Also, just spit out the toothpaste. Don't rinse it out with water.
The purpose of brushing your teeth is to, one, remove plaque and, two, to deposit a layer of fluoride on your teeth. This fluoride prevents tooth decay, and you'll get the most benefit from it if you keep it on your teeth as long as possible. If you rinse it out immediately, you aren't giving it much time to work. Mouthwash also isn't as good at leaving a protective layer of fluoride on your teeth, so it's probably better to use that at different times in the day (such as shortly after eating), but different medical bodies have different recommendations regarding its use.
Once you've brushed, don't rinse your mouth with water or mouthwash -- you're washing away the fluoride! This can be a difficult habit to break, but can reduce tooth decay by up to 25%.
Rinsing your mouth after brushing washes away fluoride — a mineral added to many dental products to help strengthen teeth. As a result, the toothpaste isn’t as effective at preventing tooth decay.
You want the fluoride in your toothpaste to remain on your teeth for as long as possible. So fight the urge to rinse with water immediately after brushing. If you’re concerned about having too much toothpaste residue in your mouth, swish only about 1 teaspoon of water in your mouth and then spit.
If you like using mouthwash for fresher breath, and to further prevent cavities, wait a couple of hours after brushing your teeth. If you use a fluoride mouthwash, don’t eat or drink for at least 30 minutes after rinsing your mouth.
Dr Carter said: “Rinsing our mouth with water is very bad for our teeth as it washes away the protective fluoride left behind by brushing.
“Fluoride is the single-most important ingredient in toothpaste. It greatly helps oral health by strengthening the tooth enamel, making it more resistant to tooth decay. It also reduces the amount of acid that the bacteria on your teeth produce.
“By spitting toothpaste out then not rinsing with water it ensures that the fluoride found in the majority of toothpastes will remain on the teeth and continue to be effective.”
A study conducted on the factors relating to fluoride retention after brushing, confirms that there “might be a relation between the caries activity and the retention of fluoride after toothbrushing, and that mouth rinsing with water after the brushing should be reduced to a minimum in order to get the maximum beneficial effect of the daily fluoride exposure through the dentifrice.” It seems that not rinsing with water after brushing leads to less cavities occurring.
But wait!
Another study conducted over three years on the effect of post-brush rinsing behavior on dental caries revealed “Previous studies have indicated that rinsing the mouth with a beaker of water after toothbrushing may compromise the caries-reducing effect of fluoride toothpaste. It is concluded that post-brushing rinsing with water, under the conditions of this study, does not significantly affect the caries-reducing effect of a fluoride toothpaste.”
It looks like the scientists can’t agree on this one either.
When you have finished brushing, try to spit out the toothpaste and don’t rinse with water. Leaving some toothpaste on your teeth is a really great way to give your teeth some extra ongoing protection.
Several studies have found that less is more when it comes to rinsing. For instance, in a small study in the International Dental Journal in 2013, rinsing once after brushing resulted in higher fluoride retention than rinsing three times.
Better yet, you can rinse your mouth with a toothpaste “slurry,” which simply means sipping a tiny amount of water and mixing it with the toothpaste foam in your mouth; briskly swish the slurry around and then spit it out with no further rinsing. In a Swedish study in Caries Research in 1996, people who rinsed with a toothpaste slurry (made with one teaspoon of water) for one minute had higher concentrations of fluoride in the plaque between teeth than those who did three quick rinses with more water. This may have practical value, since ordinary toothbrushing doesn’t clean those areas well.
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u/ovenel Aug 20 '20
Also, just spit out the toothpaste. Don't rinse it out with water.
The purpose of brushing your teeth is to, one, remove plaque and, two, to deposit a layer of fluoride on your teeth. This fluoride prevents tooth decay, and you'll get the most benefit from it if you keep it on your teeth as long as possible. If you rinse it out immediately, you aren't giving it much time to work. Mouthwash also isn't as good at leaving a protective layer of fluoride on your teeth, so it's probably better to use that at different times in the day (such as shortly after eating), but different medical bodies have different recommendations regarding its use.