When you get up in the morning, do you brush your teeth or eat first?
For many people, this is not a problem at all. Of course, we have to brush our teeth before eating breakfast.
However, there are also many people who are very confused. They brushed their teeth carefully before going to bed last night, and then went to bed. They didn’t eat or drink. What else can they brush in the morning?
Don’t struggle any more, let Dr. Xu Tongkai of the Department of Stomatology tell you the answer.
Why brush your teeth?
To know whether to brush your teeth or eat first after getting up, you must first find out why you brush your teeth in the morning.
Brushing teeth is mainly to remove food residue in the oral cavity, but brushing teeth has another more important function, which is to remove bacteria in the oral cavity.
Without bacteria, there can be no tooth decay and no gum bleeding.
However, bacteria cannot be completely exterminated. There will always be a little left. Bacteria multiply very fast and live together for several generations every other night.
In addition, the secretion of saliva in the oral cavity will be greatly reduced during sleep, thus adding an unfavorable factor to oral hygiene.
Without the scouring of saliva and the effect of antibacterial components in saliva, the reproduction of bacteria has intensified. If there is another snoring problem, dry mouth will further worsen and be more conducive to the reproduction of bacteria.
To sum up, if you sleep for seven or eight hours at night, even if there is no problem of sleepwalking and eating snacks, there will be a large number of bacteria multiplying in your mouth.
Therefore, the primary purpose of brushing your teeth in the morning is to remove these bacteria from your mouth before they mature, so as not to give them time to do evil.
Is it better to brush your teeth before meals or after meals?
At present, there is no consensus among dentists on whether to brush your teeth before or after meals, which is divided into pre-meal school and post-meal school.
Pre-meal school thinks:
In the process of eating, food will directly or indirectly reduce the pH value in the oral cavity, causing slight corrosion on the tooth surface.
This micro-corrosion will recover quickly under the buffering effect of saliva and will not cause damage to teeth, but if brushing teeth at this relatively fragile stage of teeth, it may cause additional loss of enamel on the tooth surface.
Therefore, it is recommended to brush your teeth before meals.
After-dinner school thinks:
The so-called micro-corrosion caused by food is negligible, and there is no strong evidence from what to confirm the existence of this brushing injury.
However, there is a large amount of food residue in the mouth after meals. There is no doubt about the benefits of brushing your teeth and cleaning them. Moreover, fluorine in toothpaste can also promote the firmness of your teeth.
When I was in the United States, there was a professor in the school who was engaged in similar research in this field. He had some unpublished research to confirm:
If your teeth are brushed with a toothbrush immediately after soaking in fruit juice for several seconds, it will cause obvious wear on the tooth surface.
He used this method to establish a tooth wear research model, that is to say, certain specific foods or beverages do cause tooth surface corrosion and reduce the tooth’s ability to resist wear.
As I said just now, this corrosion is transient and temporary. If the teeth are soaked in saliva, the calcium in saliva will quickly repair the tooth surface, which we call [remineralization], and this process will not take long.
The professor suggested brushing your teeth half an hour after dinner.
Of course, this is only a family statement, and its accuracy and reliability need to be confirmed or overturned by more research.
Do you brush your teeth or eat first?
The answer is: brush your teeth before or after breakfast, as long as you brush them.
Therefore, if you want to eat first, you can eat; If you want to brush your teeth first, you can brush your teeth. How happy you can come?
However, to be on the safe side, it is better to brush your teeth before meals or half an hour after meals. If you brush your teeth before meals, rinse your mouth carefully after meals and use mouthwash, it is even better.
In addition to people who are undergoing orthodontic treatment and people who are prone to dental caries, it is recommended to brush their teeth twice in the morning and evening. Gargling after lunch is enough. Brushing too much is not necessarily a good thing.
Therefore, it can be arranged according to one’s habits and work and rest rules, and there is no clear distinction between right and wrong.
Now you can rest assured to choose!