The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. rained hot, ashy death down on the people of Pompeii, the small coastal town at the base of the volcano.
However, research on the victims' bones — preserved within plaster casts made in the 19th century — shows that the volcano also bestowed great dental health upon the ancient Roman city. It came in the form of fluorine in the ground and surrounding water, not unlike the fluoride we add to our drinking water today.
But fluoridated water isn't the only reason Pompeians had fantastic teeth.
Prior to the development of agriculture and diets rich in carbohydrates, our teeth were much cleaner. Switching from hunted meat and gathered fruits to domesticated grains and cereals gave us a lot more calories with less constant labor, but it also rotted our teeth.
The Romans certainly liked their grains like us, but their diets also contained no sugar, which was still rare at the time.
"They have really good teeth — they ate a diet that contained few sugars, and was high in fruit and vegetables," said Elisa Vanacore, an orthodontist who led the CAT scan on 18 of the bodies, said in a September 2015 press conference.
The granulated sugar we known today was developed in 5th century India, by crystallizing the juice from sugar cane, and it became wildly popular in Europe when new world colonization set up giant sugar plantations in the Caribbean.
And it wasn't just (unintentional) preventative care that gave Pompeii its great teeth.
Long before the volcano buried Pompeii in ash, it deposited fluorine into the environment — the element used to make fluoride, and which many nations currently add to drinking water to prevent tooth decay.
"The initial results also show the high levels of fluorine that are present in the air and water here, near the volcano," Vanacore said during the press conference.
The people of ancient Rome (and Pompeii) didn't eschew dental care, either.
While they didn't have well stocked pharmacies full of toothpaste, they did clean their teeth with frayed sticks and abrasive powders made from ground-up seashells, pumice, and hooves. In the case of Pompeii, they even had some extra chemical help from fluorine in the pumice.
So if you don't trust the government fluoridating your water, you may be get some dental benefits by moving next to an active volcano. Vesuvius is probably do for an eruption, too!
