The greatest frontline oral health routine is just a wood toothpick and a tongue scraper.
We have kind of been tacitly sold this idea that the way to keep our mouth clean is to use rinses and to brush. The deeper truth is that preventative maintenance is much better!
Get the bacteria fuel off of that wet carpet called a tongue, and get it out of the gaps where your gums meet the teeth.
I still brush my teeth, but my friends, hear me!
If you pick and scrape 10 minutes after eating, the requirement to brush almost goes away. I am not saying to stop. I’m just saying that what I personally experienced was that my mouth feel and teeth were so clean, there were many days that if I did not brush by habit I would have forgotten. I think a lot of people (myself included) use teeth fuzzies and mouth feel as the signal to brush.
Edit: there is a very interesting read about the origins of the toothpick in North America! If you’re interested a quick web search will show you the way. But the gist of it is that Brazilians were noted to have exceptional oral care and wonderful teeth in the 1800s, when no modern dentistry existed - their use of the toothpick was found to be what made it so! Although noted to be an exceptional method of keeping one’s mouth and teeth clean, it did not catch on due to being considered a vulgar practice in NA.
The greatest frontline oral health routine is just a wood toothpick and a tongue scraper.
We have kind of been tacitly sold this idea that the way to keep our mouth clean is to use rinses and to brush. The deeper truth is that preventative maintenance is much better!
Get the bacteria fuel off of that wet carpet called a tongue, and get it out of the gaps where your gums meet the teeth.
I still brush my teeth, but my friends, hear me!
If you pick and scrape 10 minutes after eating, the requirement to brush almost goes away. I am not saying to stop. I’m just saying that what I personally experienced was that my mouth feel and teeth were so clean, there were many days that if I did not brush by habit I would have forgotten. I think a lot of people (myself included) use teeth fuzzies and mouth feel as the signal to brush.
Edit: there is a very interesting read about the origins of the toothpick in North America! If you’re interested a quick web search will show you the way. But the gist of it is that Brazilians were noted to have exceptional oral care and wonderful teeth in the 1800s, when no modern dentistry existed - their use of the toothpick was found to be what made it so! Although noted to be an exceptional method of keeping one’s mouth and teeth clean, it did not catch on due to being considered a vulgar practice in NA.