A Very Brief History Of Toothpaste

Oral hygiene, concerned from ancient times, various civilizations, with the first form of toothpaste making its appearance in Egypt, in 2000 BC. Consisting of pumice powder and vinegar, this formula although whitened the teeth, caused damage to the enamel. Other variants of toothpaste, created by Greeks and Romans, who observed that the urine, which contain ammonia, component which also exists in modern toothpaste, combined with abrasives, such as crushed bones, shells, charcoal and bark, could freshen the breath and had the form of a chew stick. Later, although the Persians (1000 BC) gradually realized the negative aspects of hard abrasives, they used burnt horn, crushed snail shells, gypsum, flint, and honey instead. In Europe of the Middle

Momentous enough was also the observation of doctors from Naples, in 1802, that the high fluoride concentration in the water of the area, significantly reduced the cavities, and as a result, fluoride added into the water in 1940, while in 1956 Procter & Gamble integrated it in toothpaste by advertising “Crest with Fluoristan”. (Patrick et al., 2009)

It took a long time for the packaging of the toothpaste to obtain the form it has today and until 1892 tooth powders were available on the market in flat round tins and jars.

On the other hand, metal tubes started to become particularly popular in the art world when the American artist John Rad, designed it during his apprenticeship as a medium that offered comfort to the process of grinding and mixing pigments. In 1841, he patented it and the following year he set up a production system for extruded tubes made of soft metal such as lead and tin, as

The extrusion is trimmed and annealing is essential to soften the material so that it can collapse without cracking. Printing can be carried out before the filling of the tube with the product and requires the use of very flexible coatings, while the application of the label can also be done after, although it is difficult. After filling the tube, the end is rolled over and crimped using a matrix which adds date and product code. Screw caps, dispensers or other fittings are added before filling, for tubes with open neck, and after on products that must be opened by puncturing a seal in the neck. In some cases an inner coating is necessary to protect the interaction of the product with the metal. Usually though, for the reactive products, plastic or laminated tubes are used, a detailed report of which is in the next chapter. (Morris,