SEVERAL ANCIENT CULTURES, from ancient Egypt to the Roman Empire, and lasting all the way up to early modern England, blamed cavities and toothaches on a nefarious creature called a “tooth worm.” Gross! (But, more importantly, false.) 🐛 We still aren’t sure where this theory came from, but it could be as simple as that they looked at diseased dental pulp and mistakenly thought it was a worm that had bored holes through the tooth. It wasn’t until the early years of the Enlightenment era that pioneering dentists like Pierre Fauchard debunked the tooth worm theory. Still, they were kind of on the right track. It’s true that tiny organisms cause tooth decay — but those organisms are bacteria, not parasitic worms. People didn’t have microscopes to be able to observe bacteria back then, so they gave it their best guess. Points for effort? 🔬 Even though their theory about the cause was wrong, tooth decay wasn’t a widespread problem historically until sugar (oral bacteria’s favorite fo...