this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2025
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Explanation: Despite having a great many features which seem positively modern to our eyes, like public restrooms and clean water supply, other practices of the ancient Romans were less... intuitive to our eyes. Swishing fermented urine, for example, was used as a method of whitening teeth.
Worst part is, it works, though not nearly as well as any modern methods. It's the ammonia.
I don't know what's worse, someone swished fermented urine around their mouth for fun or they did it enough to see their teeth whiten noticeably.
They collected piss to dye textiles white so it's not that big of a leap to think some guy was like: I should do this to my teeth
There goes piss-swishing Carl and his pearly whites, man fuck that guy, but his teeth sure look good.
Tbf, they also had lead pipes in that plumbing.
Fun fact, the word "plumbing" literally comes from the latin word for lead, "plumbum".
so does most older parts of the us.