Cellulose Acetate and Hog Bristle Toothbrush

We have an array of bristle toothbrushes in our collection that are all slight variations on the same two hundred and fifty year-old technology: a forest of soft, fine and stiff filaments that are punched at regular intervals into a hard and rigid handle. These brushes are all used, more or less effectively, to remove impacted food and bacterial plaque from the teeth and gums without injuring them.

We have been fashioning tools for keeping our mouths clean for a very long time, with the earliest ones dating back to 3500BC. These first artefacts for oral hygiene were not toothbrushes as we currently know them, but chewing twigs, toothpicks or rags soaked in salt or soot. The first recognisable bristle brushes were developed in China between 1000 and 1400CE and were made from hog and horse hair embedded in bone.

In Europe we lagged behind in the oral hygiene department, with the first toothbrushes appearing from the 18th century, along with a rise in consumption of refined sugar and a Victorian obsession with personal hygiene. Pig bristles were used for cheaper brushes and badger hair for the high-end. However, animal hair isn’t the ideal material for the job: being porous, it absorbs water and retains bacteria. Following the invention of nylon in the 1930s, animal hair was replaced with more hygienic synthetic bristles, and celluloid handles replaced bone.

This toothbrush has a cellulose acetate handle and a very chunky hog bristle brush, making it the closest in our collection to a traditional 18th century toothbrush. It is an object of beauty, but would you clean your teeth with it?