Asklemmy

43941 readers

579 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

Why do dentists always recommend to brush 2 times for 2-3 minutes? (lemmy.zip)

submitted 1 year ago by wolf@lemmy.zip to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

79 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I almost always read in the news/press that dentists recommend to brush teeth two times a day for 2-3 minutes.

This drives me crazy, because it does not make sense; The point for dental health is to systematical clean every surface of your teeth twice a day (and use inter-dental brushes/floss once a day). For me, brushing my teeth takes around 6 minutes, if I hurry up. For someone faster it might be possible in 1 minute.

So, why do dentists always give the 2-3 minutes recommendation?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] bouh@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There are two things with brushing your teeth: first, the mechanical action of the brush and the microparticuls in the toothpaste will clean the tooth. Second, the fluorine in the toothpaste will consolidate the enamel of the tooth, but it needs a bit of time to be absorbed.

This is why it's important to use real toothpaste and not the natural shit you can do yourself at home.

So 2-3min is the right time to brush the tooth and allow the fluorine to be absorbed. Some dentists will also tell you to not rinse the mouth, only spit the saliva and paste, I imagine so that fluorine has more time to work.