How often do you brush your teeth?

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.

7egend,
@7egend@lemmy.ml avatar

3 times a day.

I brush after each meal, floss after lunch, and use a waterpik after dinner before brushing.

Probably excessive, but it’s less than 15 minutes a day total to keep my teeth happy.

Summzashi,

Thats absolutely bizarre to me. Do you travel at all? How does that work?

pedantichedgehog,
@pedantichedgehog@sh.itjust.works avatar

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.

keenanpepper,

I have a pattern which really works for me where I wake up, brush my night guard and brush my teeth with no toothpaste and then eat breakfast. That way I don’t have the horrible mint toothpaste / orange juice clash I’m sure many of you are familiar with.

Then at night I floss and brush with toothpaste, and put in the night guard.

I used to make myself floss only every other day (like if I didn’t floss last night I MUST floss tonight), which I highly recommend rather than sporadic or no flossing. But I recently upped my game to “every night except special occasions”.

CmdrShepard,

But I recently upped my game to “every night except special occasions”.

I’d like to think you record these days in your calendar in advance as if they’re something to look forward to like birthdays or Christmas.

_haha_oh_wow_,
@_haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works avatar

Usually 2x a day, when I get up and when I go to bed.

zerbey,

Twice a day, and if I need to freshen up.

valdemar,

I only ever brush before going to bed, never in the mornings.

I probably started doing this around 6-8 years ago, and have had no problems at my annual check-ups.

boogetyboo,
@boogetyboo@aussie.zone avatar

Genuinely feel for people who have to spend time in enclosed spaces with you.

Congratulations for winning the genetic lottery with the robustness of your teeth, but brushing is also about hygiene. Body odour isn’t physically bad for you, but it is for everyone who has to be near you. Same with your breath.

Thorry84, (edited )

Dude your breath probably smells and people are too polite to tell you.

On your tongue there are a lot of anaerobic microbes (on everybody’s tongue, it isn’t a hygiene thing, they just live there). When you have your mouth closed for a long time, it creates a oxygen poor environment and these microbes thrive in that. They cause bad breath, so after people sleep or simply have their mouth closed for a while, the breath starts to stink. If you look in a mirror and your tongue has a kinda white or brownish tinge, this is because of the microbes. Everybody should brush their teeth and especially their tongue after sleeping. When looking in a mirror the tongue should be entirely pink and look healthy. Clean the tongue as far back as you can, to prevent bad breath.

If you smoke this isn’t true, your breath will stink no matter what.

So for your teeth it probably won’t matter much not brushing in the mornings, but for your breath it matters a lot.

angstylittlecatboy,

Beginning of the day and after my last meal of the day, plus before I take a nap if I do (they feel funny if I don’t)

Summzashi,

When I wake up. Once a day. Never had issues, breath smells fine etc. Guess I’m blessed with great tooth genes.

ProtonBadger,

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.

Summzashi,

I’ve been a massive slut for a couple of years. I wonder if it was possible to pass those germs on.

Sev,
@Sev@feddit.uk avatar

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

MeadBlitz,

After breakfast and before bed everyday. Sometimes after lunch too. Keeps me from snacking, makes me feel fresh and my teeth stay healthy.

razieltakato,

Twice a day. One when I get up and one before going to bed. I floss occasionally.

stick2urgunz88,
@stick2urgunz88@lemmy.world avatar

Brush in the morning to keep your friends, brush at night to keep your teeth.

RomanRoy,
@RomanRoy@lemmy.world avatar

2-3 times a day, depends

If I’m at work, I also brush after lunch

If I’m home, I just casually skip it because yeah fuck it

Ticktok, (edited )

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.

potterman28wxcv,

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.

jnato90,

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.

GnuLinuxDude, (edited )
@GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.ml avatar

I brush twice a day. I had a kind of gross moment that forced the habit. One day I looked up microscopic pictures of teeth. Normal teeth kind of look like a cool lattice structure under a microscope. Non-brushed teeth… the bacteria looked SO disgusting. I do not want that in my mouth…

gektix,

I tend to brush after I eat anything. If I eat 4 times, I’ll brush my teeth 4 times. Sometimes I forget to brush immediately, but after an hour or two I can’t take the way my mouth feels and I’ll stop whatever I’m doing to brush them. It also helps that I like the way my toothpaste tastes :P

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