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.
Brush teeth and tongue in the morning and night, floss each night.
Twice a day, but I occasionally miss the one at night after a night out. Still haven’t had any cavities!
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.
Gotta say I feel you. I’m terrible at following through on things/routines and end up disrupting or doing multiple things at once. Funny trend from my experience though is that I remember maybe a decade ago or more the mantra was still 3 times a day. I strive for 2 times but somedays I just knock the fuck out.
When I’m working, ever morning and most nights, when I’m off, hopefully once a day if I’m lucky. It’s easier to just wallow.
I’ve found my people lol. Work is the only thing that motivated me to brush my teeth. On my off days, my mouth will sometimes feel gross and I’ll brush it to get rid of that feeling. When it’s not bothersome, I forget to do it
Yup, at that point my social anxiety of smelling bad in public is stronger than my depression.
Usually twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening before bed. I usually floss once a day and use mouthwash and a tongue scraper occasionally.
Every time I take out my Invisalign :( so 5-10 times a day.
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)
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.
UNLESS it’s fluoridated toothpaste.
Uh, I think I’d need to go to a pharmacy to find toothpaste without fluoride…
Does non-fluoridated toothpaste even exist outside of the niche woo crowd???
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Sorry to hear. Good your on top of it 👍
I floss and brush religiously every night, have for many years. I had a cavity when I was young and the whole experience was terrible.
I still ended up with multiple cavities as an adult.
Twice a day, and if I need to freshen up.
I hate it so much. I can’t stand standing in the bathroom in front of a mirror and fiddle with my teeth. That whole experience is just wholy depressing, and then the foul taste on top of that. I try to at least brush and use mouthwash when I wake up and am groggy enough to not mind that much.
As much as I agree, life is a whole lot more depressing if you DON’T take care of your teeth.
I brush mine in the shower.
Have you considered covering up the mirror with like curtains or something so it’s not as self-conscious an act? Might help idk
It’s not the mirror (for me at least), it’s the whole room, and the feeling of messing with the teeth, the scraping in the ears when brushing, all that.
Sometimes I put on earphones with an audioshow or something, which makes some aspects slightly more tolerable, but others even worse.
I mean I couldn’t do that either, not for very long at least. I have the tendency to walk around aimlessly when doing something like that (same when I’m on the phone), which means I have to clean the floor after. So mostly I either brush my theeth in the shower or I sit down/lie down.
Damn, I just noticed that my theeth brushing habits are probably very weird, bit hey, at least that way I do it 2 - 3 times a day.
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.
i’ve been depressed my entire life and my dental hygiene used to be atrocious as a kid. these days, in my late 20s, i typically brush once a day in the morning and mouthwash before bed because the day takes a lot out of me energy wise and brushing my teeth ends up feeling like a monumental task. i go to the dentist every 3 to 4 months so more than the average person, but my insurance covers it. i use an electric toothbrush. i’ve only had one cavity and have all of my teeth including my wisdom teeth because they’re not damaged and don’t have cavities.
Many people fail to think about the depression and lack of brushing. I too am in the same boat. Turns out my meds are even making my teeth soft no matter what i do…
sending love to you
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
That’s assuming one eats sugar ;) The only thing with small amounts of sugar in my breakfast are cherry tomatoes, and they have been genetically engineered to be super stable but tasteless, I doubt there’s much sugar left ;)
I have less than desirable teeth…I have a Few missing, but thankfully (?) they are at the back. I never flossed as a youth/young adult even though I brushed twice a day. Since getting my act together and regularly flossing, I’ve never had better oral hygiene.
Funnily enough I only brush once a day now
