DANTADHAVANAM

Brushing teeth is the basic activity. It is very essential for the maintenance of health. 

Ayurveda says, after wake up one must  think deeply whether the person is eligible to begin the day with routine work. If not, he must continue with little more sleep. That is, One must check whether the food taken in previous night is digested or not. If the digestion is complete, the person can go for brushing.This helps a person to keep up at-most health. The reason is when we take before digestion of the previous food, it leads to indigestion.

Ayurveda has given some rules for brushing. They are

One must defecat and urinate before brushing.

In olden days, people use to do brush using herbal twigs. The twig must be 12 angulas in length and half angula in thickness. (1 angula = 1 phallenge approximately 1 inch)

That twig must have the following tastes which acts on the germs. They are  Kashaya-Astringent, Thikta- Bitter and Katu- Pungent.

Dantadhavanam

Drugs/ Twigs mentioned in Ashtanga Hridayam for dantadhavanam,

ARKA- Calotropis gigantea

KHADIRA-Acacia catechu

KARANJA-Caesalpinia bonducella

KAKUBHA-Terminalia arjun

Contra-indications:

One who suffer with these diseases should not indulge in brushing teeth. But they can gargle their mouth with Decoctions for thoses drugs. The diseases are indigestion, Vomiting, Asthma, Cough, Jwaram(fever), Facial palcy, Thirst, mouth boils, heart diseases, Eye disorders, Ear problems.