African twig brushes offer all-day dental care

By Pascal Fletcher

DAKAR (Reuters) - Brush your teeth every day, dentists say. In Africa, that can mean keeping your toothbrush in your mouth all day long.

Across the continent south of the Sahara, many people go about their daily business with a small stick or twig protruding from their mouth, which they chew or use to scrub their teeth.

Cut from wild trees and shrubs in the bush, this is the African toothbrush. Its users swear it is much more natural, effective -- and cheaper -- than the prettily packaged but pricey dental products on sale in pharmacies and supermarkets.

"It cleans your teeth more than plastic brushes, with the liquid that comes out of the wood," said Marcelino Diatta, a stick twitching from his mouth as he sought handouts from foreigners in downtown Dakar.

In Senegal, the chewing stick is called "sothiou", which means "to clean" in the local Wolof language. In east Africa, the stick is called "mswaki", the Swahili word for toothbrush.

Their users say the sticks are also medicinal, providing not just dental hygiene but also curing a variety of other ills. Dental experts agree they seem to clean teeth well and some up-market health stores in the United States have been selling chew-sticks as a natural form of dental care.

"It's good for your stomach and your head ... it whitens your teeth and gets rid of bad breath," said Abedis Sauda, a Senegalese street vendor.

Traders in Dakar and other Senegalese cities sell neat bundles of the pencil-sized sticks -- usually about 6 inches long -- on the pavement, offering a variety of different types of wood at different prices.

WEREK, NEEP-NEEP

Elimane Diop, 70, dressed in a blue boubou robe and white bonnet, extols the virtues of his wares with all the pride of a salesman for a multinational health care company, explaining the advantages of a new design of brush or type of dental floss.

"This is the Dakhaar ... It cleans really well," said Diop, holding up a slender, knotty twig with a dark brown bark.

Another bush toothbrush, the Werek, is cut from the branches of the gum tree, while the thicker Neep-Neep helps ease toothache. "If you've a bad tooth, it's a medicine," said Diop.

The Cola, cut from a soft, whitish wood, is prized for its sweet taste.

If chewed, most of the twigs fray into finer strands, which have the effect of "flossing" between the teeth, or if rubbed up and down, can scrub tooth enamel clean as well as any brush. But they can taste bitter compared with commercial toothpastes.

"There are several documented studies which suggest that the cleaning sticks are at least as effective as normal toothbrushes and paste in maintaining routine oral health," Christine D. Wu, Professor and Associate Dean for Research at the University of Illinois College of Dentistry, told Reuters.