Salt ’n’ Vinegar Toothpaste Is it really just like in the TV, where they just rinse their mouth with water after getting up in the morning? On the contrary, not only were the ancients well-equipped for cleaning their teeth, but their solutions were no less effective than modern toothpaste. Salt has the effect of whitening and protecting teeth. During the Wei, Jin, Sui and Tang Dynasties, people used to dip their fingers with salt, tea, wine, vinegar, etc. to wipe their teeth and rinse their mouths. According to “Essential Recipes for Emergent Use Worth A Thousand Gold” (备急千金要方), written by the famous ancient Chinese doctor, Sun Simiao, after getting up every morning, it is important to put some salt in your mouth and to hold it there for a while with warm water. This will make your teeth firm. Later, the ancient Chinese no longer used salt to clean their teeth, because they had by then discovered an exclusive recipe; tooth powder. This was smelted with traditional Chinese medicines, such as pork teeth, saponin, ginger, cimicifuga, cooked rehmannia glutinosa, mulu, eclipta, sophora japonica, asarum, lotus leaf, green salt, etc. Such tooth powder not only cleaned and maintained teeth, but also removed moisture and heat from the body. In addition, salt water, tea water, drinks, and more mysterious potions, were also used as mouthwash.
From Fingers to Horse Hair; China’s Ancient Toothbrush In the beginning, ancient Chinese brushed their teeth with the most convenient tool available, their fingers. But over time, many people realised that while this method may clean the mouth, it might not be so practical. Then someone invented brushing their teeth with willow branches. The method is to first take a small swathe of willow branches and rinse it clean. Then one end is chewed until the branch fibres are exposed and the end becomes hairy. In this way, a simple toothbrush is achieved. After that, the toothbrush was dipped in a little of that magic tooth powder. Brushing teeth complete; very simple and low in cost. Later, toothbrushes were upgraded, with the wise Chinese using animal bristles to make toothbrushes that were very similar to those of today, most of which employing pig bristles. Although the texture was a bit hard, it was cheap. Rich people tended to use horse bristles; softer and more comfortable for brushing teeth. In the Southern Song Dynasty, there existed shops specialising in the production and sale of toothbrushes. They became common objects, mostly made of wood and bamboo. Very similar to the today’s toothbrush, there were two rows of holes punched therein, and the horse bristles attached. 11
