Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/141

 soft bristles, they do not reach into the inequalities of the teeth, and the sensation they convey to a sensitive mouth is often so disagreeable as to limit their use. We are for these reasons inclined to regard with great favor the recently introduced device of tooth-sponges. These are fine sponges, about the size of a large pigeon-egg, mounted firmly on handles of ivory or wood. Some are bleached to snowy whiteness, others soaked in odorous or odontalgic liquids which impart to them salubrious and pleasant qualities.

These tooth-sponges are soft, searching, and pleasant to the most tender gums. They are readily cleansed, carry a dentifrice more neatly than a brush, and seem to have no objectionable qualities.

There is a host of dentifrices, tooth-powders, and tooth tinctures, offered in the market. We advise our readers to be guarded in their use of secret preparations, no matter how loudly and expensively they are advertised, and no matter how pleasant they may seem on use. It is easy to whiten the teeth by the use of acids and corrosive or gritty substances, which will soon destroy them, and it is reasonable to suppose that any dentifrice, which is a secret preparation, may contain ingredients which are dangerous, and dare not be made known. An assertion to the contrary has the less weight, as when a man knowingly sells such injurious stuff, he will not stickle at a falsehood to conceal its noxious qualities.