Sustainable Wooden Toothbrushes You Can Buy Today

Ever thought about what people in ancient times used to clean their teeth? Before today’s modern toothbrushes, people used wooden toothbrushes and chewsticks. These all-natural toothbrushes used a range of organic materials including bamboo, horsehair, and hog bristles. Today, wooden toothbrushes are making a huge comeback thanks to the increasing environmental awareness in society. Nowadays, more and more people shift towards using sustainable and eco-friendly alternatives and wooden toothbrushes are one of them.

Why Wooden Toothbrushes?

Shifting to using a wooden toothbrush will help reduce the amount of non-biodegradable waste going back to the environment or to recycling facilities. With a wooden toothbrush, you can achieve oral hygiene using an eco-friendly product you can easily throw in compost in your backyard. Now that wooden toothbrush alternatives have become mainstream, finding one is relatively easy. There are now sizes for adults and children with numerous bristle options from activated charcoal to regular nylon. Below are the two common wooden toothbrush options widely available today, and learn more about them below.

Bamboo Toothbrush

A bamboo toothbrush is very popular today for many reasons. First, bamboo is a very sustainable source of cheap wood. Bamboo is easy to cultivate and doesn’t require fertilizer and pesticides, unlike other crops. Today, there are an assortment of bamboo toothbrushes you can easily find in stores. However, not all bamboo toothbrushes are 100% biodegradable. These wooden toothbrushes may use bamboo as handles and come in eco-friendly packaging, but the majority of these still use nylon bristles. While a majority of the toothbrush is eco-friendly, don’t forget to remove the nylon bristles before composting.

Are you thinking of using a bamboo toothbrush? Check out our article about using bamboo toothbrushes here.

Miswak Brush

Miswak, also known as miswaak, siwak, and sewak, is a teeth cleaning twig used since ancient times. This natural wooden toothbrush contains the twigs from the Arak tree, and is also known as the toothbrush tree. The tree’s natural antibacterial properties make the miswak, an effective tooth cleaning tool. Today, some cultures still use miswak for oral hygiene. It is 100% natural and contains no fluoride and chemicals. You don’t even need toothpaste to use miswak to brush and clean your teeth. This herbal, natural, and traditional dental cleaning solution is still widely available today. It is the only 100% eco-friendly wooden toothbrush you can find today.

If you are hesitant to try traditional miswak brushes to clean your teeth, check out our Arak Sewak collection. The collection of natural dental products consists of different toothpastes and mouthwashes created from the Arak tree, the same tree as the miswak toothbrushes.