Birth of the Toothbrush??

Here’s more information than you probably ever wanted to know about your toothbrush. Did you know that dental hygiene dates back to 3000 B.C. when ancient Egyptians would gnaw on “chew sticks” after meals? It’s true. The twigs had frayed ends that helped clean their teeth.

The Chinese invented the first toothbrush in 1498, attaching Siberian wild boar bristles to handles made of bone or bamboo. In 1780, William Addis of Clerkenwald, England, mass-produced the first toothbrush by attaching cow tail hairs to the end of a whittled cow thighbone. Addis' descendants continued to manufacture toothbrushes at a factory in Hertford, England until 1993, long after plastic handles and nylon bristles replaced the cow hairs and bones.