How often do you brush your teeth? Sure, we’ve all been told the ‘twice-a-day’ , but how many of us strictly follow it?
Are there any cultures out there with alternative practices that still maintain good oral health?
I’m intrigued to hear your brushing habits, thoughts on this, and any interesting findings you’ve stumbled upon.
When I wake up and before bed
Same, but I’ve combined my teeth brushing with showering. It gives you a nice excuse to zone out in the shower for just a bit longer.
Pro tip: if you call zoning out “meditating” (because that’s what it is) it makes you feel more put-together and successful. Congrats on your practice of hydrotherapy meditation.
Ooo that’s fancy, I like it!
I just wander about the house brushing my teeth, that way I’m not stuck just standing in the bathroom
How do you keep from making a mess? I look like I have an advanced case of rabies when I brush mine.
With skill and a little flair x
Nah idk, I can’t do it for long ofc cause toothpaste has that habit of becoming a little too minty and then a little painful but it’s only messy if I’m trying to have a conversation mid brush.
Which btw, happens, if I’m walking about brushing my teeth, chances are I’ll be attempting to respond to people lmao
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I’m 80% once a day [night time] and touch wood, only ever had one filling needed and that was back in 2009. Bro sciencing it but I chalk it up to drinking a lot of water and shlooshing my mouth out after meals, especially if i’ve had orange juice, ice cream or other not good for teeth stuff. A bit of gum maybe too, but I don’t know how much of BigGum fills our heads with random fake science.
I did have a ‘uh-oh’ phase a few months ago where my teeth were super sensitive, but some Sensodyne, mouthwash and twice daily sorted it out and now i’m fine again…and back to my old habits lol; enamel must of taken a lil beating.
Dentist says things are always fine, so I just keep it up /shrug
I always wondered whether it’s flora and fauna dependent to some extent, so some people have bacteria that don’t damage the teeth and other have the nasty ones and have a constant battle.
I’ve been a massive slut for a couple of years. I wonder if it was possible to pass those germs on.
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After breakfast and before i go to bed.
You should brush before breakfast to remove the bacteria from your mouth that breaks your teeth in combination with sugar
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Usually 2x a day, when I get up and when I go to bed.
Once in the morning (with a tongue scraper beforehand), once before bed (with flossing and the tongue scraper beforehand).
Seems to work well enough so far. Oh and an electric toothbrush is a must.
Won’t breakfast taste nasty with that toothpaste taste?
Not really, because I don’t go straight to eating. After getting out of bed I first brush my teeth (or go to the toilet, depends), then I shower. Afterwards I make breakfast. So between brushing my teeth and eating there’s roughly around 20-30 minutes. With a glass of water before taking the first bite there is no taste left.
I’ve thought about brushing before or after breakfast for a while and neither way seems great. Before is great because you lose the bad breath from the night. After is nice too, except you like coffee for breakfast. General rule is always: Don’t immediately brush before or after eating, especially if you eat anything acidic, that fucks your teeth up.
I regularly started flossing during COVID because I went a while without having a dentist appointment. I was shocked at how much brushing and mouthwash misses on a daily basis.
Fucking hell there’s a lot of dedicated people here, or a lot of liars.
I’ve been unable to build any kind of oral hygiene routine my entire life. My parents were absentee parents so I never built the habit when I was young. I’ve had major bouts of depression my whole life, I was only recently diagnosed ADHD, and in general am shit at any routines, and on top of that I never have tooth/gum pain to remind me to brush and the dentist doesn’t hurt/bother me. Even having been in the military didn’t establish any kind of routine. But I’ve definitely paid for it. I don’t know how many thousands of dollars worth of crowns I have, and I know it’s just a matter of time before I have to pay for bridges/implants.
It literally just doesn’t occur to me that it’s a thing unless I am specifically reminded externally and do it immediately. I’ve tried reminder apps, notes on the bathroom mirror, Alexa reminders, but they all become background noise after a while.
At least you are going to the dentist. My uncle was not brushing his teeth. And never to the dentist. Eventually they had to remove all of his teeth because it was all infected and it was too unbearable for him.
I had a depression period of my life where I was doing the worst possible treatment to my teeth - was eating a lot of sugar and would skip brushing here and there; also I was not brushing effectively. My teeth are not in very good condition right now. I wish I had kept a good mouth hygiene even when I was depressed.
I’m surprised by how many people do that after every meal. Is it good for enamel?
Mouthwash. Tongue scrapers. Multiple times a day. I feel like it’s overkill. But I dunno 🤷♂️
I’m shocked, because in my country every dentist would recommend you to do it 3 times a day, so hearing there are people out there only doing it as much as twice a day, with quite some people doing just once a day, it’s very shocking for me.
I gotta admit though that more often than not I don’t do it the afternoon because I either forget, or don’t have time to do it. But I do it religiously every morning after breakfast, and every night before I sleep.
There’s a recent podcast edition of Science Vs. about this very thing.
According to their interviewed experts and their research, brushing your teeth does nothing to prevent cavities UNLESS it’s fluoridated toothpaste.
Flossing also doesn’t really prevent cavities, but it is important for me gum health. They recommend regular flossing (more than once a week)
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Born in the 80-ies I had several cavities before I was 15. Nothing helped, then one day the doc applied fluoride to my teeth directly and I spent a lot of less time at the dentist since then.
Using toothpaste with fluoride from them on made a massive difference.
Interesting. I’ll try find it.
Twice a day. One when I get up and one before going to bed. I floss occasionally.
After waking up,
afterbefore going to bed and after every mealSleep brusher!
Ooops
Depends on my mood, if i have energy or not. I’m trying get back to how i used to, when i brushed multiple times a day, but i usually brush once a day on a good day.
Good oral hygiene practices don’t really differ between cultures. Cleaning your teeth properly is cleaning your teeth properly.
I’m pretty sure the Congo pigmies don’t have the same hypersonic oral b toothbrush as me.
It does a bit here though, in my country dentists recommend 3 times a day, not 2.
I were supposed to do tree times a day, but i end up 2 every day. I also bathe every day
Are you or your parents from a Latin American country? Trying to find a pattern here.
Yep, i’m brazilian
Twice a day, once in the morning or whenever I get ready for the day and once before bed. I also brush my tongue with a tongue brush/scraper. My current struggle is trying to get flossing into my routine. I know if I keep at it, it’ll get better, but right now it’s hard to want to go to bed with the taste of blood in my mouth.
To all of you who don’t brush in the morning, are you all nose blind? Morning breath is the worst, second only behind coffee+morning breath. Have some consideration for your fellow humans.
Water piks are a lifesaver. While I’m sure they are not as good as flossing they do get your gums healthy enough to take a mild beating. At that point you could floss here and there to remove biofilm.
