Freshen Your Breath with Charcoal
Here is an absolutely great article about how to get remedy bad breath and even how to cure decaying teeth! Apparently it was originally an advertisement put into the New York Advertiser by a Mrs. Child. It was picked up in April of 1843 by a newspaper called The Wasp. Even though these ideas are really carefully detailed, as they say on TV, don’t try these remedies at home. I don’t recommend any of them!
This is what Mrs. Child suggests: "the careful removal of substances between the teeth, rinsing the mouth after meals, and bit of charcoal held in the mouth after, will always cure a bad breath.—Charcoal used as a dentrfrice [sic], (that is rubbed on in powder with a brush) is apt to injure the enamel; but a lump of it held in the mouth two or three times a week and slowly chewed, has a wonderful power to preserve the teeth and purify the breath. The action is purely chemical. It counteracts the acid arising from a disordered stomach, or food decaying about the gums, and it is this acid which destroys the teeth [describing a man with rotting teeth and an obvious initial charcoal deficiency who saw the light] nature set vigorously to work to restore the breath, and the crumbled portion grew again, till the whole tooth was sound as before. Every whole tooth was sound as before. Every one knows that charcoal is an antiputrescent. It thus tends to preserve the teeth and sweeten the breath."
Many thanks to Sam MB. Sam posted this in a blog, By Common Consent, in a post about polygamy. Go figure. Here is where the original article came from: A Sovereign Remedy for Offensive breath, The Wasp 1:50 (12 April 1843): 3.
As usual, we suggest those tried and true current methods of oral hygiene to keep bad breath at bay: regular brushing, flossing, tongue cleaning, and drinking lots of water every day.
[tags]bad breath, bad breath remedy, fresh breath, flossing, tongue cleaning[/tags] [tag-ice]remedy for offensive breath[/tag-ice]
