There was another question on how people did it, but was it common knowledge? And was it readily available for the poor?
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I guess it depends on how far into the past you go… ancient Chinese and Egyptian texts advised cleaning to avoid decay by chewing on bark, small sticks, feathers, porcupine quills… stuff to pick out bigger chunks of food…
Colgate made the first Toothpaste in a jar in the 1870’s, so that’s been around for a while… the first “Toothpaste” is something like 5,00 years old (mint, salt, pepper, iris flowers was a recipe from Egypt, apparently caused bleeding gums but did clean teeth better than other things)
Before Toothpaste, you’d typically “brush” with a frayed twig to the best you can do with that.. sometimes using salt or charcoal and rubbing your teeth with a ribbon, then rinse with water… it hasn’t changed much from scrub them with some grit, and rinse away (Toothpaste with soap came around in the 1850s)
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