Should you brush your teeth before or after breakfast?

Brushing your teeth in the morning is one of the daily hygiene practices recommended by dentists and the UFSBD for maintaining good oral health. In fact, regularly skipping your toothbrush can have many consequences, ranging from bad breath to periodontitis, including dental plaque buildup and tooth decay. But when should you take out your toothbrush: rather when you roll out of bed, right after you drink your coffee, or after your avocado and fromage frais slices? The response from healthcare professionals may surprise you.

Brushing your teeth in the morning: yes, but when exactly?

Even if no one wants to drink his latté with an old minty toothpaste flavor in your mouth, though, this seems to be the optimal order to take care of your mouth and teeth in the morning.

Milad Shadrooh, surgeon/dentist and TikTok content creator under the pseudonym Singing Dentist, explains to the magazine Charm of the UK :

When you sleep, many bacteria accumulate in your mouth and lead to the formation of dental plaque. That’s why it’s good to get rid of all that buildup before you eat breakfast and start your day.

In fact, sweeping these microorganisms out of bed with a fluoride toothpaste would rid your teeth of plaque and bacteria. The thin layer of product that remains on the teeth after brushing would also protect the enamel from the acidity of the food. Finally, if you have to brush your teeth before breakfast, should you brush them again after?

Should you brush your teeth after breakfast?

In addition to brushing twice a day, theUFSBD recommends rinsing out the mouth with water or chewing sugarless gum after each meal.for twenty minutes. Indeed, chewing gum increases the flow of saliva, which cleans the remains of food and neutralizes the acids produced by the bacteria in the mouth by buffering effect. Stimulating the flow of saliva also increases the calcium and phosphate content of the fluid, helping to remineralize tooth enamel.

On paper, and if we followed the recommendations of the association, it would therefore not be necessary to rinse your teeth after breakfast! But if you still prefer to stick to it, it is advisable to wait at least thirty minutes before brushing if you have consumed acidic drinks and/or foods (citrus fruits, wine, fruit juices, etc.) because their acidity weakens the enamel and facilitates cleaning. its erosion during the passage of the brush.

Now that we know, should we change our morning hygiene routine? For Dr. Angelique Freking, whether you decide to brush your teeth before or after breakfast, the most important thing is the application. ” In the end what matters is the care we put into brushing our teeth. I’d rather brush our teeth well after breakfast than brush them badly before breakfast “, he blows to the magazine Really simple.

Front page photo credit: Greta Hoffman on Pexels