Should You Brush Your Teeth Before Breakfast?

Should You Brush Your Teeth Before Breakfast? Posted on 6/30/2016 by Sundberg Office Consider your morning routine for a moment. You know that you need to brush your teeth before you leave for work, but how does this fit in with all of the other things that you have to get done? Most people brush their teeth after they eat breakfast, but some research has suggested that brushing before you eat might actually be a better idea. Whenever you drink or eat anything with sugar, the bacteria found in your mouth will feed on the sugars to produce acids that will drop the overall pH of your mouth. This will lead to softer enamel that is more vulnerable to being wiped away or damaged. So, if you immediately brush your teeth after they have reached this vulnerable state, you could actually scrub away some of the softened layers of your enamel, which isn’t good. When considering these facts, you should note that cavity prevention will be more effective if you brush before eating or drinking at breakfast. Instead of feeding the bacteria in your mouth, you’ll actually be removing as many as possible. By reducing the total number of bacteria found in your mouth, you’ll limit how acidic your oral environment becomes. If, for some reason, you just can’t wrap your head around the idea of brushing your teeth before you eat, you can brush after your breakfast – just make sure you wait for at least 30 minutes. Otherwise, you could also use an alkaline mouth rinse in order to rebalance the pH in your oral environment. You should also eat a low-sugar breakfast so that you have less to worry about when it comes to acid production. Are you concerned about your brushing habits and how they are affecting the health of your teeth? Contact our office to find out what you can be doing differently to best care for your teeth.