How do they put stripes in toothpaste

A.� The different coloured toothpastes are made and fed into the tubes separately. The secret of keeping the stripes separate while the tube is filled is a special nozzle containing smaller pipes. The white paste is pumped through the main nozzle and the other colours pass through the smaller ones within it, creating stripes.

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The tubes are filled completely so that the different colours have no room to mix, plus the toothpaste is solid enough not to blend in with the other colours. The end result is a perfect set of defined stripes on your toothbrush each morning and night.

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Q.� How long has toothpaste been around

A.� Not as long as tooth decay. Skulls of Cro-Magnon humans, from around 25,000 years ago, evidently had tooth problems that would run up sizeable dental bills today.

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The Egyptians were probably the first to make a paste for cleaning teeth as long ago as 4000BC.

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Q.� What was it made of

A.� Oxen's powered hooves, myrrh and powered eggshells and pumice.

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Q.� Did they have toothbrushes too

A.� None have turned up in any pyramids, so it's assumed that they rubbed the paste in using their fingers.

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Q.� What happened next

A.� The Greeks and Romans are thought to have developed and improved toothpaste and were good all round dentists, even using false teeth held in place with gold wire. After the fall of the Roman Empire dental health fell by the wayside and things didn't get any better until after 1000AD when the Persians took an interest, warning against using hard toothpastes among other things.

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Q.� When did the British first start cleaning their teeth

A.� Toothpowder or dentifrice made it to British bathrooms in the late eighteenth century. It came in a ceramic pot and was available either as a powder or paste. The rich applied it with brushes and the poor with their fingers.

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The powders, far from being beneficial often contained abrasive and harmful substances like brick dust.

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Q.� Where does the foam come from

A.� Originally borax powder was used in the late eighteenth century to make the paste foam.

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Q.� When did toothpaste first come in tubes

A.� In 1896 Colgate in the USA started producing their toothpaste, previously only available in jars, in collapsible tubes similar to the ones we use now.

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Do you want to know how something works Click here to ask.

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by Lisa Cardy