has did you grow up in the 1600s. I lived in small coal mine town born in 46. Every year in school a dents came in looked in our moth and showed slides of his to clean your teeth and gave us bag of supplies. I’m talking mid 1950s.
That said I was born in 1941 and our school dentist lived and had his practice in the house next to the house my parents and siblings lived in. Of course he told us how to brush our teeth, but at that time you didn't hear about flossing your teeth and have the plague removed by the hygienist in the dentist office. I was 18 when I had my first cavity.
BTW English is my second language