Teeth-cleaning twig

A teeth-cleaning twig is an oral hygiene tool made from a tree branch, chewed at one end until the fibers fray into a brush that can be used to clean the teeth, with the other end sometimes serving as a toothpick; in Hindi the tool is called a datwoon, and in Islamic tradition, made from the Salvadora persica or toothbrush tree, it is called a miswak. The practice of chewing sticks for dental care is ancient and widespread, with evidence from Babylonia around 3500 BC, Egyptian tombs from about 3000 BC, and Chinese records from 1600 BC, and it appears in Indian texts including the Ayurveda of around the fourth century BC and the Buddhist canon of about the fifth century BC. The seventh-century Chinese monk Yijing described the method directly, instructing users to chew one end of the wood well for a long while and then brush the teeth with it, and different regions still favor different woods, from Salvadora persica for miswak to neem in South India.