We’ve been cleaning our teeth for as long as humans have had tools! We have always been concerned about our oral health, from toothbrushes made of sticks to dental floss made of horse hair. What about mouthwash, though? When did we start swishing liquid around in the hopes of finding mouths?
To whiten their teeth, the ancient Romans used both human and animal urine as mouthwash. The thing is, it works; it’s just gross.
There were public urinals where Romans could relieve themselves. Citizens waited until the urine was sterile and had been dissolved into ammonia.
Once they were full, they were collected and taken to a fullonica, or laundry, where they were diluted with water and poured onto dirty clothes. Because of the odor, the urine was taxed. After that, someone was paid to stomp on the clothes.
The collectors were
Guess you’re thinking how they get the urine ? Jar of urine’s:
Don’t get the impression that the Romans used their own urine as mouthwash; they didn’t. The Romans used a simple trick to obtain an amount of Urine that could be used in a Laundromat. They used to keep JARS near street corners for people who wanted to come and pee in them. They would also buy bottles of Portuguese urine to use as a rinse. Importing bottled urine became extremely popular.
Urine’s ammonia was thought to disinfect mouths and whiten teeth, and it remained a popular ingredient in mouthwash until the 18th century.
Are you curious about the foul odor? They did, however, have a method for removing the odor. All they had to do was mix some water with their urine and dump it all into tanks filled with their clothes. Later, one of the slaves was told to enter the tank and tread the clothes off.
Once completed, after removing the clothes, they rinsed it with water to remove the stinky odor of urine.
Our urine contains ammonia, a nitrogen-and-hydrogen compound that can act as a cleansing agent. Ammonia is now an ingredient in cleaning products that are useful for cleaning glass, porcelain, stainless steel, and removing baked-on grime from your oven.
Many people will probably say, “Yew & Yuck,” but it was a huge benefit to the Romans to be able to use it for almost three different purposes.
courtesy: mentalfloss
