A BRIEF HISTORY OF
TOOTH BRUSH
Mass production of toothbrushes is
an achievement attributable to the
development of plastics.
It goes without saying that we human
beings were already interested
In dental hygiene be-forehand, however.The
practice of cleaning our teeth
goes back as far as progressive
cultures in ancient times:
Around 5,000 BC, Greeks and Romans
used cleaning pastes to remove
plaque that was made from such
materials as animal hooves, bones and egg
shells. Toothpicks made from twigs
were also used. Powdered charcoal and
tree bark were used to get rid of
bad breath.
Around 3,500 BC, the Babylonians
used a piece of wood the size of a pencil
taken from the branch of a tree to chew on.
Chewing caused the fibres
at one end to separate and form a
kind of brush, as which the stick was then
used. Its other, pointed end acted
as a toothpick. Similar findings have been
made in Egyptian graves from the
time around 3,000 BC too. The chewing
stick is now considered to be the
earliest predecessor of the toothbrush that
has been discovered to date.
The first toothbrush with bristles
similar to those we are familiar with
today was introduced in China around
1500. It had the shape of a brush: coarse
bristles taken from the neck of
domestic pigs were attached to a handle made
of bone or bamboo. This original
toothbrush design has not basically changed
in any fundamental way to this day. Europeans
were sceptical about the
toothbrushes imported from China,
because the coarse boar bristles made
people’s gums bleed. The soft
alternative made from horsehair was not
accepted either. However, the French
doctor Pierre Fauchard (1678-1761),
who is considered to be the father
of modern dentistry, talked disparagingly
about horsehair toothbrushes – which
he described as ineffective because
they were much too soft – in his
textbook “Le chirurgien dentiste or traité
des dents” that appeared in 1728. He
recommended rubbing one’s teeth and
gums off daily with a natural sponge
instead. Toothpicks made, for example,
from quills, silver or copper, were
preferred in Europe at this time anyway.
Christoph von Hellwig (1633-1721),
the town medical officer in
Bad Tennstedt/Thuringia, developed a
toothbrush around 1700. There is a
toothbrush monument in his honour in
the town today.
Only the wealthy could afford
toothbrushes until the late 18th century.
This situation did not change until
English manufacturers started
to produce them in sizable numbers
from cow bones and bristles obtained
from cows, pigs and – later on –
badgers too.
William Addis (1734-1808), a
businessman from London, set up
the first of these production
facilities in 1780. This was preceded by a prison
sentence: Addis had been arrested
for disturbance of the peace and came to
the conclusion while he was forced
to spend time behind bars that there
must be a better way to clean one’s
teeth than with salted rags. So he took
an animal bone, drilled holes in it
and glued animal bristles in the holes. This
invention was to make him rich – and
ensure that his three sons had a lucrative
business too. When the bacteriological era
began in the 19th century,
awareness developed that
toothbrushes could be a very effective way to spread
bacteria. Nothing was to change
here, however, until toothbrushes with nylon
bristles were introduced in 1938.
The latter were smooth and, in
addition, were not hollow, so that they did
not become waterlogged
Chemical WeeklyJune 25, 2013
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