Marco Island Dental Blog

If you came of age in the last century, you probably remember Ultra Brite whitening toothpaste and Pearl Drops whitening tooth polish. Ultra Brite became popular in the late 1960s, with heavy marketing promoting how its whitening power “gives your mouth sex appeal.” Also launched in the late 1960s, Pearl Drops gained significant market success in the early 1970s despite being priced up to three times higher than standard toothpaste.

Whether from a functional or aesthetic standpoint, mankind has strived to find suitable replacements for missing teeth throughout history. Numerous ancient civilizations developed false teeth and bridgework options to replace lost natural teeth, but the Mayans are credited with the first successful attempts to “implant” false teeth into the jawbone. In around 600 AD, the Mayans implanted pieces of seashells into the bone to replace mandibular teeth. Modern radiographs of this ancient dental work show compact bone formation around the implant materials “that amazingly looks very much like that seen” in blade implant techniques developed in the 1960s.