Metal Mouth Message Board

I disagree. I now think its imperative to clean immediately after eating sweets. As far as I understand, when we eat sweets, bacteria consume remaining sugar in mouth, and excrete acids. These acids are what cause deminieralisation. At the same time, saliva is trying to make the mouth alkaline. After a while, the bacteria have consumed the sugar in mouth and saliva manages to make the mouth alkaline.
This is why the frequency of eating sweets matters more than the absolute amount.
It stands to reason that brusinig immediately would decrease the sugar in mouth, and help in mouth reaching a positive PH sooner.

This is an accurate statement. The key points here are that frequency (not quantity) of sugar consumption plays the largest role in tooth decay. You can get emphatic about brushing right away, rinsing right away, standing on your head, hopping on one foot, whatever you want. It really doesn't matter, the point is that as soon as sugar gets into your mouth strep mutans (among other things) go to town and start eating away your tooth structure. The point is that enamel will demineralize and remineralize over and over. The longer you keep your teeth free from bacteria the better. The more often teeth come into contact with bacteria the higher chance you will have decay. You can rush to rinse or brush asap, but it is not going to help significantly. If you do a good job of brushing 3x/day and flossing at least 1x/day then you will likely not develop much in the cavity department (assuming you are "normal"). It is much more important to do a thorough cleaning than to more frequently clean. Ever wonder why most people don't have cavities on the front of a tooth? It's almost always in a crevice that is hard to clean. Because plaque doesn't often adhere to smooth surfaces unless there is something to hold it there.

Whatever technique you do to keep your mouth cavity free is fine as long as it works for you. And regular prophy's and check ups are always a good help.

Good luck,
Rory

But if food is stuck in between teeth, wont the bacteria constantly leach acid ? In this case, wont brushing immediiately after eating food be better ?

ok so I have a question to Karen: I drink orange juice in the morning with my breakfast, so should I not brush after breakfast since OJ is acidic? i never knew it wasn't good to brush after eating/drinking something acidic.[/code]

Thanks, Karen! I can definitely do that every morning.

KK wrote:Lizzoo ... my ortho's advice (plus my dentist and perio) would be to rinse your mouth out with water (or warm salt water) several times ... wait about 30 minutes ... then brush.

Hope that helps!

For liquid foods (juice etc), this makes perfect sense, as sugar/acid can just be wshed away.
I'm not so sure this applies to solid foods too...

My teeth are also prone to erosion and my dentist suggested to rinse out with water after acidic foods or drinks and/ or wait 30 mins before brushing. I have also heard that it is not possible to rebuild enamel. I've heard somewhere that rinsing out the mouth with milk after acidic foods and drinks could also be good to do, does that sound right? Presumably as long as you still brush afterwards that would be ok?