The development of pastes designed to clean teeth and freshen the breath began in Egypt as early as 5000 B.C.E. Myrrh, volcanic pumice, and the burned ashes of ox hooves were mixed with crushed eggshells, oyster shells, and other fine abrasives, then applied with a finger to scour teeth and help remove food and bacterial deposits.
In China around 300 B.C.E. a nobleman named Huang-Ti claimed that toothaches could be cured by inserting pins into certain areas of a patient's gums. Huang-Ti's theories grew to become the world's first recorded and systematic approach to oral hygiene.
Generally, however, the composition of what people used as toothpaste remained an intriguing mix of practicality, myth, and superstition until well into the seventeenth century. In the first century C.E., for example, it was thought that toothaches could be avoided by removing animal bones from wolves' excrement and wearing them in a band around one's neck. At the same time the Greeks and Romans were using wires to bind teeth together and began producing rudimentary instruments for tooth maintenance and extraction.
Tooth powders first became available in Europe in the late eighteenth century, although ill-conceived mixtures continued to be made available. Their highly abrasive ingredients, such as brick dust and pulverized earthenware, scoured away the protective enamel of the teeth and did more harm than good, despite the addition of glycerine to make the paste more palatable. In the 1850s chalk was added to act as a whitening agent and a new product called Crème Dentifrice saw toothpaste sold in jars for the first time. In 1873 the Colgate company began the mass production of aromatic toothpaste in jars.
