# Kissing in the old days **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 15, 2000, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kissing-in-the-old-days/33249 "2000-09-15T00:07:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2000, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kissing-in-the-old-days/33249/1 "2000-09-15T00:07:31Z")
One thing that I have always wondered is: “Did people routinely practice deep kissing before modern dental hygiene was invented?”. I am referring specifically to what we Americans call french or tongue kissing. Actually, I have wondered about other, more explicit, sexual practices also but I do not have the stomach to discuss those here. When I watch such movies as “Shakespeare in Love”, they always feature deep kissing and this makes my stomach churn. Actually, you do not have to go back that far. The modern toothbrush was not invented until the 1930’s. How did people in the olden days stomach kissing a person with missing teeth, abscesses, and an infected mouth? ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2000, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kissing-in-the-old-days/33249/2 "2000-09-15T00:25:57Z")
Gee, they probably smelled pretty bad, too, living as they did before the invention of deodorant and the American obsession with body odors… As far as oral hygiene went, a diet with little raw sugar produces little caries. That is, tooth decay was less common. Teeth did wear out from use, and if a tooth was broken one would just go over to the barber to have it pulled. (I am talking about Europe here, and only a few hundred years ago.) Hey! Did you know that there are people living today who don’t have the benefit of Western dentifrices? Amazing that they reproduce at all, given how naturally smelling humans disgust **mavpace** … ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2000, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kissing-in-the-old-days/33249/3 "2000-09-15T00:32:06Z")
Can you just imagine how disgusting it would be to get a blow job by someone who has not just brushed her teeth? Ugh! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2000, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kissing-in-the-old-days/33249/4 "2000-09-15T01:01:54Z")
From the time of the fall of Rome until this century, Europeans were dirty people. I think it would be just as nasty for her, as you wouldn’t have felt obliged to wash your weiner… ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2000, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kissing-in-the-old-days/33249/5 "2000-09-15T01:16:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sailor \* > \*\*Can you just imagine how disgusting it would be to get a blow job by someone who has not just brushed her teeth? Ugh! 😉 \*\* Of course, if she had _NO_ teeth … _social programming blocks impure thought_ ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2000, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kissing-in-the-old-days/33249/6 "2000-09-15T02:12:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DrFidelius \* > \*\*From the time of the fall of Rome until this century, Europeans were dirty people. I think it would be just as nasty for her, as you wouldn’t have felt obliged to wash your weiner… \*\* Maybe not before, but I bet I’d’ve wanted to wash it _after_. ---
**Author:** ![muffinman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@muffinman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muffinman)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2000, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kissing-in-the-old-days/33249/7 "2000-09-15T04:15:55Z")
it’s was actually only the LATE middle ages that were so dirty… Roman baths were still used into the middle ages, above the disapproval of the church… only when the Plague spread across the known world were they closed for good.