Care for your teeth

Clean teeth every day with chew sticks and rinses, because teeth do not grow back.

easy⏳ an hourtradition — not yet hand-tested

You get one adult set of teeth, and no skill in this book can grow you another. A rotten tooth is not just pain — it can stop you eating well, and an infected tooth can spread infection into the jaw and beyond. The good news is that tooth rot is one of the most preventable miseries there is. People kept strong teeth for thousands of years before toothbrushes, using a frayed twig, clean water, and one simple habit: clean every day, especially before sleep.

The enemy is a soft, sticky film of germs — plaque — that grows on teeth every day and feeds on sugar. Scrub the film off daily and starve it of sugar, and teeth last a lifetime.

You need

• A chew stick — a fresh green twig, as thick as a pencil and a hand long, from a safe tree. Willow, oak, hazel, birch, walnut, and neem are all good; a slightly bitter taste is normal and fine.
• Certainty about the tree. Never use a twig you cannot name. Never use oleander, yew, or laburnum — these are deadly poisonous — and avoid any plant with milky sap.
• Clean water — boiled if your water is not safe, for rinsing.
• A pinch of salt — for a rinse that calms sore gums.
• A thin strong thread or plant fibre — optional, for cleaning between teeth where a stick cannot reach.

Steps

1. Make the chew stick. Cut a fresh twig from a tree you know is safe. Peel the bark off the last thumb-width of one end, then chew that end gently until it frays into a soft little brush of fibres.
2. Scrub every tooth, gently. Rub the frayed end along each tooth with small strokes, sweeping from the gum toward the biting edge — down on top teeth, up on bottom teeth.
   • Get all four neighbourhoods: outside faces, inside faces, chewing surfaces, and right along the gumline, where the film hides.
   • Take your time — a proper clean is two to three minutes, about the time of a slow song.
3. Clean between the teeth a few times a week if you have thread or fine fibre: slide it gently down between two teeth, curve it against one tooth, and wipe up and out. Between-teeth gaps are where rot most often starts.
4. Rinse. Swish clean water hard around the mouth and spit. Once a day, or whenever gums are sore, rinse with warm water and a small pinch of salt.
5. Do it twice a day, and never skip night. Once after waking, once before sleep. The night clean matters most — germs feast undisturbed for the whole night on anything left behind.
6. Renew the stick. Bite or cut off the used brush end each day and fray a fresh bit. A stick lasts about a week; then cut a new one.
7. Starve the film. Sweet things and sticky starches are germ food. If you eat them, eat them with meals rather than sipping and nibbling all day, and rinse with water after. It is the how often, not the amount, that rots teeth.

Watch out

• A poisonous twig can kill. This is the one real danger in this easy skill. If you are not completely sure of the tree, use a clean cloth wrapped over your finger instead — rubbed along the teeth, it cleans well too.
• Scrubbing hard damages, scrubbing long cleans. Bleeding gums from a savage scrub, or worn grooves near the gum, come from force. Be gentle and thorough instead.
• Do not use sand or gritty ash to scrub. They scour off the tooth's hard shell (enamel), which never grows back. If you add anything, a tiny pinch of fine salt is enough.
• Teeth are not tools. Cracking nuts, cutting cord, opening things — each trick risks a broken tooth that will hurt for years. Use a knife or a stone.
• A toothache that throbs, a swollen face, or fever with tooth pain means infection. Rinse with warm salt water for relief, but go for real medical or dental care — a jaw infection can become dangerous. Do not try to pull the tooth yourself; a botched pull makes the infection worse.
• Bleeding gums usually mean clean more, not less. Gentle daily scrubbing at the gumline firms them within a week or two. If bleeding continues anyway, ask for medical advice when you can.