Who Invented the Electric Toothbrush?
An early electric toothbrush was produced in Switzerland in 1939, but it did not sell well and was quickly taken off the market. In 1954, a dental equipment inventor created the electric toothbrush that was the prototype of the electric brushes we know today. Over 150 different types have been created since that first one.
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Identification
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Innovator Philippe-G. Woog invented the electric toothbrush in 1954 for E.R. Squibb and Sons. Squibb introduced the motorized contraption as the Broxodent brush in 1959 at the American Dental Association's centennial celebration and began marketing it to the public in 1960.
Time Frame
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Consumers did not take to the electric toothbrush very well until General Electric introduced a cordless rechargeable model in 1961, perhaps because they didn't feel comfortable using a toothbrush attached to an electrical outlet. After the rechargeable model went on the market, sales increased significantly.
History
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Ancient people used twigs and sticks to clean their teeth, chewing the wood until it was softer and brush-like. The first actual toothbrushes were invented by Chinese people and brought back to Europe in the 1400s. These brushes were made of a bamboo or bone handle to which the people adhered hairs from the Siberian wild boar. This style of toothbrush went basically unchanged for centuries, although Europeans tended to prefer softer horse hair. Europeans were mass-producing toothbrushes by the late 1600s, and the Americans began doing so in the late 1800s.
After Wallace Carothers invented nylon at the E.I. DuPont de Nemours company in the 1930s, the first toothbrushes using nylon bristles appeared--Dr. West's Miracle Toothbrush in the United States, and another from the Addis company in Europe. Handles by then were made of plastic, which became a standard along with nylon brushes.
Significance
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The first electric toothbrushes were basically mechanized versions of manual toothbrushes, with the bristles moving back and forth in an imitation of the way people brushed by hand. Interplak introduced the first rotary action brush for consumers in 1987. Since then, electric toothbrushes have incorporated a variety of actions such as vibrating at ultrasonic frequencies, having heads that rotate, heads that move from side to side, or sets of bristles that move one way and then the other way.
An electric toothbrush that offers some benefit over manual brushing, according to a study published in the Cochrane Library in 2005, is the rotation oscillation brush. This round brush has bristles that rotate first in one direction and then the other. Researchers found no significant benefit from any of the other brushes when compared to manual brushing, except for people with painful wrist and hand conditions or people with liimited movement. Electric toothbrushes are a great advantage for them.
Misconceptions
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The first toothbrush to be advertised as an electric brush went on the market in 1880. There was no electricity involved, however. This was Dr. Scott's Electric Toothbrush, which had slightly magnetized iron rods in their handles. Dr. Scott claimed the brushes were permanently charged with electromagnetic current, a claim he also made for his electric hair brushes, electric flesh brushes and electric corsets. Ads for his electric toothbrushes appeared in Harper's Weekly in 1884.
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