A Thrilling New Tooth Powder

Life, Sept. 13, 1937 [big version here]

Do you ever get bored with everything…the same old things every day?

Um, yes. Yes, I do! How did you know? I am tired of getting up and doing the same things every day: working, cleaning things that just get dirty again, cooking the same old dinners, and don’t get me started with what’s on television… 

Right now, I’m sick of using the same old tooth powder.

Oh, right. Tooth powder. That’s toothpaste’s dry boring ancestor. Back in the 18th and 19th centuries, tooth powder (also called dentifrice) would have been made of things like salt, or powdered chalk or brick or even charcoal. And in Britain tooth powder might have meant crushed-up cuttlefish bones or china! The cuttlefish bone mixture was sold as “white coral-powder” in the 1870s. Frightening, don’t you think? Now in the up-to-date 1930s, you could always have used some baking soda to brush with, I suppose – but that wasn’t exactly peppy, is it?

Just like pearls maybe, but not thrilling (Vintage Ad Browser)

Well, brace yourself, dear. There is a new one. LISTERINE TOOTH POWDER made without soap.

Wow, without soap! That really is good news. My teeth will be thrilled. They are tired of all those suds. And foaming at the mouth is not my best look, really.

Yes, this is going to change my whole life. I know it. Just promise me that Listerine Tooth Powder doesn’t have any cuttlefish bones or chalk in it, all right?