Etiquette Picks at Toothpick Use

A Pick at Toothpicks and a few General Remarks on Picking Teeth 

“Some to conceit alone their taste confine,” and some— too many, by far— confine their conceit in taste to chewing toothpicks —a very bad habit, execrable, indeed, and inexcusable. 

A good daily newspaper authority tells us that three billions of wood toothpicks are made in this country, but there is no known authority for enumerating the number of people who turn their mouths into pulp mills by reducing wooden toothpicks into fibrous splinters, damaging to the gums and throat, to say nothing of the disgusting offensiveness, when mixed with saliva, in the process of expectoration.

The writer hereof is cognizant of a case of serious damage to teeth arising from a confirmed habit of chewing toothpicks. The teeth of the victim had become so seriously affected as to call for the services of a dentist frequently, but without avail. No permanent remedy could for a long time be found. 

At last a Hartford, Ct., dentist, who made a specialty of a peculiar branch of the dental profession, was enabled to give relief and remedy. His methods, however, were harsh and prostrated temporarily the nervous system of nearly all his patients who passed through the fiery ordeal. 

The gums were loosened and the roots of the teeth laid bare. By the aid of an exceedingly delicate instrument the teeth were scraped and cleaned of an accumulated bone fungus, after which the gums were again drawn back to their accustomed place. The disease for which this treatment was had was pronounced to have been caused by chewing toothpicks made from wood highly charged with a solution of an acidulated nature. 

Toothpicks are at once a convenience, a comfort, a necessity— so convenient, indeed, that the repulsive habit of chewing them, not only at meal time, but “between meals,” not only in private, but “before folks” as well, has grown upon us unawares. 

Toothpicks, as toothpicks, are all right, but the general habit of chewing them is all wrong. They should never be used or held in the mouth at table, or while conversing with any one, either at or away from the table. 

A forcible writer in the Boston Daily Advertiser says: “Every civilized man, woman and child has the right to use a toothpick, but they have no right to use toothpicks to the discomfort of others.” And to fine organizations the visible use of a toothpick is a source of disgust. A man who uses a toothpick in public shows either that he is not aware of the annoyance he gives to others, or he defies good manners, and prefers to be set down as indelicate and gross.” 

And again: “The truth is the associations of a toothpick are necessarily indelicate, for the toothpick reminds one of bad teeth or food particles held in the wrong place.” The toothpick is, therefore, a toilet article, and ranks with the tooth brush, the nail-cleaner and the ear-spoon. 

These articles have to be used, but not in public. Every hand is marred by unclean finger nails, but the nails ought not to be cleaned in public; nor should the teeth be brushed in public. In hotel lobbies there are always men —not really gentlemen— and, alas! occasionally women, with a toothpick in their mouth. Quite likely these same people eat with their knives and cut their finger nails at the dinner table.”

Toothpicks should never be kept upon a table where meals are served. There should be a convenient place near at hand where one can be conveniently taken in passing out of the room after meals. They should then be used as quietly and privately as possible, and when used, religiously thrown away. 

Good shaping of the “human face divine,” good manners, good taste and good health forbid the touching, tasting or handling of toothpicks as an article of diet, or as a sweet morsel of wood pulp to roll over or under the tongue. Tobacco chewing is vile, unanimously so pronounced, and toothpick chewing is villainous, whether the verdict against it be unanimous or not. “Chaw-ing gum” is decidedly neater and preferable.

Wood toothpicks “chewed,” or carelessly or unduly used, are unquestionably a source of damage to the teeth, the throat and the stomach, and a squeaking quill toothpick so held in the mouth that the squeak may be heard, or the “mouthings” seen by others, is too sickening a subject to pursue in detail with any degree of complacency. If the present growing custom must be continued, let us, by all means, have treatises on “How to Chew Toothpicks,” and teachers of the art, so that we may chew them gracefully at least. Chewing toothpicks! Picking the teeth publicly! Faugh! —Mary Methodical, 1885

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Etiquette and the “Indelicate”

If we go farther back toward the dining table, we shall find that the disgusting habit grows even more pronounced, and that the table itself is often a witness of the indelicate proceeding. — A trio of antique toothpicks from the 18th and 19th centuries, from the book, “What Have We Here? The Etiquette and Essentials of Lives Once Lived, from the Georgian Era through the Gilded Age and Beyond...”

The Fall of the Toothpick

If there is one thing more than another which needs correction, in the ranks of what pass for cultivated people, it is the prominence of the toothpick. No sight is more common, about the dinner hour, than to see knots of men gathered in front of hotels and boarding houses, standing on street corners, riding in public conveyances or else where, with a toothpick ostentatiously protruding from the mouth, or with the said wooden splinter in diligent use as an excavator. If we go farther back toward the dining table, we shall find that the disgusting habit grows even more pronounced, and that the table itself is often a witness of the indelicate proceeding.

It is a matter of congratulation, therefore, that a better habit is asserting itself, in witness of which the following extract from a hotel journal may be quoted: “The practice of serving toothpicks, as a course, is no longer observed in polite society. Neither are they used as a sideboard decoration and a centerpiece for the table. Neither are they served along with after-dinner coffee, and it is not polite to pick the teeth at table; it is rather the act of a scavenger, even if the face and mouth are covered by a napkin, as some people. seem to think is correct. Really refined people suffer pain rather than to pick their teeth at the table. A person might as well brush the teeth at a meal, and it would be quite as agreeable a diversion. 

“The toothpick is properly an article of toilet and for the bathroom and the dressing room, and not for the dining-room. People do not clean their nails at the table, which would be far more preferable than the opening of cavernous, mouths. The time has really come when something should be said about this disgusting toothpick fad. Better go to the dentist and have the holes plugged up with gold and cement, instead of prying meat out with a toothpick. The whole thing is pandering to a low taste instead of a high one, and it is high time that it ceased to be a custom, or to be tolerated as such.”— Original in Good Housekeeping, 1892

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia