1) Maybe they call it so because you have to brush your teeth one at a time: http://www.communityhealth.dhhs.state.nc.us/dental/ed_resources/How_to_Brush_letter.pdf 2) "A variety of oral hygiene measures have been used since before recorded history. This has been verified by various excavations done all over the world, in which toothpicks, chewsticks, tree twigs, strips of linen, bird feathers, animal bones and porcupine quills were recovered. The first modern idea of a toothbrush is believed to have been invented in China around 1500 by the Chinese, which used the stiff hairs from a hog's neck, attached to a bamboo stick. However, many other peoples used different forms of toothbrushes. Ancient Indian medicine has used the neem tree and its products to create toothbrushes and similar products for millennia. In the Muslim world, the miswak, or siwak, made from a twig or root with antiseptic properties is widely used. Rubbing baking soda or chalk against the teeth was also common. Chewing sticks were first made by primates." So the first devices for cleaning the teeth were invented by the apes! "William Addis of England is credited with creating the first mass-produced toothbrush in 1780. In 1770 he had been placed in jail for causing a riot. While in prison, he decided that the method for teeth brushing of the time – rubbing a rag on one's teeth with soot and salt – could be improved. So he took a small animal bone, drilled small holes in it, obtained some bristles from a guard, tied them in tufts, then passed the bristles through the holes on the bone and glued them. The first patent for a toothbrush was by H. N. Wadsworth in 1850 in the United States, but mass production of the product in America only started in 1885." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toothbrush

How stupid. These West Virginia sterotypes are really lame.