By Vania Raebel | June 21, 2019
Back in the day, a lot of things were considered to be status symbols, including skin color, clothing, and food among others. During the Elizabethan era, sugar was something that only the wealthy could afford to buy and consume. While it made them feel superior, it also gave them tooth decay.
Not ones to be knocked down, the Elizabethan aristocrats declared tooth decay a trend. Since being rich meant you could have sugar, and having sugar meant you would get tooth decay, having tooth decay was declared cool. This led to some of the lower classes faking gingivitis to appear richer. However, everyone realized soon enough that tooth decay led to toothaches and torturous tooth removal, neither of which were fun.
