As we have seen from many old photos and family stories that our Victorian ancestors suffered with bad teeth and it is
only been in the last eighty years that oral mouth hygiene has become more and more of an importance.
Dentistry in itself has come a long way and become so advanced with new machinery and technology to improve
not only the health of our gums and teeth but also the look. However no matter how advanced we have become we still
share one common thing with our ancestors; the dreaded fear of going to the dentist. The drilling sounds and the
chemical smells that hits you as soon as you walk in to the reception. Its bad enough going for a checkup but if to find out
if you need a filling or some hefty work it can send shivers up you’re spine. Imagine having a bad tooth or one that is just giving you a bit of pain and you had to go to a Victorian dentist who would have just pulled the tooth right out without any numbing relief.
False teeth could be made out of carved ivory, wood, animal’s teeth or poor people’s teeth, which had been pulled out and sold. However most of these teeth would over time start to become smelly and turn a yellow colour and begin to deteriorate. Cleaning your teeth with a toothbrush and toothpaste was a luxury and not very common. The toothpaste that rich people had was not nice and mint flavoured either – it was gritty and tasted horrible! People who could not afford toothbrushes and paste were told to either regularly eat brown bread because they thought that the flakes in it would clean their teeth, or to chew on a piece of tough celery so that the fibres would get between the teeth and clean them. Overall our ancestors had to suffer having bad teeth and having them pulled out.
The Victorian Dentist
