A dentist has answered whether it’s best to brush your teeth before or after breakfast while explaining how this small, every day decision can impact your oral hygiene over your lifetime
Everyone knows you should brush your teeth twice a day – but not everyone brushes them at the ‘correct’ times. It has prompted a dentist to settle the debate on whether you should brush your teeth before or after you eat breakfast in a morning.
Mahesh has taken to the @bupadentalcareuk channel on TikTok to reveal what’s best for your overall oral hygiene – and explained why it makes such a difference. The video caption reads: “Brushing before breakfast? Maybe you’ll change your mind after getting the run down from Mahesh.”
In the clip, the dentist says: “Ideally, for most people, you’re going to be better off brushing before breakfast. You want to leave at least half an hour after you’ve brushed to eat.
“If you do brush after eating, you want to again at least wait half an hour to brush your teeth. The reason is your saliva needs time to buffer and clear away any of your dietary sugars and acids.
“If you go to brush your teeth within that time you may end up actually spreading acid around your mouth.
“Whereas, if you brush your teeth in the morning after waking up, your saliva has had that time to buffer and you’re probably going to be better off for it.”
Adding to this, an NHS statement reads: “Brush your teeth with fluoride toothpaste twice a day for about 2 minutes to help keep your teeth and mouth healthy.”
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They urge people to brush their teeth twice a day for about two minutes each time, saying “Tooth brushing stops plaque building up. Try to make sure you clean every surface of all your teeth.”
Commenting on this topic, one Reddit user said: “My dentist actually explained it to me actually, it’s less to get the food out of your teeth, and more about getting the plaque that built up over night in your mouth. I guess it doesn’t matter health wise as long as your brushing in the morning.”
Another user added: “I brush my teeth first thing because doing so both cleans out bacteria that built up overnight and leaves a coating of fluoride on my teeth that protects them from sugars and acids in my breakfast. Before I leave the house I rinse my mouth with mouthwash.”
A third user said: “My dentist told me that one should brush before consuming anything because brushing your teeth strengthens and protects enamel to prevent your daily use from damages.”
A final user said: “Brush my teeth 15-30 minutes after breakfast? I’m at work by then. It feels way nastier to eat everything that’s built up in my mouth overnight anyway.”