The use of chewing sticks and oral health

Abstract

In the present paper the use and knowledge of the chewing sticks are discussed. The chewing stick is a traditional tool used as one of the common aides for keeping the oral hygiene, in many developing countries. Considering its wide use and that the tradition goes back many centuries, the aim of this study was to understand the traditional practice of this oral hygiene aid. The hypothesis was that understanding the nature of the tradition could contribute to the modern day dentistry. In the first section, the accessible literatures in the database were reviewed. The focus was on the history of the chewing sticks and the roles it play in the oral health. In the second section, primary data regarding the use of the chewing sticks at present time is presented. The data were collected from two African countries, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Cape Town, South Africa. In the last section, we attempted to give a brief discussion on the findings of the study in relation to the literature in general.