The first dental care product that will come to mind for many people is toothpaste, and almost everyone regularly uses it to help protect their teeth as well as avoid tooth decay and gum disease.

Whilst the first modern toothpaste containing fluoride was Crest in the 1950s, which made it more effective than simply working as an abrasive to remove stains from teeth, the use of toothpaste has existed for over a thousand years thanks to a very early popular musician.

Believed to have been born in Baghdad during the era of the Abbasid Empire, the man most commonly known as Ziryab (full name Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali Ibn Nafi’) was a musician and polymath who appeared to be several centuries ahead of his time.

Much has been written about how he revolutionised musical theory, introduced the lute to Europe when he moved to Spain, developed the concept of seasonal fashion rather than clothes for hot and cold weather, popularised the use of deodorant and twice-daily bathing, introduced the asparagus and three-course meal to Spain and many other cultural changes.

However, one of the most fascinating and mysterious is how he allegedly invented toothpaste over a thousand years before it was widely used.

Tooth powders had been used since the dawn of civilisation, with various recipes used to remove plaque such as ashes, burnt eggshells, oyster shells bones, pumice and myrrh. 

However, Ziryab allegedly created a toothpaste that was pleasant to taste and functional, two aspects that are critical to modern toothpaste formulas.

Unfortunately, the ingredients of the toothpaste are unknown as is exactly how it was applied to the teeth and gums, but it was believed to have spread throughout the Iberian Peninsula and the Muslim world as a whole at that time, although what happened to it between his death in 857 AD and later developments in the 18th and 19th century remain a mystery.