{"id":353,"date":"2025-05-02T19:10:55","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T19:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/?p=353"},"modified":"2025-06-18T19:14:24","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T19:14:24","slug":"old-dental-cosmetics-surprise-bowie-md","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/old-dental-cosmetics-surprise-bowie-md\/","title":{"rendered":"Old Fashioned Dental Cosmetics That Will Surprise You"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-medium\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-300x199.png\" alt=\"Patient receiving a teeth whitening at her dentist\u2019s office\" class=\"wp-image-354\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-300x199.png 300w, https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image.png 576w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Today, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/cosmetic-dentistry.html\">dental cosmetics<\/a> look and feel a lot like natural teeth, and are an indistinguishable part of many patients&#8217; smiles. This is mostly thanks to modern materials and fabrication methods, which begs the question: what did people do <em>before <\/em>tooth-colored resins and titanium implant posts?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019re curious about the answer, keep reading. Some of these old-fashioned methods might surprise you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Teeth Whitening Wasn\u2019t for The Faint of Heart<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If you wanted to whiten your teeth in ancient Rome, you had a rather\u2026interesting option. Human urine was used to break down stains trapped in people\u2019s smiles. What\u2019s perhaps more horrifying about this fact is that this actually kind of worked. Urine happens to contain ammonia, which is an effective dental stain remover. But now that your dentist can use safe and completely hygienic bleaching agents to get the job done, there\u2019s no reason to \u201cdo as the Romans did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Hollywood and The Art of Disguise<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Historians can point back to plenty of examples of early dentures, implants, and whitening methods, but there isn\u2019t really a pre-modern equivalent to porcelain veneers. When Charles Pincus, Hollywood\u2019s favorite dentist, developed the first veneers in 1928, they only lasted long enough to get an actor or actress through a few scenes. Eventually, though, better adhesion methods were developed, and today veneers can last for 15 years or more with proper care!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Rise of Metal-Free Restorations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Another more recent example is the shift from metal crowns and fillings to tooth-colored restorations. While metals had been the material of choice for centuries, concerns about the presence of mercury in more affordable amalgams eventually rose to a boiling point right around the 70\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rest assured, no long-term negative effects have been proven, and metal crowns and fillings are still considered safe. However, it\u2019s understandable that many patients are uncomfortable with the idea of having mercury in their mouth, and many more prefer the seamless look of acrylics and resins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Modern Problems Require Modern Solutions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As TV and social media continue to impact culture, many people have found it increasingly more important to have an aesthetically appealing smile. Studies have found that those with attractive teeth are more likely to receive job offers, promotions, and second dates. In a world with modern problems, it\u2019s nice to know that your dentist has modern solutions!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">About the Practice<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Clarine Green Hightower and Dr. Natasha Barrow actively pursue continuing education opportunities so they can stay on top of the latest dental trends. Both of these amazing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/meet-your-dentists.html\">women in dentistry<\/a> are Invisalign certified, and deeply appreciate cosmetic dentistry\u2019s ability to improve their patients\u2019 lives and confidence. If you\u2019d like to enhance your smile, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/contact.html\">contact<\/a> Dr. Hightower and Dr. Barrow\u2019s office at 301-262-2624 to schedule your consultation today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today, dental cosmetics look and feel a lot like natural teeth, and are an indistinguishable part of many patients&#8217; smiles. This is mostly thanks to modern materials and fabrication methods, which begs the question: what did people do before tooth-colored resins and titanium implant posts? If you\u2019re curious about the answer, keep reading. Some of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Old Fashioned Dental Cosmetics That Will Surprise You | Ambiance Dental Spa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Cosmetic dentistry has matured into a specialty of its own. Can you believe they used to recommend urine as a teeth whitening agent?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/old-dental-cosmetics-surprise-bowie-md\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Old Fashioned Dental Cosmetics That Will Surprise You | Ambiance Dental Spa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cosmetic dentistry has matured into a specialty of its own. Can you believe they used to recommend urine as a teeth whitening agent?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/old-dental-cosmetics-surprise-bowie-md\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ambiance Dental Spa | Bowie MD | Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-02T19:10:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-18T19:14:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-300x199.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ambianceteam\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ambianceteam\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/old-dental-cosmetics-surprise-bowie-md\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/old-dental-cosmetics-surprise-bowie-md\/\",\"name\":\"Old Fashioned Dental Cosmetics That Will Surprise You | Ambiance Dental Spa\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/old-dental-cosmetics-surprise-bowie-md\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/old-dental-cosmetics-surprise-bowie-md\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-300x199.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-02T19:10:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-18T19:14:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6c43a2812ceca1eac0d29f014fc80318\"},\"description\":\"Cosmetic dentistry has matured into a specialty of its own. Can you believe they used to recommend urine as a teeth whitening agent?\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/old-dental-cosmetics-surprise-bowie-md\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/old-dental-cosmetics-surprise-bowie-md\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/old-dental-cosmetics-surprise-bowie-md\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image.png\",\"width\":576,\"height\":383},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/old-dental-cosmetics-surprise-bowie-md\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Old Fashioned Dental Cosmetics That Will Surprise You\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Ambiance Dental Spa | Bowie MD | Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6c43a2812ceca1eac0d29f014fc80318\",\"name\":\"ambianceteam\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/author\/ambianceteam\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Old Fashioned Dental Cosmetics That Will Surprise You | Ambiance Dental Spa","description":"Cosmetic dentistry has matured into a specialty of its own. Can you believe they used to recommend urine as a teeth whitening agent?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/old-dental-cosmetics-surprise-bowie-md\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Old Fashioned Dental Cosmetics That Will Surprise You | Ambiance Dental Spa","og_description":"Cosmetic dentistry has matured into a specialty of its own. Can you believe they used to recommend urine as a teeth whitening agent?","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/old-dental-cosmetics-surprise-bowie-md\/","og_site_name":"Ambiance Dental Spa | Bowie MD | Blog","article_published_time":"2025-05-02T19:10:55+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-06-18T19:14:24+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-300x199.png","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"ambianceteam","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"ambianceteam","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/old-dental-cosmetics-surprise-bowie-md\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/old-dental-cosmetics-surprise-bowie-md\/","name":"Old Fashioned Dental Cosmetics That Will Surprise You | Ambiance Dental Spa","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/old-dental-cosmetics-surprise-bowie-md\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/old-dental-cosmetics-surprise-bowie-md\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-300x199.png","datePublished":"2025-05-02T19:10:55+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-18T19:14:24+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6c43a2812ceca1eac0d29f014fc80318"},"description":"Cosmetic dentistry has matured into a specialty of its own. Can you believe they used to recommend urine as a teeth whitening agent?","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/old-dental-cosmetics-surprise-bowie-md\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/old-dental-cosmetics-surprise-bowie-md\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/old-dental-cosmetics-surprise-bowie-md\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image.png","width":576,"height":383},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/old-dental-cosmetics-surprise-bowie-md\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Old Fashioned Dental Cosmetics That Will Surprise You"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/","name":"Ambiance Dental Spa | Bowie MD | Blog","description":"","inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6c43a2812ceca1eac0d29f014fc80318","name":"ambianceteam","url":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/author\/ambianceteam\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":355,"href":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353\/revisions\/355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ambiancedentspa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}