From the Ipswich Tribune December 19, 1929 edition

Early Substitutes for the Modern Toothbrush

Toothbrushes are quite a modern invention. In the Vernel Memoirs we are told that in 1649, Sir Ralph Verney was asked by a friend to inquire in Paris “for the little brushes for making cleane of the teeth, most covered with sylver, and some few with gold and sylver Twiste, together with some Pettits Bouettes (? Boites) to put them in.” There is another reference to these, in a later volume of the Mehoirs, as “teeth brushes.”

“Turkish toothbrush” occurs in a list of “utensile” in the Musaeum Trade scantianum in 1656. This was probably a stick of dragon root, which in common with other roots, was used for that purpose down to the Seventeenth century or even later. Not only the Romans, 2,000 years ago, but also our own Queen Elizabeth, used a rough cloth, wrapped round a stick or a finger for her teeth.

-Weekly Scotsman