Toothbrush
The toothbrush is considered by many to be the one material item that one cannot live without. Most commonly used along with toothpaste which contains a fluoride base in it, one uses the toothbrush to clean their teeth of stains, plaque as well as bacteria and germs. There are a number of sizes and shapes which the toothbrush comes in as well as many different available stiffness choices too. Since before history was first recorded, oral hygiene has been a part of people’s daily life with the oldest means of maintaining one’s teeth being a chew stick. Within time, toothbrushes started to appear in many different regions of the world. Most notably is that of India’s neem tree which was used for chew sticks followed by toothbrushes as they were first developed. It was in the 1400’s though when the first modern day toothbrush was introduced to the world. In China, the use of the stiff hog hairs that would be fastened to a handle made of bamboo. However it was not until William Addis who in 1780 developed the first mass-produced toothbrush. The interesting part of this though, was that a decade earlier, he was placed in prison for starting a riot and it was while he was incarcerated that he developed it. Starting with a small animal bone, he drilled a series of holes in it and then managed to get some bristles from one of the guards. By 1857, H. N. Wadsworth would officially patent the toothbrush in the U.S. however the mass-production of his toothbrush would not begin until 1885. His design once again consisted of the use of an animal bone, however for the bristles, he made use of the hair from a Siberian boar. It was soon discovered though that using the boar’s hair which carried bacteria on it was not the best choice of bristle material. Thanks to advancements by DuPont though, the boar’s hair bristles would be replaced by synthetic fibres. The first brushes developed after this time period featured nylon bristles and were sold for the first time in 1938. By 1959 though, the first electric toothbrush would be developed.
Toothbrush
| Path: IBP: Toothbrush: |
|