It seems like if people nowadays don’t brush their teeth often, they diminish and rot until they fall out. Before the toothbrush was invented, did people just lose all their teeth by their 20s? And how do animals teeth stay clean?
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Before the toothbrush, people used other methods to clean their teeth such as chewing on twigs or using a cloth. These methods were not as effective as the toothbrush, and people’s teeth would often rot and fall out by the time they were in their 20s. Animals’ teeth stay clean because they typically eat a diet that is high in fiber which cleans their teeth as they chew.
Miswak, essentially a stick you chew on from a specific plant, was traditionally used before toothbrushes were a thing
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Don’t forget that before 100 years ago, diets had much less sugar in them so there were few if any cavities. No cavities generally mean healthy teeth that didn’t fall out. They probably had horrible bad breath and staining, but the teeth had much less caries (cavities) in them.
Twigs were used to rub teeth clean as were finger with salt or seaweed as abrasive.
A few people mentioning sugar but carbs in our diets specifically are a big factor too. Bread getting stuck to your teeth breaks down to sugar gradually and causes a lot of decay. Plants were also totally different, much less sweet and more and larger veins + seeds.
When people were eating meat and fibrous plants they didn’t get much decay from their diet.
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