Tooth and Oral Care in Edwardian Times

By the Edwardian era, dentistry was almost as good as you'd find nowadays as far as common procedures (though you might not always be given anaesthetics while you had them done.) The importance of brushing and cleaning the teeth was also much better understood than it had been a hundred years prior, and mass manufacturing made things like toothbrushes easier to come by than they'd ever been in the past. In the time of Gibson Girls they were made with natural bristles, which (once wet) are a bit softer than modern synthetic bristles. (They also break more easily, I can say from experience. It's not fun if a piece of hair from the toothbrush breaks off and gets caught right by your throat, let me tell you.)

Tooth pastes existed, Colgate's being the original one. Pastes, however, were nowhere near as popular as tooth powders. These were made to be a slightly abrasive mixture for scrubbing the gunk off your teeth (which again, with a natural-bristle brush can be a helpful thing, due to the softness.) Some period recipes seem a bit excessive in the amount of abrasion offered, including tooth powders made from pulverized pumice stone.

Flossing had been recommended since 1815, and in the 20th century companies like Johnson and Johnson finally made a reliable dental floss available to consumers.

Mouthwashes were also used. Amongst long-lost brands like Dioxogen and Thy-cal-lol are also Listerine, which has been around since the 1890s, and was employed as a mouthwash in Edwardian times as well. Interestingly, Listerine was originally considered to be more of a general antiseptic liquid, and period advertisements also recommend it for an aftershave, hair tonic, and as a gargle to protect from inhaling germs. Other more old-fashioned mouthwashes included Hungary Water (another multi-purpose tool, used also as a facial toner, medicine and perfume) and the old standby, peroxide. In fact, before perfumes were being made with denatured alcohol, simply swishing a bit of your favorite cologne around your mouth was a tactic employed for sweetening the breath.



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