Old-fashioned hygiene habits that are anything but clean

Worms Were Once Believed to Cause Toothaches

Before understanding how cavities develop, people believed that tiny worms would burrow into teeth and cause pain. To “drive them out,” they would fill their mouths with smoke, hoping the worms would crawl out and fall into a bowl of warm water.

This superstitious treatment persisted for years, despite the lack of evidence. Fortunately, science eventually caught up, and the tooth worm became a thing of the past.