How do you clean your teeth? Maybe you’re a two-minute scrubber and that’s that. Perhaps you like to floss after brushing. And if you’re really thorough, you might rinse with mouthwash at the end.
We hate to break it to you: if this sounds like your dental regime, you’re doing it all wrong.
Flossing and mouthwashing are both invaluable tools for maintaining good oral hygiene but the order you do them in matters.
Of course, if you’re one of the 31% of Brits who either don’t brush their teeth at all or manage only one brush on a typical day, this is irrelevant. Your mouth is probably in so much trouble already, it doesn’t what else you don’t do.
But for those of us who do try to maintain some semblance of oral hygiene, getting the process right could help to fight plaque, gum disease and other nasty things.
Recent studies have proved that poor oral health has been associated with things like heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cognitive decline and pneumonia – something we should be especially concerned about given the current coronavirus pandemic.
When Tiktok user @kassyslays90 uploaded a video two days ago talking about her husband’s tooth cleaning regime, viewers went into meltdown.
I seriously had a root canal on Monday and he’s just now sharing this info #dentalhygiene #husbandsecret #todaywelearned
She said: ‘He says that the right way to brush your teeth is to first rinse with an alcohol mouthwash, then to floss, then to brush your teeth, then to use a floride rinse.’
By washing out with mouthwash after you’ve brushed, you end up washing away all the enamel-friendly fluoride you’ve put on your teeth from brushing – so you should do it first to kill the germs.
‘Apparently the last time he went to the hygenist she told him that he didn’t even really need a cleaning,’ Kassy said.
Dentists have responded and agreed with Kassy’s husband in the comments on the clip, which has been liked over 685.3k times.
Dentist Dr M, AKA Suhail Mohiuddin, replied to the video saying that: ‘If you have bleeding gums, what you want to do is use an alcoholic-based mouthwash before you brush your teeth. If you don’t have bleeding gums, you don’t have to do this step. After you do this step, you want to brush for two minutes, and after that, you want to floss.
He goes onto say that after that, you need to use a fluoride wash. Fill a capsule, swill around the mouth and then spit – ‘but you don’t rinse with water for at least five minutes’. That increases your fluoride uptake which is really important for reducing your cavity risk.
He recommends doing that at least twice a day and especially at night so that your teeth can absorb all that lovely fluroide while you sleep.
TLD: mouthwash first, then brush and floss, then use a fluoride rinse – with no water for as long as possible.
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