SHTF Dental Care: Chew Sticks

The modern dental industry seems to love to promote the myth that the only way we can keep our teeth healthy and clean is through chemically laden (fluoride, etc) toothpastes and other dental care products.

But what about during an SHTF situation or other long-term emergency where toothpastes might not be available? What do you do then?

Here’s an option you might want to remember when that time comes:

Going Primitive with the Chew Stick

Native cultures around the world have used natural toothbrushes called “chew sticks” to keep their teeth healthy and clean.

To use a chewing stick, what you want to do is get a stick that is about the thickness and length of a pencil and chew on the end of it until it begins to break up into small individual fibers.

Here are a few pictures of a Paper Birch stick that I used as well as its tip before and after chewing:

Using Your Chew Stick

Once you get the end of the stick all mashed up with your teeth it should start producing a bunch of different stick fibers at the end. Be sure to keep chewing until the fibers are very thin and fibrous and not thick or else you’re going to have a painful time brushing.

You then use these fibers to rub all over your teeth and gumline, cleaning the teeth of the plaque and other nasties collected from your eating.

It takes a little bit of practice in the beginning since the bristles of this brush run parallel and not perpendicular to the handle as we’re used to with modern-day toothbrushes.

The Medicinal Benefits of Chew Sticks

The great thing about this method is that most trees and bushes contain active ingredients that destroy harmful bacteria but leave the beneficial bacteria unharmed. This is in many ways superior to modern day toothbrushing since modern toothpastes destroy ALL bacteria in the mouth, thereby suppressing the beneficial bacteria as well.

In addition, if you use sticks that also have medicinal properties like tannins, it can actually strengthen your gums and improve the tissue.

Add to this the combination of an aromatic plant like Wild Mint or Wintergreen and it will really keep your breath fresh and your mouth clean.

What Types of Wood Can I Use?

Obviously it’s important you know at least a little bit about what type of wood you are using.

The first thing is, you don’t want to use anything poisonous. Other than that warning, you want to look for a wood that is pretty fibrous and not too hard (very hard woods will not separate into nice soft fibers as shown in my picture above.

To get you started, here are a variety of common woods that are in most areas that you can use:

• Willow
• Ash
• Olive
• Hazel
• Mountain Ash
• Dogwood
• Hawthorne
• Peach
• Birch
• Apple
• Chestnut

Trees You May Want to Avoid

Some trees you may want to avoid are:

Conifers

Spruce, pine, Cedar, or any other conifer are not ideal since they have resin in the wood which makes it difficult to get fibers that form a useful brush (however, the sap of some conifers make great chewing gum).

Very Hard Trees

Trees like cherry or oak are pretty difficult to make into good brushes because the fibers tend to be too thick.

Bitter, Very Soft and Poisonous Trees

Some trees like Elder have bark that is slightly poisonous so you’ll want to stay away from these. And others like
Maple are too soft to make serviceable fibers (they also have a strong bitter taste).