A common food was black bread, generally made from barley or oats.

Wheat flour was available and in demand, but was only afforded by the more fortunate and financially well-off.

Milling processes were crude and inefficient, but effective.  While "whole grain" and "stone ground" are today considered premium products, it was long the norm in pre-industrial societies.

Since mill stones were customarily made by hand-tooling methods, the stones were subject to abrasion during use, resulting in grit and impurities that found their way into the finished flour.

The result was a very dark flour and a bread with the consistency (and many of the ingredients) of soft concrete.  Certainly the flour was not "vitamin enriched", nor even purified.

The bread, tarts, and cakes produced from the wood-and-dung-fired ovens certainly contained enough stone grit and dirt to mar the enamel on the teeth of those consuming it. 

Oral hygiene was nearly unheard of, and rarely practiced.  Cavities and gum disease were common even at a young age, with those fortunate enough to live into adulthood losing most if not all of their teeth.

In these early societies the dentist, barber, doctor, and sometimes the village blacksmith were often the same person - made noteworthy by having a knife sharp enough to cut a beard or to open a vein for bleeding.

Most maladies, including toothaches, were treated either with witchcraft and incantations, or by the process of removing certain amounts of blood through opening a vein or applying leaches.

Under the circumstances, cavities and other ailments may have been easier to endure than the probable treatment!

In any event, it was unlikely that there were many who reached early adulthood with what we today think of as a "radiant smile"!

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