Toothpick

A toothpick is a small thin stick of wood, plastic, bamboo, metal, bone or other substance with at least one and sometimes two pointed ends to insert between teeth to remove detritus, usually after a meal.

Hominin remains from Dmanisi, Georgia, dated to about 1.8 million years ago, bear lesions indicating the repeated use of a “toothpick”.

[2][3] A Neanderthal man's jawbone found in the Cova Foradà in Spain evidenced use of a toothpick to alleviate pain in his teeth caused by periodontal disease and dental wear.

[5] One of the researchers, Justin Martin of Concordia University Wisconsin, said, "The enamel on teeth is quite tough, so they must have used the probes quite rigorously to make the grooves.

In the Southern United States, the baculum (penis bone) of a raccoon, called a "coon rod",[a] was sometimes filed to a point for use as a toothpick.