Lardner’s Prepared Charcoal for the Teeth

FOR Beautifying and Preserving the TEETH.—LARDNER’s superior prepared CHARCOAL, so much recommended by the Faculty for its safe and antiseptic properties, for cleaning, preserving, and making the teeth beautifully white, in boxes at 2s. and 2s. 9d. each; and Mouth Solution, for curing the scurvy, bracing the gums, preventing the tooth ach, and unpleasant breath, in bottles at 2s. 9d. and 5s. 6d. each. From the great reputation the above preparations have acquired, many imitations are daily offered for sale: the true only are signed “Edmund Lardner” on the label. It is sold wholesale and retail, corner of Albany, Piccadilly; and retail by Newbery, St. Paul’s Church-yard; Rigge, Cheapside; Vade, Cornhill; Davison and Son, Fleet-street; Bacon, Oxford-street; Bailey and Blew, Cockspur-street; and most venders of genuine medicines.
Source: The Times, 22 February 1809
———————————————————————————————————————-
Nowadays we know that to discover the secret of teeth-whitening, you have to be a single mum, but at the turn of the 19th century it was an ordinary chemist, Edmund Lardner, who introduced this new dentifrice to the public.
Charcoal had long been known as a tooth-whitener, but more so in the East than in this country, and Lardner’s attempts to encourage British people to use it met with approval from physicians.
In 1805 his company published a 3-page pamphlet extolling charcoal’s virtues.

It possesses the desirable qualities of rendering the teeth beautifully white; destroying the fætor arising from carious teeth, which contaminates the breath; removing the scurvy from the gums, and stopping the progress of the decay of the teeth, while, at the same time, it is incapable of either chemically or mechanically injuring the enamel.

A year later, one of Lardner’s shopmen, Alexander Blake, left the company and began selling his own version of the tooth powder, still using Lardner’s name. Lardner claimed to have improved the original product and also upped his competitive game by introducing a new Concentrated Solution of Charcoal.
His enthusiastic promotion of charcoal for the teeth was perfectly acceptable. The only odd thing was that his products didn’t actually contain much of it. The Prepared Charcoal was mainly powdered chalk, with a small amount of genuine charcoal or ivory black (a pigment made from charred animal bones) to darken it. The Concentrated Solution was a spirituous infusion of roses and myrrh, and was later renamed the Mouth Solution. The Medical Observer, while broadly sympathetic to Lardner as a reputable druggist, commented

In what respect roses and myrrh resemble charcoal, we know not,

while The London Medical and Surgical Spectator saw nothing wrong with the solution itself but objected to the false name.
The products remained popular and were used by Lord Byron, who asked his friend Douglas Kinnaird to send him a supply while he was in Venice in 1818. Activated charcoal is still known today as a tooth whitener and odour neutraliser, and Korean and Japanese companies have recently introduced it in a fascinatingly unappealing toothpaste form.

TV Teeth Whitening

When a TV production company invests in getting your teeth whitened one might feel that one was about to arrive. Arrive perhaps, or discover you’re a lost cause. My teeth are jagged, chipped and yellow, featuring orange and brown detailing. They have a certain ‘Middle Earth’ quality to them. Before we’d shot any TV footage, I was thus booked into The London Smile Clinic for a ‘Britesmile’ treatment: the number one in-chair treatment in the US. Nice one. A bright new me up ahead, right?If you were parting with £1,200 quid for a session, I reckon you’d be up to speed on the procedure. I wasn’t. Fully suited and with a roster of appointments for later that afternoon, I had no idea what was next. Suspicions were aroused when I was asked to select a film to watch during the procedure. I was alarmed to see that One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest appeared in the comedy category. Where might Marathon Man sit, I wondered. Sport? I opted for Withnail and I, thinking it would lend a hedonistic element to the proceedings. One views the film through special goggles that are fitted to your head, just after your jaws are clamped open and your lips pinned back. Your gums are then daubed with a protective gel and your teeth are painted with a photo-reactive goop. Powerful ultraviolet lights are deployed once all the technicians have safely retreated to a separate operations room.
Not being able to speak for the next two hours, I requested pen and paper using sign language. I scrawled pleas for an explanation. Three to four sessions of twenty minute bursts of intense light exposure. Three to four? Apparently not everyone makes it past three. And the device placed on my chest? A panic button if the pain became too much. The pain? The shooting sensation you experience as the light penetrates your teeth. I began to see the light. Thank god I wasn’t paying for this privilege.
Naturally, I made it to the end of four. Machismo and pride got me through, my finger poised on the button throughout. The pain came in, resonating chimes channelled into teeth in random order, as if administered by an evil imp wilfully playing an ultraviolet glockenspiel. By ‘session’ four the shooting sensations were almost hitting shrill notes in my head as I pretended to fixate on the film. White tooth liberation awaited.
Once I was dismantled and hosed down my teeth had indeed been transformed to pale yellow. Most of the stains had gone too. Nice work Team Smile. Thank you. Now all I had to do was stay away from black coffee, red wine, and highly coloured food such as curries. Neigh problem, pal. Camomile tea, Gavi de Gavi, and some sort of anaemic fish supper would suffice. But at that point in time I was starving hungry, almost in a trance from the treatment and being held captive unexpectedly. I walked up Great Portland Street dazed and bemused. Opposite the Tube was a convenience shop I knew from years ago. My trance deepened and I found myself transfixed by the point of sale samosa cabinet.
How can someone get to nearly forty without knowing that a samosa is a sort of curry? My new red teeth were further coloured up the next morning while telling my mother how diligently I had stuck to white wine, and all I had to do now side step coffee for three days. Then it dawned on me that I was actually drinking an espresso at that very moment. A habit so entrenched I hadn’t even noticed the process. Freshly porous teeth took to the coffee like a dry fence takes creosote.
White teeth are overrated. I’m British, God damn it. I’ve spent years giving my entire body a hard time. Why should teeth be excused? American teeth are very nice, but they’ve all got the same bloody set. It counts for nothing that way. It’s more poetic to have eighteenth century looking railings. I’ll just keep mine hidden. I might extend further into the period and contract gout, and feign some sort of ‘scurvy-lite’. Might work as potent USP on TV, who knows? Georgian sea fairing dental style think I call it. Whitening? I’m having mine blackened for next season.

10 Best Natural Teeth Whitening Tips - Nurse's Guide

In the past when you wanted white teeth you would have to go to your dentist because that was the only way to get teeth whitening, usually with corrosive tooth bleach. Although bleach preparations have improved they can still be harsh. Today there are many ways to whiten your teeth; however most of them involve dangerous chemicals that may be able to seep through the delicate tissues in your mouth, under the tongue. You can avoid the potential problems, from whitening your teeth, that you might get from chemical exposure through tooth bleaching and whitening products, kits, strips, gels and systems.

There are a few natural ways to whiten your teeth or prevent them from discoloring and a form of natural bleaching in some cases. In this article I'll list a few tips for natural treatments you can do at home.

1. First of all the obvious one of making regular appointments for cleaning your teeth is first on the list. Many people let this slide but it's important to not only get on a regular schedule with the dentist's office setting up future appointments but also having them call and remind you to come in. Once you get on a schedule of once or twice a year then you will find you don't need to worry about whiter teeth as often, except if you smoke.

2. Make sure to brush and floss your teeth at least twice a day. Make sure to floss at bedtime and use a cheap gum massager to get under the gum flap. You want to prevent the buildup of plaque, which can discolor your teeth. Focusing on your teeth will help you prevent some staining of your teeth.

You want to avoid getting plaque as much as possible. Carry floss with you. And floss discreetly when eating out. At home you can floss while you watch TV if you seem to not get around to it after meals. But make sure to floss at bedtime because you have six to nine hours or more while you're sleeping when the bacteria can go to work on the enamel. Make sure to rinse your mouth after eating.

3. Avoid drinking water with any added fluoride or using toothpaste with fluoride as it's been reported that it can discolor or stain your teeth. Also many other countries have banned fluoride in their drinking water due to diseases and symptoms that have been connected with it.

4. If you smoke try to cut down as much as possible and of course it s better for your health to quit smoking altogether as you no doubt know. Smokers have a more difficult time keeping their teeth white than non-smokers so you may have to work harder at it.

5. Coffee and tea are notorious for causing teeth staining. Make sure to sip or rinse your mouth with water while you're drinking coffee or tea and after you're done. Colas and wine can also cause stains on the teeth.

6. Some fruits such as strawberries are excellent tooth whiteners. Strawberries can be rubbed on the teeth or mashed up in a paste and brushed on. Leave on the teeth for five minutes. Rinse well.

You can use the inside of an orange peel which is also good for whitening. You can rub the peel right on your teeth, or take organic dried orange peel and ground bay leaves and make a paste and brush it on. Some people swear by a lemon juice and salt mixture too. In any case make sure to rinse your mouth well after using these natural tooth whitening treatments.

7. Baking soda has long been used for dental whitening. Many types of toothpaste have baking soda in their ingredients because of its effectiveness. You can make your own baking soda whitener though. Just mix baking soda with a little salt - a good cheap teeth whitening home remedy.

8. Avoid using mouthwashes. Besides alcohol they contain other chemicals that can stain or discolor teeth. They can easily absorb through the delicate tissues under your tongue and be absorbed into your system. One well-known mouthwash was reported recently to actually discolor the teeth with brown stains.

9. Drinks lots of water. Rinse your mouth thoroughly after every meal or snack to make sure no food residue is sticking to your teeth.

10. Try to eat a better diet with lots of raw foods - fruits and veggies. Make huge salads. Avoid fast food and processed food as much as possible. Avoid constant snacking. All of this will help give you brighter, whiter teeth with fewer cavities.

Teeth whitening by using natural treatments will prevent exposure to harsh chemicals. Natural whitening is cheap and almost free in most cases. You can have a winning smile without hurting the tissues in your mouth and damaging the enamel on your teeth.