In the 1800s, most people cleaned their teeth with a bone-handled brush and homemade tooth powder, though the tools and techniques varied enormously depending on wealth, geography, and the decade. The century saw a dramatic shift from handmade luxury items and folk remedies to mass-produced brushes and the first squeezable toothpaste tube, but for much of the era, dental care was rudimentary and often did as much harm as good.
The Standard Toothbrush: Bone and Boar Hair
The most common toothbrush of the 1800s had a handle carved from cattle femur bones and bristles made from boar hair. Manufacturing these was a multi-step process: the bone was shaped, then bleached or boiled in a weak hydrogen peroxide solution and steeped in turpentine to strip out residual grease. The boar bristles were bundled and inserted into drilled holes in the bone head, then secured with wire or glue.
These brushes worked, but they had real drawbacks. Boar bristles were coarse and stiff, and they retained moisture, making them a breeding ground for bacteria. The bristles also fell out frequently. Wealthier people could afford handles made from ivory, mother of pearl, silver, or gold gilt, but the bristles were the same animal hair regardless of price. Natural bristles remained the only option until nylon was introduced in 1938.
From the 1870s through the early 1920s, many of the bone-handled boar bristle toothbrushes sold in America were actually manufactured in Japan, reflecting the global trade networks that supplied everyday household goods even in that era.
What People Used Instead of Toothpaste
Modern toothpaste in a tube didn’t exist until the very end of the century. For most of the 1800s, people cleaned their teeth with tooth powders: dry mixtures they would dip a wet brush into or rub onto their teeth with a finger. Common ingredients included chalk (known as precipitated chalk or “creta”), powdered charcoal, salt, crushed brick, and baking soda. Flavoring came from spices like cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, or from plant resins like myrrh. Some recipes also included quinine, which has a bitter taste but was believed to have medicinal properties.
These powders were highly abrasive. Charcoal and crushed brick in particular would wear down enamel over time, and salt could irritate the gums. As the Smithsonian has noted, many of these substances “often caused more problems than they prevented.” Still, they did scrub away visible buildup and food debris, and the flavoring ingredients left the mouth feeling fresher.
The real turning point came in 1881, when Dr. Washington Sheffield of Connecticut patented the first toothpaste in a collapsible metal tube. Before that, the few commercial tooth-cleaning products available came in jars or pots that multiple family members would dip into, which was unsanitary. The squeeze tube made toothpaste portable, personal, and far more appealing, and it set the stage for the commercial toothpaste industry that exploded in the early 1900s.
What People Without a Brush Did
Manufactured toothbrushes were not affordable or accessible for everyone, especially in rural areas and among the working poor. Many people cleaned their teeth by wrapping a rag or piece of cloth around a finger, dipping it in salt or baking soda, and rubbing it across their teeth and gums. This was crude but surprisingly effective at removing soft plaque.
Chew sticks were another common alternative, particularly outside of Europe and North America. These were pencil-sized twigs, typically 15 to 20 centimeters long, cut from specific trees and chewed on one end until the fibers separated into a brush-like texture. More than 180 plant species have been used this way across different cultures. Neem was popular in South Asia, arak (from the Salvadora persica tree) was the standard in the Middle East, and various local species were used across Africa. The frayed end was held perpendicular to the teeth and moved in up-and-down strokes. Some of these plants contain natural compounds with mild antimicrobial properties, so they weren’t just mechanical scrubbers.
Toothpicks were also widely used throughout the century, carved from wood or bone, and served as the primary tool for removing food trapped between teeth.
Flossing Emerged Mid-Century
The concept of flossing is newer than most people assume, but it did appear during the 1800s. By 1845, the American Journal of Dental Science was recommending that people clean between their teeth with silk floss two or three times per day. This advice was remarkably ahead of its time, though it’s unclear how widely the public followed it. Silk thread was not cheap, and the recommendation was likely aimed at the educated middle and upper classes who read dental journals or visited dentists.
How Dental Science Caught Up
For most of the 1800s, people didn’t fully understand why teeth decayed. The prevailing theories ranged from “tooth worms” (a holdover from earlier centuries) to general ideas about bad air and poor constitution. It wasn’t until 1882 that a researcher named Willoughby D. Miller demonstrated that microorganisms cause tooth decay. This was a landmark finding because it finally gave a scientific basis for brushing: you weren’t just scrubbing off stains, you were removing the bacteria responsible for cavities.
That discovery helped transform dental hygiene from a cosmetic habit into a medical one. Combined with the mass production of toothbrushes (which ramped up significantly after 1885) and the arrival of tube toothpaste, the last two decades of the century laid the groundwork for the oral care routines we recognize today.
How Often People Actually Brushed
Despite the availability of brushes and powders, daily brushing was far from universal in the 1800s. Toothbrushes were a personal expense that many households considered optional, and there was no public health campaign promoting oral hygiene until the early 1900s. Many people brushed sporadically, or only when preparing for social occasions. Dental visits were reactive, not preventive: you saw a dentist when a tooth hurt badly enough to pull, not for a routine cleaning.
The consequences were visible. Tooth loss was common by middle age across all social classes, and dental pain was a routine part of life. Jane Austen’s personal letters, for instance, reference the misery of 19th-century dentistry, and she was from a relatively comfortable family. For the poor, options were even more limited: extraction by a barber or traveling tooth-puller, often without anesthesia, was the standard remedy for a bad tooth.