I had canker sores for my entire life, well into my late 20s. I tried everything: changing toothpastes (more on this in a second), changing brushes, using mouthwash, being told my mouth was "dirty" and I need to brush more, etc.
Turns out (at least for me) the sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) used as a foaming agent in (almost) every single toothpaste causes canker sores. I found "canker sore toothpaste" that lacks the SLS, for $7 a tube. I used it for couple of years and it worked!
If you read up on SLS, this is not super-surprising. It's a known skin irritant, and is known to cause more irritation when left on the skin for more than a couple of minutes. Canker sores are an autoimmune issue, so my theory is the irritation triggers an immune response, leading to the sore.
And then I discovered if I rinse thoroughly (twice) after brushing, even with normal toothpaste, I just don't get canker sores anymore! Not sure if it's universal, but canker sores suck so much, I hope this helps someone suffering like I was.
Interesting. I suffered from canker sores into my early 20's. Finally talked to a Dr, who sent me to a nutritionist. The problem for me was orange juice. I've never been sure what exactly it is in OJ that caused the problem. But I do know that if I drink a glass of processed orange juice today, I'll wake up with a bad canker sore in 2-3 days. If I drink a glass of fresh orange juice for a few days in a row, I'll get the canker sores.
Yes, I had the same experience. Went 40 years brushing, then rinsing, then I read advice similar to the original commenter's and stopped rinsing. Shortly after that, I wondered why I suddenly had all these weird sores in my mouth, and finally connected the dots. They went away immediately after I started rinsing again.
I've also suffered from canker sores. Vitamin B (B-12 is the important one, I think) is a wonder cure. At the first sign of mouth soreness I start taking daily doses of Vitamin B and it cures the sores right up.
For me and my 2x monthly canker sores, it turned out I was severely iron deficient and had anemia. Since taking supplements, I haven't had a canker sore in 7 months.
In the rare instance I get a canker sore I now immediately apply some raw bee propolis (can find it on Amazon). Put a few drops on a q-tip and directly apply to canker sore. It burns like hell, but what happens is it creates a "seal" around the sore that lasts for a couple days (unlike the OTC crap) which not only protects you as you eat from burning pain, but also speeds healing. Since using propolis, my sores will heal in 2-3 days vs. 7-10 on their own. It's incredible.
The lethal dose is 5-10 grams, the recommended safe dose is 10 milligrams maximum. Between those points you'll experience some pain and stomach discomfort. Regularly going over the safe dose may cause some organ issues.
Basically, even if you swallow all your toothpaste you're unlikely to have problems unless your diet is already rich in fluoride, and spitting but not rinsing is fine.
That's a good question. Having not seen reliable research on that point, my approach is as follows: I use a small amount of toothpaste (say, 1/4th of what you see in ads or less) and I spit excess. In this way in the worst scenario I digest at least one order of magnitude less fluoride than the threshold of the safe amount.
"The dose makes the poison." Even ionizing radiation (sunlight) in small doses over a whole lifetime isn't really harmful. Especially given that it's how we naturally make vitamin D.
Or rinse and use mouthwash with fluoride and leave that. Brush from top to bottom, not side to side. "Scrape" your tooth when flossing. Seems like way too many never learn these basics.
> It doesn't matter whether you use an electric or manual toothbrush. They're both equally good
That's just so wrong already. Regular toothbrushes are absolute trash compared to sonics, every dentist will tell you that.
> don't use mouthwash (even a fluoride one) straight after brushing your teeth or it'll wash away the concentrated fluoride in the toothpaste left on your teeth
So in a nutshell, don't use it because it'll wash away the flouride... that you've already rinsed out. Yeah not much of a minus there.
I've heard that studies found that electric vs manual can both do a sufficient clean.
But the issue is, most people don't know the proper technique to use a manual brush effectively. So even if you do a half ass job with an electric brush, it's still better then what most would do with a manual.
Interesting. My dentist always told me the direction must be from the root to the top otherwise you would just push the remains of food into the gums - and it seems like a logical advice to follow.
If the goal of toothbrushing and flossing is to remove bacteria and food debris from your mouth, hopefully an uncontroversial premise, it's pretty obvious how flossing helps.
Just flossing and carefully watching the action of the floss and the plaque is sufficient to demonstrate the benefit.
Sometimes your common sense is more than enough to make sense of the world, no ivy league double blind study required.
It's a question of return on investment. If spending the extra minute everyday saves a probable $10k over your lifetime due to dental work, then yes it might be worth it. But if it saves a probable $10, it might not.
The cost of the dental work pales in comparison to the value of keeping your natural teeth, which is going to be much much much higher than $10k over your lifetime.
Not flossing makes your dental visits longer as they scrape off all the plaque from in-between your teeth. Just avoiding that discomfort is worth it IMO.
I suppose you could skip going to the dentist altogether but that comes with risks of larger issues down the road.
Meta-analyses of RCTs do indicate flossing prevents gum disease, though, which is important. See another poster in this thread who suffered bone loss as a result of gum disease.
You're right though that there's no established effect on cavities.
Having said that, it's difficult to get people to actually floss, so there's a certain amount of uncertainty about the results of those RCTs, and whether participants were doing what they were supposed to be doing.
I think i read somewhere that the reason for this is that virtually all dentists agree you should clean your entire tooth, and the consensus is so universal that no one bothers to do controlled trials.
I would feel bad not cleaning half of the surface area at all anyways.
All else being equal, it's obviously better not to spend an extra minute or two doing something useless.
If you think it is not actually equal, and that scraping is indeed better, well say so and qualify your statement. You can even say that it's recommended by dentists, it's an authority argument but it surely is better than nothing.
I do think it’s worth the time. My teeth feel significantly cleaner after doing so and it removes stuff my brush can’t reach no matter how much I try.
I’m not sure why I have have to defend flossing of all things. I’m not trained in that field, neither are you, we should listen to the people who are and guess what? They almost all recommend flossing.
That argument was accepted with COVID vaccines, so why not now?
> That argument was accepted with COVID vaccines, so why not now?
Far from universally and even in the pockets where it was, at least some percentage did it just to be able to go back to doing normal things which were gated by government rules.
Don’t do anything blindly. They won’t be the ones bearing the cost if and when something goes wrong.
This is one where I KNOW I do it wrong. The dentist prescribed me a hardcore sensitivity toothpaste for an issue, but emphasized that it will only work if I don't rinse after brushing. But... I just can't not rinse after 30 years of muscle memory. I generally remember this right as I'm rinsing. The sensitivity toothpaste has not worked, of course.
I’m in the same boat as you — sensitive teeth, but can’t not rinse. What works for me is to treat the toothpaste as a “post-rinse medicated rub”: squeeze out a bit more, and rub it over the most sensitive teeth.
If you remember it as you're rinsing, brush your teeth lightly again to spread the tooth paste on the teeth. Once you've had yo do it again a few times, you'll pick up the habit of not rinsing.
What I find helps is to rinse my tongue (run the bristles over my tongue under water, but just the tongue). Then at least most of the toothpaste residue sticks to my mouth and teeth but not the taste.
Maybe mark the cup with something that will remind you. Clip a paperclip over the edge? Store it upside down? (If you're using a cup.) This could help interrupt the habit.
I had canker sores for my entire life, well into my late 20s. I tried everything: changing toothpastes (more on this in a second), changing brushes, using mouthwash, being told my mouth was "dirty" and I need to brush more, etc.
Turns out (at least for me) the sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) used as a foaming agent in (almost) every single toothpaste causes canker sores. I found "canker sore toothpaste" that lacks the SLS, for $7 a tube. I used it for couple of years and it worked!
If you read up on SLS, this is not super-surprising. It's a known skin irritant, and is known to cause more irritation when left on the skin for more than a couple of minutes. Canker sores are an autoimmune issue, so my theory is the irritation triggers an immune response, leading to the sore.
And then I discovered if I rinse thoroughly (twice) after brushing, even with normal toothpaste, I just don't get canker sores anymore! Not sure if it's universal, but canker sores suck so much, I hope this helps someone suffering like I was.