![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/graystonedental\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2022\/08\/early-modern-teeth-2022_543.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
IN ONE OF HIS<\/b> sonnets, Shakespeare described the reeking breath of his lady love, and the subject came up again in two of his plays. He sets a creepy mood with the \u201cblack contagious breath\u201d of the night in \u201cKing John\u201d and includes the line \u201chis breath stinks with eating toasted cheese\u201d in \u201cHenry IV Part II.\u201d Unfortunately, smelly breath was a common problem for that time period, and so were bad teeth.<\/p>\nThe Class Divide of Early Modern Dental Health<\/h3>\n
Most people in Early Modern England were missing one or two teeth and they had to deal with a lot of cavities, but the problem was actually worse for the wealthy and especially the queen. Sugar was the hot new fad among the aristocracy in Elizabeth I\u2019s day, but it was only available as an expensive import. In fact, sugar was so expensive that it was almost its own currency, and only the wealthy could afford it<\/strong> as an ingredient in their food.<\/p>\n Unfortunately for all those lords and ladies, they didn\u2019t realize the dental health implications of luxurious sugar consumption. It wasn\u2019t long until black teeth became a symbol of wealth, which gave rise to the perplexing fashion among the lower classes of artificially blackening their teeth to appear richer.<\/p>\n Few felt the effects of sugar as much as Queen Elizabeth herself. The people around her knew better than to gossip about her appearance, but late in her life, one French ambassador is recorded to have said that her teeth were \u201cvery yellow and unequal,\u201d and a German traveler went even further, describing \u201cher teeth black (a fault the English seem to suffer from because of their great use of sugar)<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite her dental troubles, Elizabeth was terrified of dental treatment<\/strong> (or what passed for it back then). Before she was willing to undergo a tooth extraction, a bishop had to allow one of his own teeth to be pulled to prove it would be worth it. (To be fair, they didn\u2019t have anesthesia available, so the prospect would have been much less pleasant than getting modern dental work.)<\/p>\n What did the English do to try to keep their teeth healthy in that time period? They would use quills or wood for toothpicks and wash off plaque with a cloth. (We definitely prefer our modern toothbrushes.) If a tooth became too painful to tolerate, they could go to a surgeon to have it removed.<\/strong> If a surgeon was too expensive, a \u201ctooth-drawer\u201d or even a blacksmith could do it more cheaply.<\/p>\n However, some wealthy people were making matters worse for themselves by brushing their teeth with sugar paste:<\/strong>Tooth-Rotting Luxury<\/h3>\n
The Royal Teeth<\/h3>\n
Dental Hygiene in the Elizabethan Era<\/h3>\n
\n