Joke of the week

A husband and a wife come to a dentist. The man says: "Look, we're in a hurry and I need you to pull a tooth. Do it as quickly as possible; you don't have to use any anaesthetics. Just do it quickly."
"Do you realize how very painful it will be?" - asks the dentist, and the man nods his head - "Okay then, which tooth is it?"
"Honey," - says the man to his wife - "Open your mouth and show the doctor which tooth it is."

The brief history of the toothbrush

Although it's the 21st century, oral hygiene is still a fairly delicate matter. On the one hand, most people know that they should brush their teeth at least twice a day; some of them even use dental floss on a regular basis. Numerous TV commercials tell you how easy it is to keep your teeth nice and white thanks to magnificent, hi-tech toothbrushes, which were designed by engineers working for NASA, or new toothpastes that contain ingredients found only in the Amazon Jungle. On the other hand, it is not very hard to meet somebody - an educated, witty person - whose breath makes you cry. What is more, in spite of all the latest equipment and anaesthetics, going to a dentist is still a traumatic experience.
The struggle to keep your teeth white and healthy has been going on for thousands of years. Primitive people would use sticks, feathers and animal bones to remove bits of food from their mouth (so whenever you go camping and it turns out that you have forgotten the toothbrush, watch out for bushes, chickens or remains of somebody's supper). The great Prophet Muhammad himself often used miswak which was a twig of a certain plant growing in the Middle East (modern scientists have not confirmed all of its supposed benefits). It seems that according to some rules of Islam using it before prayers can actually enhance their effect.


The first "modern" toothbrushes were invented in the USA in the 19th century, yet they were expensive products made of animal hair and bone. They didn't really work well and were rather delicate. It wasn't until the outbreak of World War II when synthetic materials were used for the first time and the mass production began. American soldiers were ordered to brush their teeth everyday and it was them who popularised toothbrushes among the rest of population.
Today, toothbrushes have all possible inbuilt functions, possibly except for Hi-Definition TV-sets. The problem is that even if you use them regularly, once in a while you will actually have to pay some dentist a lot of money for torturing you with drills. It's a very painful paradox.

VOCABULARY
dental floss - nić dentystyczna hi-tech - zaawansowany technologicznie ingredient - składnik witty - dowcipny breath - oddech anaesthetic - środek znieczulający feather - pióro	remains - pozostałości twig - gałązka supposed - domniemany benefit - zaleta to enhance - zwiększać outbreak - wybuch (wojny, epidemii) inbuilt - wbudowany

Vocabulary exercise

Match words with their definitions.
1. jaw	a) one of the basic ingredients of toothpaste
2. gums	b) large tooth used for grinding food
3. wisdom tooth	c) protective layer covering teeth
4. molar tooth	d) soft organ which surrounds the mouth
5. canine	e) tooth that is used for cutting through food
6. palate	f) bone structure, made of two elements, that enables chewing of food
7. lips	g) extra tooth that modern people do not really need
8. enamel	h) it can be soft or hard; it is the ceiling of the oral cavity
9. caries (cavities)	i) long, pointy tooth that is used by animals as the main weapon
10. tongue	k) tissue protecting teeth
11. fluoride	l) spaces within teeth often caused by bacteria
12. incisor	m) group of muscles that allows for chewing food and talking

Answer key:
1. f; 2. k; 3. g; 4. b; 5. i; 6. h; 7. d; 8. c; 9. l; 10. m; 11. a; 12. e

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