What did ancient Romans brush their teeth with?

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asked Dec 23, 2021 in Dental by Rick889797 (1,250 points)
What did ancient Romans brush their teeth with?

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answered Dec 25, 2021 by aurumille (740 points)
Ancient Romans brushed their teeth with human urine and animal urine as well as powdered mouse brains.

The Romans did really brush their teeth with urine.

Although it sounds gross and is really gross urine does make a good cleansing agent for teeth.

Romans also used urine as a mouthwash along with using urine to brush teeth with.

The urine contains ammonia, a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen, that is capable of acting as a cleansing agent.

Ancient Romans used to use both human and animal urine as mouthwash in order to whiten their teeth.

The Romans used to buy bottles of Portuguese urine and use that as a rinse.

Importing bottled urine became so popular that the emperor Nero taxed the trade.

The ammonia in urine was thought to disinfect mouths and whiten teeth, and urine remained a popular mouthwash ingredient until the 18th century.

Romans also used powdered mouse brains as toothpaste.

The Romans used powdered mouse brains as toothpaste.

Julius Caesar gave us our modern calendar of 12 months.

Originally there were only 10 months, running from March to December, but then they added two more.

This meant that September (from the Latin for seven) became the 9th month.

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