How to clean your teeth the Islamic way

O: In Sacred Law it refers to the use of a twig or the like on the teeth and around them to remove an unpleasant change in the breath or similar, together with the intention (n: of performing the sunna).)

e3.1 Using a tooth stick is recommended any time, except after noon for someone who is fasting, in which case it is offensive. (A: Using toothpaste is also offensive then, and if any reaches the stomach of someone fasting, it is unlawful (n: if the fast is obligatory, as this breaks a fast).)

e3.2 It is especially desirable to use the tooth stick for every prayer, for reading (O: the Koran, hadith, or a lesson), ablution, yellowness of teeth, waking from sleep, entering one's house, and for any change of breath from eating something with a bad odor or from not eating.

(A: When there exists a demand for an act, such as using the tooth stick before reading the Koran, and an equal demand not to, as when it is after noon on a fast-day, then the proper course is not to do it.)

e3.3 Anything coarse is adequate (n: to fulfill the sunna) except rough fingers, though the best is a twig from the arak (n: a desert shrub) that is dried (N: meaning previously cut from the shrub long enough to have dried) and then moistened.

e3.4 It is best to clean the teeth laterally, beginning on the right and paying particular attention to the bases of the back teeth, a nd to intend the sunna thereby.