Dental Hygiene in Ancient Rome
Steve Martin as Orin Scrivello, the sadistic dentist in Little Shop of Horrors (Warner Bros. 1986) You'll be a dentist! (You'll be a dentist) You have a talent for causin' things pain! (Pain) Son, be a dentist! (Son, be a dentist) People will pay you to be inhumane! (Inhumane) Every six months, the classic song from Little Shop of Horrors echoes in my mind. Thankfully, I was born with good teeth, never required braces, and my dentist visits are usually brief and painless. It helps brushing twice a day, having an electric toothbrush that can reach way back to my wisdom teeth ... and because I actually floss! I've also never smoked and rarely, if ever, consume processed sugar. But what of our ancestors? We all know the stereotype, as seen in endless films, of the medieval peasant with either missing or black, rotten teeth. So naturally, going back another thousand years or so, we must assume the Ancient Romans also had wretched teeth, right? Actually, on the whole, neit...