BlO—Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, August 20,1983
Toothbrushes Grow on Trees
WASHINGTON - Imagine
waking up in the morning, washing
your face, and then putting a stick
or straw-like sponge in your month
instead of a toothbrush.
Aside from the somewhat bitter
taste and the necessity to spit out
splinters of wood, it can be a
surprisingly good way to clean
teeth.
Before toothbrushes and
toothpaste, there were chewing
sticks and chewing sponges. And,
today, m most of rural Africa,
much of Asia, and some areas of
the Americas, people still rely on
“nature’s toothbrusli” for cleaner,
whiter teeth. More than a quarter
of the world reaches for a chewing
stick instead of a toothbrush.
They Grow on Trees
“They break off a pencil-size
twig from a bush or tree, peel back
the bark, and fray the end by
gnawing by pounding it before
vigorously moving it up and down
their teeth,” explained Dr.
Memory Elvin-Lewis of
Washington University’s School of
Dental Medicine, St. Louis.
“They’ve very, very fastidious
about it and usually spend 15 or 20
minutes at it. In an African village,
if you get up early, at 5 or 6 a.m.,
you see everybody out with their
chewing sticks.”
Some African tribes have gone
We're having a contest! The cool, fail weather will be
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as many words as you can from the words “fail weather.”
Send a list of the words you created to Kids Korner and be
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P.O. Box 366, Lititz, Pa. 17543.
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one step further. “They’ve taken
the vines of acacia trees, for
example, stripped off the bark,'
pounded them with water and
soaked them to make sponges,”
she said. “Then they chew a piece
of this fibrous material. It’s very
foamy.”
Chewing sticks or sponges are
actually toothbrush and toothpaste
m one. They’re inexpensive and
disposable after each use. And
some kinds are definitely
preferred over others.
Through tnal and error over
centuries, a few favorites have
emerged from the roughly 200
known species used for chewing
sticks. Often most popular are
those that do the best job and wind
up in the markets. But there are
other preferences, too. Women like
the softer, sweeter chewing sticks;
men, the harder, more bitter
tasting ones.
Nso kodua and tweapea are the
sticks of choice in Ghana, where
Dr. Elvin-Lewis did most of her
research. With support from the
National Geographic Society, she
and her botanist husband, Or.
Walter H. Lewis, also of
Washington University, are trying
to determine whether chewing
sticks contain substances that pre
vent cavities and even gum
disease.
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Better Than Toothpaste?
The low tooth decay rate among
Africans has generally been at
tributed to diet.
“Partially it’s diet, but that’s not
the whole thing. When you start
looking at it, the retention of teeth
into adulthood among the
populations that use some of these
sticks is very high. So we’re saying
that they’re possibly a good thing
too,” Dr. Elvin-Lewis said.
One Ghanaian woman, educated
as a dietitian, told her, “When I’m
in a hurry, 1 use toothpaste and a
toothbrush. When 1 really want to
clean my teeth, 1 use a chewing
stick.”
The widespread use of chewing
sticks in some parts of Africa,
Asia, and the Middle East has its
roots in Islam. The Prophet
Mohammed was said to have
urged his followers to clean their
teeth before prayer as a means of
praising Allah and to use the
“siwak” for the cleansing.
The Moslems never adopted the
toothbrush invented by the Chinese
because its bristles were pig hairs,
a taboo animal. With the
development of synthetic bristles,
many modern Moslems have
switched to toothbrushes. But
ritualistic chewing stick use is still
carried on in the mosques of
Mandalay, Burma’ fresh sticks are
distributed before the services for
use five times a day at prayers.
In India, chewing sticks from the
popular neem tree are not just to
clean teeth, but the tongue too.
After the teeth cleaning, the stick
is split in two, broken again in the
middle to form a lunged V, and
then stroked across the tongue.
Extracts of neem are made into a
chewing stick toothpaste. It’s
green and a little bitter, but Dr.
Elvm-Lewis wouldn’t use anything
(Turn to Page BX2)
3
Almost as big as her owner, “Bunny-Girl” gets a bunny hug
from Jennifer Stoltzfus, Ronks. Anyone else have pictures of
children and their pets? If so, send them to us at P.O. Box
366, Lititz, Pa. 17543.
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Photo by Trish Williams
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