The toothbrush as we know it today was not invented until 1938. However, early forms of the toothbrush have been in existence since 3000 BC. Ancient civilizations used a "chew stick," which was a thin twig with a frayed end. These 'chew sticks' were rubbed against the teeth.
The bristle toothbrush, similar to the type used today, was not invented until 1498 in China. The bristles were actually the stiff, coarse hairs taken from the back of a hog's neck and attached to handles made of bone or bamboo.
Boar bristles were used until 1938, when nylon bristles were introduced by Dupont de Nemours, who are now one of the biggest companies around. The first nylon toothbrush was called Doctor West's Miracle Toothbrush. Later, Americans were influenced by the disciplined hygiene habits of soldiers from World War II. They became increasingly concerned with the practice of good oral hygiene and quickly adopted the nylon toothbrush. Nowadays, the toothbrush industry is huge and you are bound to see every couple of months a new special toothbrush with extra grip surface to prevent the dreaded deadly toothbrush slip and bristles to wash behind your ears.
With doctors recommending you change your toothbrush every two months and taking into consideration the amount of unnecessary plastic not mentioning the adhesive, colouring,packaging and different manufacturing processes required to make the modern toothbrush, it is an understatement to say that the toothbrush is one of the most polluting or resource intensive items in most households.
What can I do to change this , I hear you say…. Well there are a few companies out there promoting the sustainable toothbrush.
Ecodent have gone one step in the right direction with using replaceable heads although we feel their handles are still too much and they only use nylon fibres which is energy intensive, but at least they are better than conventional toothbrushes.
In first position has to be Monte Bianco,the Monte Bianco basically consists of a reusable handle, and a replaceable head, thereby ensuring that the plastic (and therefore oil) used in manufacture is kept to a minimum. Replacement heads are even available that use natural fibres, instead of plastic, for the bristles, reducing oil use even further. The heads come in packs of three, and each package is in itself much smaller than your average toothbrush packet, so energy used in packaging and transportation is also significantly less.
We have been unable to find a website for the manufacturers, but toothbrushes, and replacement heads, are available from Survana in the UK, Internatural Alternative Health and American Apparel in the US, Ecoshop in Australia or Amazon internationally. We also found some in our local natural health shop here in France so have a look in yours.
We hope you have found this article interesting and hopefully you will think of it every time you wash your teeth!!
Brush sustainably!
Enjoy!
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