Taking good care of your teeth is very important. If your teeth are not healthy, you will have a hard time eating food! So, you have to brush your teeth every day. Your toothbrush is playing important roles in your life! But how much do you know about toothbrushes?

People have been brushing their teeth for thousands of years. However, a long time ago, people didn’t have toothbrushes. Early humans cleaned their teeth with thin twigs, feathers, bones, or porcupine quill.

The first toothbrush with bristles was invented in China in 1498. It was similar to today’s toothbrushes. Back then, the bristles were made of coarse hairs taken from the back of a hog’s neck and attached to a bamboo stick or bone. But the hog’s hair wasn’t an ideal material. It retained bacteria, didn’t dry well, and the bristles would often fall out of the brush. Boar bristles were used until 1938, when nylon bristles were introduced.

William Addis of England is credited with creating the first mass-produced toothbrush in 1780. The first nylon bristle toothbrush was invented in 1938. The first electric toothbrush was invented in 1960. In 2003, the toothbrush was selected as the number one invention Americans could not live without, beating out cars, computers, cell phones, and microwave ovens.

Then, when did people start using toothpaste? The world’s oldest-known formula for toothpaste was used more than 1,500 years, long before Colgate began marketing the first commercial brand in 1873. Ancient Egyptian mixed black ink made of soot, gum Arabic, and water to brush their teeth.

People used all kinds of dry and rough things to clean their teeth before toothpaste was invented. They used things like crushed eggshell. Today, the flavors of toothpaste are usually from plants such as spearmint and peppermint. Most toothpaste is sweetened with artificial sweeteners.