Rinse and Spit: The History of Toothpaste

沖洗和吐出:牙膏的歷史

Without your teeth, life would be tough. Sure, we have all sorts of fancy dentistry tricks these days, but nothing tops the chompers we're born with. In fact, in 2010 rocker Patti Smith gave the commencement address at the Pratt Institute in New York, and those graduating seniors got some incredibly sound advice:

沒有牙齒，你的生活會變得很艱難。我們會遇到各種各樣的高價(jià)的牙醫(yī)騙局，但是我們的確生來就是咀嚼者。事實(shí)上，在2010年，搖滾歌手帕蒂·史密斯在紐約普瑞特藝術(shù)學(xué)院做了畢業(yè)演講，這些高年級的畢業(yè)生得到了一些很棒的建議。

"Now that I'm here, my greatest urge is to speak to you of dental care," Smith joked. "My generation had a rough go, dentally. Our dentists were the army dentists who came back from World War II and believed that the dental office was a battleground. You have a better chance at dental health."

史密斯開玩笑地說：“現(xiàn)在我在這里，我最想對你們說的是請維護(hù)好自己的牙齒健康。我那一代人飽受牙病的困擾，我們的牙科醫(yī)生是軍醫(yī)，他們剛剛從第二次世界大戰(zhàn)回來，他們認(rèn)為牙科辦公室是一個(gè)戰(zhàn)場。你有一個(gè)大好機(jī)會來維護(hù)你牙齒的健康。”

And it might be true that our big dental procedures are considerably better than they were in the middle of the last century, but it's the maintenance Smith was probably talking about. We've got to scrub our teeth each and every day, or else bacteria will calcify into tartar, which is where the tooth troubles really begin. Keeping all your teeth in your head and avoiding life-threatening infection has always required constant vigilance. Which is where toothpaste comes in.

確實(shí)，我們的牙齒保健我們技術(shù)比上個(gè)世紀(jì)中葉時(shí)期的水平要來得高，但是史密斯想要說的是指牙齒的護(hù)理。我們每天都要刷洗自己的每一顆牙齒，否則細(xì)菌就會鈣化成牙垢，這些會導(dǎo)致牙病的發(fā)生。保護(hù)你自己的牙齒，避免那些會危及你生命安全的感染需要你長期的關(guān)心和重視。因此，牙膏孕育而生。

The Chew Stick
Nobody knows who invented the toothbrush — most ancient civilizations seem to have had some variation of a frayed "chew stick" they used to keep their chompers clean. But don't chompers also need some sort of, well, cleaning agent? Is that minty, plaster-like goo we smear on our modern chewing sticks just capitalist snake oil?

磨牙棒
沒有人知道誰發(fā)明了牙刷，最古老的文明好像已經(jīng)發(fā)明了一些不同類型的“磨牙棒”。它們讓這些咀嚼者牙齒健康。但是這些咀嚼者不需要清潔劑嗎？是有薄荷香的膏藥狀的黏性物嗎？我們把它涂在現(xiàn)代的磨牙棒上，就像涂抹那些資本主義的騙人的萬靈油一樣

Not if history has anything to say about it. Toothpaste might actually predate the toothbrush. While there's evidence ancient Egyptians were using toothbrushes as far back as 3500 BCE, recipes for tooth powder have been found that date back to 5000 BCE. The earliest Egyptian tooth powder recipe contained plenty of abrasives to scrape off all the sticky residue: the ashes of burnt egg shells and oxen hooves mixed with pumice seemed to be popular. By the fourth century, Egyptians had fancied up their tooth powder with abrasives like rock salt and flavorings like mint and peppercorns — they even added dried iris flower, perhaps because it was associated with purification. Good thing our tooth enamel is harder than bone — or even iron or steel. If it wasn't, those Egyptians would have brushed their teeth right down to nubs.

歷史上沒有相關(guān)的記載，但是牙膏很可能比牙刷出現(xiàn)得早。有一個(gè)證據(jù)，那就是古埃及人已經(jīng)在公元前3500年就已經(jīng)使用牙刷了，而牙粉的使用更早，可以追溯到公元前5000年。最早的埃及牙粉含有大量的研磨料，能夠刮走具有粘性的食物殘?jiān)?。這種研磨料好像是用被燒過的蛋殼和公牛的蹄和輕石的混合物得來的灰做成的。在4世紀(jì)時(shí)候，埃及人已經(jīng)發(fā)明了他們的牙粉，使用含有石鹽、薄荷和胡椒子的研磨料，他們甚至加入了鳶尾花，也許是因?yàn)轼S尾花和“洗凈”有關(guān)。很好的事情是我們的牙釉質(zhì)比骨頭更硬，甚至比鐵和鋼還要硬。如果不是這樣，那些埃及人早就把他們的牙齒刷壞了。

But when this recipe was revealed in 2003 at a dental conference in Vienna, Austrian dentist Heinz Neuman told The Telegraph he tried it and it wasn't half bad.

但是當(dāng)這個(gè)處方在2003年在維也納一個(gè)牙科醫(yī)學(xué)大會上被披露出來的時(shí)候，奧地利牙醫(yī)海因茨.紐曼對《電訊報(bào)》說他已經(jīng)嘗試了這款牙粉，認(rèn)為挺不賴的。

"I found that it was not unpleasant," said Neuman. "It was painful on my gums and made them bleed as well, but that's not a bad thing, and afterwards my mouth felt fresh and clean. I believe that this recipe would have been a big improvement on some of the soap toothpastes used much later."

紐曼說：“我發(fā)現(xiàn)這款牙粉并不讓人不悅。它讓我的牙齦感到疼痛，甚至讓它出血了，但是那不是一件壞事，之后我的嘴巴感到清新和干凈。我相信這個(gè)處方對于一些后來使用的牙膏來說應(yīng)該是一個(gè)巨大的改進(jìn)?！?br/>
Around the world, different cultures continued mixing crushed abrasives like oyster shell or bone and nice-tasting herbs like mint and ginseng together to clean teeth and keep halitosis at bay. Ancient Romans reportedly used urine to whiten their teeth. But as with literally everything else, the Middle Ages didn't really do much for toothpaste technology. During this time, Europeans settled on a mixture of honey, salt and rye flour, which they supplemented by giving their teeth a good scrubbing with the bark of certain trees.

全世界的不同文化用牡礪殼或者骨頭以及像薄荷和人參這樣的氣味好的草藥混合制成不同的研磨料，它們能夠清潔牙齒，去除口臭。歷史上記載古羅馬人用尿來保持牙齒的潔白。但是正如中世紀(jì)史書中記載的其它東西一樣，當(dāng)時(shí)的牙膏技術(shù)并沒有很大的進(jìn)步。在這段時(shí)期，歐洲人把蜂蜜、鹽和黑麥花混合起來來刷洗干凈自己的牙齒，用以代替之前使用過的一些樹木的樹皮。

Toothpaste Goes Mainstream
It wasn't until the early 19th century that the toothpaste biz as we know it really started heating up. Recipes for tooth powders and pastes that included abrasives like charcoal, chalk and burned bread crumbs, as well as incense like dragon's blood, were popular in England until 1850, when Colgate introduced its first Crème Dentifrice, which came in a jar. Mass production of this product started in the 1870s and 20 years later, they introduced the collapsible tube. And from then on, toothpaste was a thing.

牙膏成為主流
一直到19世紀(jì)后牙膏生意才開始興盛起來。牙粉和牙膏的處方包括木炭、白堊和被燒過的面包碎屑，還有一些香，比如：“龍血”，在1850年以前的英國非常流行。那一年高露潔介紹它的第一款牙膏，牙膏被裝在罐子里。這種牙膏的大量生產(chǎn)始于19世紀(jì)70年代，二十年后，他們引入了牙膏管。從那時(shí)起，牙膏成為了今天的牙膏。

Before World War II, most toothpastes on the market were sold in a lead tube. They also contained soap, which was unnecessary and in some cases even counter-productive, but we have this hangup about wanting everything to foam. In fact toothpastes contain soap — namely, sodium lauryl sulfate — because it's not clean unless it's foamy! But soap also helped maintain an even, creamy texture. We get this smooth texture today with humectants like sorbitol, glycerin and propylene glycol, which have the added bonus of being a little sweet.

在第二次世界大戰(zhàn)前，許多市場上的牙膏被裝在鉛管里銷售。這種牙膏里還含有肥皂，這是不必要的，在某些情況下會幫倒忙，但我們總希望牙膏能夠產(chǎn)生大量的泡沫。事實(shí)上牙膏含有肥皂，即十二烷基硫酸鈉，因?yàn)槿绻黄鹋菽筒荒芟锤蓛粞例X！而且肥皂能夠保持奶油狀的質(zhì)感。我們今天能夠從保濕劑中得到這種質(zhì)感，比如山梨糖醇、丙三醇、丙二醇，這些物質(zhì)含有一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)甜味。

Fluoride was first added to toothpaste in 1914, but it wasn't until the 1960s that it was proven to fight cavities. And modern toothpaste no longer uses chalk as an abrasive — we most often use hydrated silica.

氟化物第一次被加入到牙膏里是在1914年，但是一直到1960年以后才被證實(shí)這種物質(zhì)具有防蛀牙的功效。現(xiàn)代的牙膏不再用白堊作為研磨劑了。我們最常用的是水合硅石。

Toothpaste manufacturers make it so easy for us nowadays. We don't have to put urine or dragon's blood in our mouths anymore! Don't you think it's about time to go brush your teeth?

牙膏制造商發(fā)明了牙膏，便利了我們的生活。我們不需要把尿或者“龍血”涂到我們的嘴里了。你難道不認(rèn)為現(xiàn)在是時(shí)候去刷牙了嗎？