Why You Shouldn’t Rinse Your Mouth After Brushing

Since we were kids, many of us in this part of the world have done one thing, rinse your mouth thoroughly with water after brushing your teeth. As a matter of fact, we do not feel like our mouth is totally clean until we rinse it off.

Fluoride is the most important ingredient in toothpaste

You might be placing your oral health at risk by rinsing off your mouth than actually just spitting it out and here’s why;

Most kinds of toothpaste contain fluoride and fluoride is the most important ingredient in toothpaste, it strengthens your enamel-Your enamel is the protective coating of your teeth. It makes your teeth more resistant to decay, reduces the bacterial load in your mouth and reduces the amount of acid that the bacteria in your mouth produces.

When you spit rather than rinse off, this fluoride remains on the teeth and continues to exert its effect on your teeth and protect it.

 How about I use mouthwash after brushing?

Using mouthwash after directly after brushing is also bad for your teeth as it rinses away the fluoride, there are also some risks to your gum. Better to use mouthwash at a separate time from brushing. Some advocate lunchtime.

 

Rinsing off immediately after brushing places you at risk of tooth decay.

Children should use only a smear of toothpaste

Here are other steps you can take to protect your teeth

  1. Brush your teeth twice daily for at least 2 minutes per time
  2. Do not use hard bristles on your teeth, they actually destroy the coating of your teeth, medium or soft bristles work fine for most people
  3. Ensure that your toothpaste has the right concentration of fluoride(least 1,350 parts per million (ppm) fluoride.)
  4. Brush in the direction that your teeth grow. Find exactly how here
  5. Use dental floss often before brushing your teeth, to remove food and plaque between your teeth.
  6. Children can use the same toothpaste at adults so long as it contains between 1350 to 1500ppm of fluoride, if they are less than 3 years of age, they should use a smear of toothpaste on their brushes
  7. Children should not eat toothpaste or lick it.

15 Responses

  1. The gum of the two tooth in the front are yellow which is in contrast with the normal colour. This prompt me to be brushing my teeth in this manners hoping that that it will be back to the normal colour. But it doesn’t seem to improve. What can I do?

  2. What happens to the involuntary reflex of salivating seeing that the salivary glands secret more to reduce the load of the toothpaste in the mouth?

  3. I saw a post concerning this on your Twitter page yesterday and I tried it this morning. It felt weird at first but I’m enjoyed the minty sensation afterwards.

  4. I used to have senstive teeth and gums, so i stopped using fluoridldated toothpaste and started using this locally made teeth powder and for the years i have been using it no pains. Pls am i doing something wrong?

  5. Thank you for this great enlightment..
    Through this message a lot of people are informed..
    Thank you so so much

  6. Well if you don’t rinse after brushing, you tend to salivate more which then prompts you to either spit it out or swallow. My question is, does spiting it out not remove the fluoride and is swallowing not bad for the body? What do we do then?

  7. Wow! This means I have been doing the wrong thing all my life!! Thank you doc for this information. I’ll ensure my children don’t repeat my ignorance *winks*

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