It is advised to brush your teeth at least twice a day, but when? Just before bed is a gimme because you’re about to lie mostly still for 6+ hours. Best to not leave food particles to fester.
What’s the best time for an earlier brushing? After breakfast? After lunch? After work/school?
Plus, what’s up with TV and movies having breakfast scenes where they get up and head right out the door? Did they already brush and now they’re going to leave food to fester all day? Eww.
I think ideally you’d brush your teeth after every meal, but that would require having a toothbrush with you at all times and I’m too lazy for that. Brushing twice a day is good enough; once around 10-15 minutes after eating breakfast/ the first meal of the day and right before bed.
I brush before eating. I cannot stand the taste of morning breath
I think the problem with brushing too many times is that the toothpaste itself is also somewhat abresive. So, brushing too often will result in you destroying your teeth. Especially if using “whitening” pastes.
I brush a while after eating. My roomie brushes before breakfast and before bead.
Every time you finish a meal
I’ve always heard that but also been told to wait for some time after eating before brushing to not hurt your enamel? Not sure how true that is
For breakfast if you drink milk and eat nothing acidic (like fruits) that would weaken the enamel, brushing after the meal is the best.
Also brushing your teeth does slightly damage your teeth, which salvia will repair. I don’t want sugar in my slightly damaged teeth, nor do I want sugar on them for the rest of the day, until I brush in the evening. I like to extend the duration of brushed teeth to the maximum. Meaning over night clean and after breakfast, til often evening when I eat once more. With midday being all clean without extra brushing.
But milk is (slightly) acidic, isn’t that a product to avoid as well before brushing?
That’s true, but it’s enough to just rinse your mouth with water before brushing your teeth to eliminate any acidity from the food, or just wait at least 30 minutes before brushing your teeth.
This would be ideal, but some people work jobs where it’s not feasible.
Yup, that’s what my dentist recommends. If you do that, just make sure you have a toothbrush and toothpaste which doesn’t hurt your teeth :)
Dentists have a strong pro-brushing bias though.
Most people will say its generally after you eat but I personally believe it should be before and after you sleep (including naps). I noticed that after naps my mouth feels very weird and things taste different but brushing my teeth stops that. Cavities mainly form while you sleep not while you are awake so going about your normal day with dirty teeth isn’t going to harm you even though its a bit gross.
Better to brush after getting up to remove any bacteria and plaque buildup. And then right before bed, floss+brush.
I brush my teeth first thing in the morning when I wake up, before breakfast, to ensure I have the perfect coffee breath for the whole day after breakfast.
I usually do after breakfast and/or before I leave the house (if later in the day). I’ve read advice though to brush first thing in the morning BEFORE breakfast because it will protect your teeth from acids in your food, coffee, etc. I’d love to know if that’s the best way.
But then you walk around with breakfast breath all day?
After breakfast and/if going out and then before bed.
Is breakfast breath worse than lunch breath or dinner breath?
I don’t know. But it seems very wasteful to brush teeth and then eat because then you have a lot of food particles and bacteria still.
Better to eat breakfast and then brush because then you have a fresh breath and no unnecessary gunk and bacteria in your mouth the whole day.
As someone else said: food softens the enamel and makes your teeth more vulnerable so brushing right after breakfast may cause way more damage. I always brush my teeth before breakfast and almost never have any problems with my teeth. I know that my friends who frequently need treatment for their teeth brush them after breakfast.
But that’s of course anecdotal evidence that doesn’t say much, and I’m no dentist, so I may be wrong.
I brush when I wake up, after lunch, at dinner and before bed. If I eat something during the day, I also brush.
After breakfast than floss+brush before bed. Before breakfast doesn’t make sense to me because you’re brushing twice when you haven’t eaten anything.
Yeah that’s my thought.
Might seem counterintuitive at first pass, but brushing Before breakfast IS much better.
There’s a couple of reasons for this. One thing being that you want to wash out the bacteria that have multiplied overnight - these are the ones that give you the morning stinkbreath, and that sticky coating you feel on your teeth.
Additionally, when you eat you expose your teeth to acids that weaken and softens your enamel for a while. Brushing the weakened enamel weakens the enamel over time. Brushing before on the other hand helps protect your teeth from said acids, reducing this weakening effect.
That said, brushing after you’ve eaten is still better than not brushing at all.
That makes sense. I can’t say I’ll change, purely because I don’t want to eat breakfast with the taste of toothpaste in my mouth, but it’s good to know.
I brush pretty much as soon as I get up and right before I go to bed.
Apparently I’m disgusting because I only brush and floss at night. I wish I was the sort of person who brushed after every meal but I just can’t be bothered. I haven’t had a cavity in years though, so I guess it works for me.
I, too, am lazy. I brush at nights only, because lazy. I go to the dentist every 12 months and they’re always stoked at how my teeth and gums look. Maybe it’s genetics.
Same here, but I’ll chew a xylitol-containing gum after most meals and snacks. (not sorbitol, it doesn’t work.) Hard to find a good gum though - the only one I can get here is Mentos.
It depends on the day for me, but usually it’s once a day at night because I synchronize it with my showering frequency. If I do it twice in a day, the first time is after breakfast unless I skip breakfast.
Morning after breakfast and at night before bed.
Just before bed, yep. I usually eat breakfast at work, so I brush before leaving, after my morning coffees.
After showering.
