Soap isn't exactly new IRL either. It goes way back to Antiquity and saw more or less consistent use until today. This doesn't mean by any means that everyone washed themselves on a regular basis, like, say, the poorest social classes since soap wasn't probably the cheapest commodity, but they still had the possibility to wash themselves with natural water sources. You don't necessarily need soap to keep yourself more or less clean.
Some cultures and civilizations of course, were a lot more into baths than others. Of course, ignorance also lead to weird beliefs like ancient egyptians thinking that applying human and animal feces on their wounds would help them heal better so... There is that too I guess.
Dental care was probably a whole other matter, with some cultures doing it better than others, like romans washing their mouths with alcohol and wine, while greeks did it with... urine. So yeah. Mileage tended to vary a lot. Middle age and Renaissance... Let's say nobody cared and they just pulled rotten teeth out. Although that until very recently people consumed overall a lot less sweets, but well. Still.Â
Arabs though, brushed their teeth with a powder (old toothpaste), and developed a whole lot of ways to wash their teeth/mouths especially after dentistry, and after every lunch, with medical schools teaching about dental care too. Teeth "pullers" got kicked out of the land.
With all that said now, in lore we know that Hingans (and probably Domans as well) are rather fond of their onsens and public baths, as seen in Kugane among other locales. We also know that La Noscea boasts places like Bronze Lake that look more akin to hydrotherapy, but are still basically, water/mineral based baths and body care. Eorzeans also seem to be fond of oil, unless Godbert Manderville and his son are to be considered too eccentric to make a rule out of it...
I'm sure I forgot about various plants, herbs, or other things mentioned in lore ingame here or there.
Now though, does everyone take the same care of their cleanliness the same way? The wealthy elite and the poorest classes? Citizenry from Ishgard or from Hingashi? I don't know.
As for teeth... uhhh. Perhaps.
Either way Eorzea always seemed to have included a lot of contemporary habits and traditions, and sometimes way of life, so maybe one could make a case about that.
Hard to tell in my view.
Some cultures and civilizations of course, were a lot more into baths than others. Of course, ignorance also lead to weird beliefs like ancient egyptians thinking that applying human and animal feces on their wounds would help them heal better so... There is that too I guess.
Dental care was probably a whole other matter, with some cultures doing it better than others, like romans washing their mouths with alcohol and wine, while greeks did it with... urine. So yeah. Mileage tended to vary a lot. Middle age and Renaissance... Let's say nobody cared and they just pulled rotten teeth out. Although that until very recently people consumed overall a lot less sweets, but well. Still.Â
Arabs though, brushed their teeth with a powder (old toothpaste), and developed a whole lot of ways to wash their teeth/mouths especially after dentistry, and after every lunch, with medical schools teaching about dental care too. Teeth "pullers" got kicked out of the land.
With all that said now, in lore we know that Hingans (and probably Domans as well) are rather fond of their onsens and public baths, as seen in Kugane among other locales. We also know that La Noscea boasts places like Bronze Lake that look more akin to hydrotherapy, but are still basically, water/mineral based baths and body care. Eorzeans also seem to be fond of oil, unless Godbert Manderville and his son are to be considered too eccentric to make a rule out of it...
I'm sure I forgot about various plants, herbs, or other things mentioned in lore ingame here or there.
Now though, does everyone take the same care of their cleanliness the same way? The wealthy elite and the poorest classes? Citizenry from Ishgard or from Hingashi? I don't know.
As for teeth... uhhh. Perhaps.
Either way Eorzea always seemed to have included a lot of contemporary habits and traditions, and sometimes way of life, so maybe one could make a case about that.
Hard to tell in my view.
Balmung:Â Suen Shyu
