I’ve been thinking about this since a friend told me he and his PMC wife are buying a FIVE toothbrush sink even though it’s the two of them and one kid (and they aren’t having any more). For nearly all of human history, humans - especially families - brushed communally. But with suburban sprawl and the popularity of McDenstistry, white US Americans with middle incomes or above decided every kid has to have their own toothbrush, and anything less is weird or cruel. Seriously, suggest to a well-off American that you want your kids to share a toothbrush instead of having their own. They will be shocked at first, then do that thing where they’re confused but also angry that you would subject your kids to that. It just seems like a wasteful bourgeois luxury to me.

This is entirely anecdotal, but I’ve known people who grew up sharing toothbrushes with their siblings, and others who had their own toothbrushes in large bathrooms. It seems to me that people who grew up sharing toothbrushes with their siblings are closer to each other. Which I do think kinda makes sense. Especially now with floss and mouthwash, a big bathroom where everyone has their own toothbrush just makes it a lot easier for family members to go off and do their own thing all day. Even the passive act of flossing, my sink-owning friend is excited because this house has a bathroom upstairs and a bathroom in the finished off basement. He’s all like “I can rinse my mouth downstairs while my wife brushes upstairs har har!” It’s not enough capitalism isolates us from our communities, but now we are getting isolated from members of our own immediate family.

Return to shared toothbrushes.