Researchers at the University of Bergen ran a study comparing 213 Sudanese men. Half brushed their teeth with a chewed tree root. Half used a regular plastic toothbrush. The tree root group came out with healthier gums and less plaque.
That stick is called a miswak. The WHO has been quietly recommending it since 1986. In 2011, scientists at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute finally cracked the chemistry.
The active ingredient is benzyl isothiocyanate, a natural plant defense compound from the same family of sulfur molecules that give cabbage and mustard their sharp bite. The compound punches through the outer wall of bacteria that cause gum disease. From there, it dismantles the chemistry that keeps the bacteria alive. The Karolinska team isolated it by running root extracts through a chemical analyzer that identifies individual molecules.
The stick comes from the Salvadora persica tree, which grows in dry parts of Africa, the Middle East, and India. Inside the wood you also find natural fluoride, a gentle abrasive called silica that polishes off plaque, sulfur compounds, and tannins that tighten gum tissue. A separate team at Sweden’s University of Gothenburg ran another trial. They soaked the sticks in a fluoride solution. The fluoride left in the test group’s saliva came out higher than what people got from regular fluoride toothpaste.
A more recent systematic review pulled together a stack of randomized trials. Miswak on its own controlled plaque about as well as a regular toothbrush. Used alongside the toothbrush, it actually beat brushing alone on both plaque and gum inflammation scores. The Princess Nourah University trial from 2024 complicates that. Over two weeks, the miswak group’s plaque held steady while the toothbrush group’s dropped further. And gums in the miswak group got noticeably worse for people who sawed at their teeth too hard. Aggressive horizontal scrubbing tears at the soft tissue along the gum line.
One stick costs under 10 cents in the regions where the tree grows, and a single twig lasts for weeks. In sub-Saharan Africa, herbal toothpastes built around miswak and neem (another bitter chewing-stick tree) made up over a quarter of toothpaste sales in 2023.
The honest caveat is that Western dental literature treats the miswak as an add-on rather than a replacement, mostly because reaching the back molars with a stick is awkward. Used correctly, with soft perpendicular brushing along the gum line and no aggressive sawing, it does what a toothbrush does and adds a low-grade antibiotic on top. For most of human dental history, this is what cleaning your teeth looked like.
Did you know that if you put 100 black ants and 100 red ants together in a jar, they usually coexist peacefully? But if you shake the jar hard, they immediately turn on each other and start killing one another. The red ants see the black ants as enemies, and the black ants see the red ants as enemies. Yet the real enemy is the one shaking the jar.
The same thing happens in human society. Before we turn on each other, we should stop and ask ourselves: who is shaking the jar?
After my husband caught me having an affair with a stranger, he never touched me again.
For 15 years, we lived like strangers under the same roof until one doctor’s appointment shattered everything I thought I knew.
...
There's certain people that you cannot speak on specific topics with because they don't have the range, the knowledge, the empathy or the depth, to even understand where you're coming from.
I tried ghosting someone once. When they double texted me I felt like I was the worst human being walking the face of the earth. I don't see how yall do it and NOT feel any type of remorse.
Extremely shameful!!
Narendra Modi’s name has surfaced in the Epstein files. America’s serial rapist, child sex offender, and human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein wrote in an email on July 9, 2017: 👇
“The Indian Prime Minister Modi took advice and danced and sang in Israel for the benefit of the US President. They had met a few weeks ago. IT WORKED!”
Epstein clearly states that Modi took advice from him and went to Israel, where he danced and sang for the benefit of the US President. He also said that it worked.
👉PM Modi was on a visit to Israel from July 4 to 6, 2017. Epstein wrote this email just three days later.
👉Just before the Israel visit, on June 25–26, 2017, Modi had met US President Donald Trump in America.
👉 Connecting the dots in Jeffrey Epstein’s emails reveals that Modi went to America in June 2017 and took advice from Epstein there.
👉 One week later (July 4 to 6, 2017), Modi arrived in Israel and, as per that advice, danced and sang there, and it WORKED!
Now it is clear that Prime Minister Modi has a very deep and long-standing connection with Jeffrey Epstein, which is shameful for India.
This is a matter of national dignity and international reputation, for which Prime Minister Modi must answer.
❓What kind of advice was Narendra Modi taking from Jeffrey Epstein?
❓Why was Modi dancing and singing in Israel? How did Trump benefit from it?
❓ Epstein wrote, “IT WORKED!” So what does that mean?
PM Modi, the nation wants to know: What is your relationship with Jeffrey Epstein?
👉Link to the document on US Department of Justice Website: https://t.co/3eoYQFlwV4