how to brush your teeth without a toothbrush？

Travel product site Minimus reports that 18% of tourists surveyed admit they often forget to bring their toothbrush (good to hear I’m not the only one). Worse yet, when you arrive at your destination late, you can’t easily get to the store to buy a replacement that your hotel doesn’t offer to guests. If you hate having bacteria on your teeth and gums while you sleep, here are many alternatives to maintain oral hygiene without a toothbrush. ..

• Use your fingers substitute a toothbrush

In a pinch, just use your fingers and “brushing” with toothpaste and your fingers is sometimes enough to remove plaque, says the Pennsylvania Center for Dental Implants and Periodontics. Just put a little toothpaste on your fingers and rub around your teeth and gums like you really have a toothbrush, although you might want to consider gargling with water a few times first to clean your mouth and get as much as you can Remove food scraps.

• Mix Floss and Mouthwash

If you forget your toothbrush but have access to floss and mouthwash, you’re fine. Simply floss, rinse your mouth thoroughly with water, then rinse with mouthwash to kill any remaining bacteria (yes, we recognize the possibility of you forgetting your toothbrush, but remember the difference between floss and mouthwash The odds are low.)

• with a towel

When I forget my toothbrush, the towel is my backup toothbrush. A rough texture will grind away plaque more easily than your fingers. This method can also be done with paper towels. First, rinse your mouth with water to remove as much food as possible. Then, wrap your index finger with a cloth or paper towel and apply toothpaste to the covered finger if you have it (it’s worth a try even if you don’t). Rub the towel over all parts of your teeth and gums. I also know to use a towel to scrub my tongue and scrub it as clean as possible. Rinse, then use mouthwash (if you have one).

• eat vegetable

Oddly enough, Grace; Leedy, Dentist, and other dentists recommend eating crunchy vegetables instead of brushing. Fibrous vegetables can act as brushes in their own way. As you eat, the act of biting removes existing food particles and cleans your teeth; Liddy explained, noting that if you could use celery stalks as an alternative to a toothbrush (let’s imagine a scenario where you need to brush your teeth) , you can use toothpaste and celery, but not a toothbrush.)

 

• Chew (sugar-free) gum

Just like chewing vegetables, chewing gum is a great way to remove plaque when brushing isn’t an option. Chewing gum removes any food particles from your teeth and makes you salivate, which is the body’s natural antiseptic mouthwash. Humana healthcare recommends avoiding sweets and using sugar-free gum until you can switch to a toothbrush.

 

• oil

Schaumburg Dental Studio in Illinois recommends a method called ‘oil suction,’ which is brushless and requires only a teaspoon of oil to be brushed into the mouth. Suction oil is said to remove toxins from the mouth,” Schaumburg Dental Studio said. That said, although the scientific research on this is a bit vague. Coconut and sesame oils are said to be the most effective at removing toxins, but sunflower oil or olive oil can also.

No matter what a person looks like, a set of white teeth will always make a good impression. The modern society attaches great importance to teeth. Walking into the supermarket, you can see toothpaste, toothbrush and other cleaning products everywhere. The emergence of electric toothbrushes and mouthwashes has made it easier for people to clean their teeth.

So, in ancient China, there were no cleaning supplies such as toothpaste and toothbrushes like today. Did the ancients clean their teeth? The answer is of course yes. After all, no matter ancient or modern, bad breath will always leave a bad impression on people.

Although toothpaste and toothbrush were not invented in ancient China, the intelligent and industrious ancient people still used many methods to clean their teeth. How did they do it? After checking the information, there are about five methods.

 

1: gargle method

“Book of Rites” once had a relevant record of the ancients gargling: “Everyone inside and outside, when the chicken is just crowing, the salty wash, the clothes, the pillow mat, the cleaning of the room and the courtyard, and the mat, each does his own thing.”

As early as 2,000 years ago, ancient people would rinse their mouths to clean their mouths after getting up. So what did ancient people use to rinse their mouths?

 

1.The first is salt water, which is also common in modern day-to-day life. Salt water kills bacteria in your mouth and keeps your mouth clean. Sun Simiao, a famous medical scientist in the Tang Dynasty, once had a specific description of gargling with salt water in his “Prescription for Emergencies”: “Every time you put a twist of salt in your mouth, and warm water…

2.alcohol can also be used for gargling.Medicinal wine was very popular in ancient China, which confirms the pharmacological effects of wine. By rinsing your mouth with alcohol, you can avoid tooth decay and tooth decay to a certain extent. In the Tang Dynasty medical scientist Wang Tao’s “Waitai Secret Yao”, there is a method of rinsing the mouth with wine to treat toothache: “The four flavors are cut, soaked with bitter wine and Wuhe, warmed slightly in a bronze vessel, and kept for a long time. , spit out the juice, and even contain it if it is not bad. Don’t swallow the juice, it is very good to rinse your mouth with warm water if you want to eat.”

3:rinse your mouth with tea.This was also very common in ancient China. In “A Dream of Red Mansions”, Cao Xueqin also described the scene of Jiafu people gargling their mouths with tea after eating.

This method was proposed by Su Shi, a famous writer in the Song Dynasty, and its function is to prevent dental caries: “I have a method that I always cherish. After every meal, I rinse my mouth with strong tea, and the boredom is gone, but the spleen and stomach don’t know it. If the meat is between the teeth, get tea to soak and rinse it, it will shrink and fall off without realizing it, and it will not bother to pick thorns, and the teeth will be rinsed.”

 

2:The second method: wiping the teeth

Wipe, has the meaning of wiping. When ancient people did not have special brushing tools, they used some other means to clean their teeth. The most important way is to wipe your teeth with your hands, hold the mouthwash cup in your left hand, and use your right index finger to wipe your teeth.

Second, people also use cloth to wipe their teeth. In the tomb unearthed in the Tang Dynasty, it was clearly recorded that there were “100 tooth-wiping cloths” donated by the royal family. This means that cloth was also used by ancient people to clean their teeth.

Furthermore, according to archaeologists inference, in fact, as early as the Tang Dynasty, there was the invention of the toothbrush. But the toothbrush back then was called “toothbrush” or “toothbrush”. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Wu Zimu’s “Menglianglu” has related records of “all kinds of miscellaneous goods”: “mirror, wooden comb, grate, brush, toothbrush”. Among them, the “toothbrush” refers to the toothbrushes used by the people during the Song Dynasty.

3.The third method: ointment and tooth method

In modern society, the most important item for cleaning teeth is toothpaste. So is there something similar to toothpaste in ancient times? The answer is yes.

Liu Jun of Nanliang once wrote in “The Song of Articulation and Black Mustache on the Monument of Huashan Peak in Xiyue”: “Pig tooth saponins and ginger, the western countries Kai Ma Shu Di Huang. Mulu Zao Lianhuai corner, Asarum lotus leaves should be equivalent. Green salt, etc. Divided into burning and calcined, researched and boiled to make it better in the future. Wipe teeth and temples turn black, who knows that there are fairy recipes in the world.”

In layman’s terms, people use pig teeth, saponin, ginger, Kaima, Rehmannia glutinosa, Mulu, Zaolian, Huaijiaozi, and then take the same amount of Asarum, lotus leaf, and green salt to burn together. It is then ground and boiled, and then rubbed on the teeth to make the teeth firm.

In fact, there are many “toothpaste” in ancient times. Wang Tao, a medical scientist in the Tang Dynasty, recorded the recipe of Cimicifuga rubbing teeth in “Secrets of Waitai”: “Half liang of Cimicifuga, three of Angelica, Artemisia, Asarum, and Agarwood each. Point, cold water stone six points, grind, right six flavors smashed into a sieve, every time you bite the willow branch to soften the head, dip the medicine and wipe your teeth, it is fragrant and bright.”

It can be seen that the ancient people’s awareness of tooth maintenance is actually no worse than that of modern people.

4.The fourth method: chewing method

Of course, most of the above three methods are for the nobles and upper-class people to clean their teeth, so how do poor people use the items around them to clean their mouths? Besides wiping their teeth with their fingers, what else can they do?

Indians once used poplar branches to brush their teeth, and this method was later introduced to China. The ancient medical book “Waitai Secrets” records: “Every time the willow branches bite their heads softly, take medicine and wipe their teeth, which is fragrant and clean.”

That is to say, people rub one end of a willow branch soft, and then dip it in medicine to rub the teeth, which can make the teeth smooth.

Second, in daily life. People with a poor family environment will generally find suitable branches for cleaning their teeth from their own side according to local conditions. For example, locust branches, peach branches, etc., chew natural resin, use resin to clean teeth, and ensure oral hygiene.

This is a bit like modern chewing gum. Chewing gum is based on natural gum or glycerin resin as a colloid, and is blended and pressed with syrup, mint, sweeteners, etc. In addition to removing odor, it can also improve oral health. It is more popular in society, and many people like to use it, especially young people.

Therefore, as early as ancient times, people had higher requirements for oral hygiene. Therefore, we must not think that in ancient times, there were no tools such as toothbrushes and toothpaste, and ancient people did not brush their teeth. After all, bad breath smells bad.

All in all, people with whiter teeth were more admired in ancient times. And people with uneven teeth and cavities are relatively underestimated.

Therefore, we must take good care of our teeth. After all, the current conditions are so good, we don’t have to chew branches. We only need to brush our teeth hard in the morning and evening to keep our teeth white, so take care of our teeth now!