Beginning of Dental Hygiene:
Chewing sticks (also called Miswaaks) made from certain twigs of trees or roots were one of the first known methods for cleaning teeth. They have been used for thousands of years before the first toothbrushes were ever developed. The first recorded chewing sticks actually go all the way back to the Babylonian civilizations. The idea behind a chewing stick is that you take the end of a stick or root, peel off the bark and chew up the portion of the stick you would use on your teeth. You then have a brush like stick to rub against your teeth, which would untimely clean any food or plaque build up. Some twigs that were used even were found to have antiseptic properties comparable to oral disinfectants and anti-plaque agents that are sold today. Examples of such trees are the Neem tree, which was used by the Indians, and the Arak tree, which was used by the Muslims. In 1600 BC the Chinese also developed a double-ended chewing stick, which had a brush on one end and a sharp point on the other, which served as a toothpick to remove food from in between teeth.
Animal bristles for brushing
The earliest archaeological evidence of a toothbrush was found in Africa and dates back to 1600 B.C. But overall most found evidence of the development and use of the toothbrush is associated with the ancient Chinese who used pig bristles and attached them to bone or bamboo handles. In 1223 A Japenese Zen Master, Dogen Kigen also recorded to have seen Chinese monks clean their teeth with brushes made of horsetail and ox bone. These types of toothbrushes were eventually brought to Europe by travellers and were mass-produced and used up into the mid 20th century. Horse and boar hair were the most common bristles used for the majority of the history of the toothbrush.
William Addis: the father of the modern toothbrush
While cultures have used different plant roots and other methods to clean their teeth for thousands of years, the first real toothbrushes that have been found were made out of bore bristles by the ancient Chinese. Then when oral hygiene became relevant in Europe during the 17th century, toothbrushes started being imported from China. It actually wasn’t until 1780 when a man by the name of William Addis produced the first mass-produced toothbrush in England. Addis came up with his idea for the toothbrush while he was doing time in jail. The story goes that while in jail he noticed how ineffective inmates tooth cleaning was. They would use a rag with soot and salt on it and rub it against their teeth to clean them. So with the time he had he began to make what he thought would be a more effective instrument for teeth cleaning. Addis saved an animal bone from dinner one night and received bristles from one of his guards and proceed to develop a toothbrush design that would later make him a very rich guy. Addis drilled holes in one side of the bone, placed tufts of bristles in the wholes and sealed them in with glue.
An advertisement for Addis' company
When he was released, Addis started a business manufacturing toothbrushes like the one he designed as an inmate. Addis’s company mass-produced toothbrushes for all of England and eventually the business of mass-produced toothbrushes took off, with England, France, Germany and Japan all mass-producing toothbrushes by 1840. 225 years later Addis’s company still exists under the name of “Wisdom Toothbrushes.”
The mass-production of toothbrushes in the United States didn’t start until after an American named H. N. Wadsworth created the first patent on the toothbrush in 1857. Then in 1885 many American companies started producing toothbrushes, many of which were made Siberian boar hairs. One of the famous early toothbrush companies in the US was Florence Manufacturing Company of Massachusetts, whose claim to fame was being the first company to sell toothbrushes in boxes.
Evolution to nylon bristles:
In the 1930’s nylon bristles replaced that of horse and boar hair in toothbrushes. This transformation had huge implications because nylon bristles would dry between each use and therefore would carry fewer bacteria. This created a safer and more sanitary toothbrush, which decreased the chance of illness’s being transferred through toothbrush use.
The electric toothbrush:
One of the most modern developments in the toothbrush industry was the creation of the electric toothbrush, which was invented in 1954 in Switzerland. The electric toothbrush was originally created for people with limited motor skills but soon caught on across the world because it was said to be more effective then manual toothbrushes. While this statement was never proven, the electric toothbrush continues to be used by many people to this day and has contributed to bringing the toothbrush to the advance and very effective form that its in today.