【龙腾网】冲洗和吐出:牙膏的历史
Rinse and Spit: The History of Toothpaste
冲洗和吐出:牙膏的历史
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:
没有牙齿，你的生活会变得很艰难。我们会遇到各种各样的高价的牙医骗局，但是我们的确生来就是咀嚼者。事实上，在2010年，摇滚歌手帕蒂·史密斯在纽约普瑞特艺术学院做了毕业演讲，这些高年级的毕业生得到了一些很棒的建议。
"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."
史密斯开玩笑地说：“现在我在这里，我最想对你们说的是请维护好自己的牙齿健康。我那一代人饱受牙病的困扰，我们的牙科医生是军医，他们刚刚从第二次世界大战回来，他们认为牙科办公室是一个战场。你有一个大好机会来维护你牙齿的健康。”
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.
确实，我们的牙齿保健我们技术比上个世纪中叶时期的水平要来得高，但是史密斯想要说的是指牙齿的护理。我们每天都要刷洗自己的每一颗牙齿，否则细菌就会钙化成牙垢，这些会导致牙病的发生。保护你自己的牙齿，避免那些会危及你生命安全的感染需要你长期的关心和重视。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
没有人知道谁发明了牙刷，最古老的文明好像已经发明了一些不同类型的“磨牙棒”。它们让这些咀嚼者牙齿健康。但是这些咀嚼者不需要清洁剂吗？是有薄荷香的膏药状的黏性物吗？我们把它涂在现代的磨牙棒上，就像涂抹那些资本主义的骗人的万灵油一样
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.
历史上没有相关的记载，但是牙膏很可能比牙刷出现得早。有一个证据，那就是古埃及人已经在公元前3500年就已经使用牙刷了，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，能够刮走具有粘性的食物残渣。这种研磨料好像是用被烧过的蛋壳和公牛的蹄和轻石的混合物得来的灰做成的。在4世纪时候，埃及人已经发明了他们的牙粉，使用含有石盐、薄荷和胡椒子的研磨料，他们甚至加入了鸢尾花，也许是因为鸢尾花和“洗净”有关。很好的事情是我们的牙釉质比骨头更硬，甚至比铁和钢还要硬。如果不是这样，那些埃及人早就把他们的牙齿刷坏了。
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.
但是当这个处方在2003年在维也纳一个牙科医学大会上被披露出来的时候，奥地利牙医海因茨.纽曼对《电讯报》说他已经尝试了这款牙粉，认为挺不赖的。
"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."
纽曼说：“我发现这款牙粉并不让人不悦。它让我的牙龈感到疼痛，甚至让它出血了，但是那不是一件坏事，之后我的嘴巴感到清新和干净。我相信这个处方对于一些后来使用的牙膏来说应该是一个巨大的改进。”
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砺壳或者骨头以及像薄荷和人参这样的气味好的草药混合制成不同的研磨料，它们能够清洁牙齿，去除口臭。历史上记载古罗马人用尿来保持牙齿的洁白。但是正如中世纪史书中记载的其它东西一样，当时的牙膏技术并没有很大的进步。在这段时期，欧洲人把蜂蜜、盐和黑麦花混合起来来刷洗干净自己的牙齿，用以代替之前使用过的一些树木的树皮。
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.
牙膏成为主流
一直到19世纪后牙膏生意才开始兴盛起来。牙粉和牙膏的处方包括木炭、白垩和被烧过的面包碎屑，还有一些香，比如：“龙血”，在1850年以前的英国非常流行。那一年高露洁介绍它的第一款牙膏，牙膏被装在罐子里。这种牙膏的大量生产始于19世纪70年代，二十年后，他们引入了牙膏管。从那时起，牙膏成为了今天的牙膏。
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.
在第二次世界大战前，许多市场上的牙膏被装在铅管里销售。这种牙膏里还含有肥皂，这是不必要的，在某些情况下会帮倒忙，但我们总希望牙膏能够产生大量的泡沫。事实上牙膏含有肥皂，即十二烷基硫酸钠，因为如果它不起泡沫就不能洗干净牙齿！而且肥皂能够保持奶油状的质感。我们今天能够从保湿剂中得到这种质感，比如山梨糖醇、丙三醇、丙二醇，这些物质含有一点点甜味。
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年以后才被证实这种物质具有防蛀牙的功效。现代的牙膏不再用白垩作为研磨剂了。我们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?
牙膏制造商发明了牙膏，便利了我们的生活。我们不需要把尿或者“龙血”涂到我们的嘴里了。你难道不认为现在是时候去刷牙了吗？
