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Twice a day of brush, floss, and rinse is the bare minimum to keep healthy teeth and gums I bought a nice electric toothbrush and water flosser, so I feel like

by fooey 7y ago

Twice a day of brush, floss, and rinse is the bare minimum to keep healthy teeth and gums I bought a nice electric toothbrush and water flosser, so I feel like I get a better job done faster (Sonicare and Waterpik)

corysama 7y ago
There was a thread on reddit asking dentists questions and what stood out to me was unanimous agreement in multiple separate convos of dentist redditors that electric toothbrushes work better than manual. The theme every time was: Use electric. Use very light pressure (don't even open your mouth too wide because your cheeks add pressure). Spend a good amount of time on each tooth --to the point they recommend brushes with built-in timers to keep you on the clock. As for flossing: All I know is that before I started flossing, I was accumulating measurable gum damage. After I started, it healed. Now when I slack off, I get sore spots. When I start again, they heal. And, when I'm flossing I find it incredible how much gunk I pull out of my gums even right after a through brushing. It's gross. But, far more gross would be just leaving it there to rot.
Avery3R 7y ago
You should not rinse directly after brushing. Toothpaste has a higher concentration of fluoride than any mouthwash, if you're going to use a rinse the recommendation is to wait 30 mins after brushing, and you should never rinse with water
- treerock 7y ago
  > you should never rinse with water This is going to be a stupid question. What do you rinse with?
  - asark 7y ago
    Also, if you're not supposed to rinse for a while after brushing, and you're not supposed to brush for a while after eating, and anyway eating with morning breath is gross, but so is eating with toothpaste-breath... when the hell are you supposed to eat breakfast?
  - awfully 7y ago
    You don’t. You spit it out and go about your day.
    - _1tan 7y ago
      Seconded: https://www.nature.com/articles/sj.bdj.2014.1057 https://www.nature.com/articles/sj.bdj.2014.1057.
    - germinalphrase 7y ago
      Is this common advice? I would find having my mouth coated with toothpaste residue to be extremely off putting. You would also end up swallowing quite a bit, yes?
      - a_c_s 7y ago
        Leaving toothpaste residue (containing fluoride) on your teeth is the main thing toothpaste is for. Fluoride changes the chemical properties of tooth enamel to make it stronger. So removing toothpaste immediately after applying it reduces the effectiveness. If not rinsing is intolerable then rinsing with a fluorinated mouthwash, which provides less fluoride that toothpaste but is still better than nothing, would be a better choice.
      - awfully 7y ago
        It’s common advice from all the dentists and hygienists I’ve ever seen, and it’s not something that comes up in conversation among my friends here but from personal experience I wanna say all or most of my partners I’ve ever seen brush their teeth they do the same. If it helps, this is in Europe, so we (as in dentists here) may have differing guidelines as you. From what I know, the gist is that fluoride is mineralized into enamel which strengthens it (not sure if this is the correct phrasing). Whatever the correct phrase is, it works by direct prolonged contact. Not rinsing is a way to guarantee this contact, but even if you do there’s still fluoride in your saliva to do some good. I imagine the taste depends on your toothpaste. I use a plain one (Elmex) that doesn’t really have a taste, and the taste goes away fast enough that I don’t notice it. As far as swallowing goes, not really. Most of it gets spat out. Besides, (some) astronauts in space just swallow it all instead of spitting cause it’s cleaner :) https://www.quora.com/International-Space-Station-Is-it-ok-to-swallow-toothpaste-as-Chris-Hadfield-does-in-this-video https://www.quora.com/International-Space-Station-Is-it-ok-t... Yes I know fluoride can be toxic but the amount you’d swallow (a small pea sized dab is all you need, all those pictures of the entire brush covered by toothpaste is advertisement to get you to think you need that much) is probably not going to have any effect.
tashoecraft 7y ago
From what my dentist told me, while a water flosser is nice, it doesn't replace flossing. It basically does half of what normal flossing does.
- rhombocombus 7y ago
  Me and thousands of dollars in periodontal treatments are a living anecdotal testimony to that fact. mechanical disruption of the biofilms in the interdental space is the only known efficacious prophylaxis for gum disease that I know of. The water pik feels great but just doesn't do the job.

by fooey 7y ago

corysama 7y ago

There was a thread on reddit asking dentists questions and what stood out to me was unanimous agreement in multiple separate convos of dentist redditors that electric toothbrushes work better than manual. The theme every time was: Use electric. Use very light pressure (don't even open your mouth too wide because your cheeks add pressure). Spend a good amount of time on each tooth --to the point they recommend brushes with built-in timers to keep you on the clock. As for flossing: All I know is that before I started flossing, I was accumulating measurable gum damage. After I started, it healed. Now when I slack off, I get sore spots. When I start again, they heal. And, when I'm flossing I find it incredible how much gunk I pull out of my gums even right after a through brushing. It's gross. But, far more gross would be just leaving it there to rot.

Avery3R 7y ago

You should not rinse directly after brushing. Toothpaste has a higher concentration of fluoride than any mouthwash, if you're going to use a rinse the recommendation is to wait 30 mins after brushing, and you should never rinse with water

treerock 7y ago
> you should never rinse with water This is going to be a stupid question. What do you rinse with?
- asark 7y ago
  Also, if you're not supposed to rinse for a while after brushing, and you're not supposed to brush for a while after eating, and anyway eating with morning breath is gross, but so is eating with toothpaste-breath... when the hell are you supposed to eat breakfast?
- awfully 7y ago
  You don’t. You spit it out and go about your day.
  - _1tan 7y ago
    Seconded: https://www.nature.com/articles/sj.bdj.2014.1057 https://www.nature.com/articles/sj.bdj.2014.1057.
  - germinalphrase 7y ago
    Is this common advice? I would find having my mouth coated with toothpaste residue to be extremely off putting. You would also end up swallowing quite a bit, yes?
    - a_c_s 7y ago
      Leaving toothpaste residue (containing fluoride) on your teeth is the main thing toothpaste is for. Fluoride changes the chemical properties of tooth enamel to make it stronger. So removing toothpaste immediately after applying it reduces the effectiveness. If not rinsing is intolerable then rinsing with a fluorinated mouthwash, which provides less fluoride that toothpaste but is still better than nothing, would be a better choice.
    - awfully 7y ago
      It’s common advice from all the dentists and hygienists I’ve ever seen, and it’s not something that comes up in conversation among my friends here but from personal experience I wanna say all or most of my partners I’ve ever seen brush their teeth they do the same. If it helps, this is in Europe, so we (as in dentists here) may have differing guidelines as you. From what I know, the gist is that fluoride is mineralized into enamel which strengthens it (not sure if this is the correct phrasing). Whatever the correct phrase is, it works by direct prolonged contact. Not rinsing is a way to guarantee this contact, but even if you do there’s still fluoride in your saliva to do some good. I imagine the taste depends on your toothpaste. I use a plain one (Elmex) that doesn’t really have a taste, and the taste goes away fast enough that I don’t notice it. As far as swallowing goes, not really. Most of it gets spat out. Besides, (some) astronauts in space just swallow it all instead of spitting cause it’s cleaner :) https://www.quora.com/International-Space-Station-Is-it-ok-to-swallow-toothpaste-as-Chris-Hadfield-does-in-this-video https://www.quora.com/International-Space-Station-Is-it-ok-t... Yes I know fluoride can be toxic but the amount you’d swallow (a small pea sized dab is all you need, all those pictures of the entire brush covered by toothpaste is advertisement to get you to think you need that much) is probably not going to have any effect.

tashoecraft 7y ago

From what my dentist told me, while a water flosser is nice, it doesn't replace flossing. It basically does half of what normal flossing does.

rhombocombus 7y ago
Me and thousands of dollars in periodontal treatments are a living anecdotal testimony to that fact. mechanical disruption of the biofilms in the interdental space is the only known efficacious prophylaxis for gum disease that I know of. The water pik feels great but just doesn't do the job.