nine ...

Nicholas Culpeper - 1752
[3] The Complete Housewife; Or, Accomplished Gentlewoman's Companion ...

E. SMITH (Cook.) - 1773
[4] The New British Jewel, Or, Complete Housewife's Best Companion. 
Osborne and Griffin, and H. Mozley, Gainsborough, 1788. 

[5] The Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure: Containing News...1772.

[6] The Toilet of Flora; Or, a Collection of the Most Simple and approved methods of preparing baths, essences, pomatums, powders, perfumes, sweet-scented waters: and opiates, for preserving the teeth and gums, and sweetening the breath. With receipts for cosmetics of every kind, 1784.

[ 7 ] The Bath and Bristol guide - Page 64

[ 8] The Lady's Magazine, Or Entertaining Companion for the Fair Sex ..., Volume 34, 1803. p.467, 616.

[9]  A Treatise on the Teeth: Their Nature, Structure, Formation, Beauty, Connection and Use. In which the Disorders They are Liable To, are Enumerated; and the Remedies Annexed: ... By Frederick Hoffman, M.D. 

Friedrich Hoffmann - 1756
[10] The Gentleman's Magazine, Volume 34, 1764, p. 31. Also London Magazine: Or, Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer...1768 - ‎

[11] Thomas Berdmore, A Treatise on the Disorders and Deformities of the Teeth and Gums,  1768 - 

rpt. 1770.