Dental health is quite intriguing. There are plenty of myths around that we blindly believe and follow. Dental health is a whole science in itself and there is a lot more to it than appears so. Here are some interesting facts that an average person does not know about dental health.
- The commonly used practice of putting a cap on toothbrush is actually more detrimental. The moisture entrapped in the cap favors bacterial growth.
- You are not supposed to brush within 6 feet of a toilet. The airborne particles from the flush can travel up to a distance of 6 feet.
- 75% of the United States population suffers from some stage of periodontal gum disease.
- People who tend to drink 3 or more glasses of soda/pop daily have 62% more tooth decay, fillings and tooth loss than others.
- The first toothbrush with bristles was manufactured in China in 1498. Bristles from hogs, horses and badgers were used. The first commercial toothbrush was made in 1938.
- Fluoridated toothpastes when ingested habitually by kids can lead to fluoride toxicity.
- You are supposed to replace your toothbrush after you have an episode of flu, cold or other viral infections. Notorious microbes can implant themselves on the toothbrush bristles leading to re-infection.
- New born babies do not have tooth decay bacteria. Often, the bacteria are transmitted from mother to baby when she kisses the child or blows in hot food/drink before feeding the baby.
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The last one (and some others) is misleading, at least. A study in Scandinavia found that children with parents that kissed them on the mouth (more common in that culture) had FEWER cavities than those that didn’t. Several of these are just misleading germophobic toothbrush-selling platitudes, with no actual proof behind them.
In Dental health and other health fields as well, people are led astray with contrasting studies. You are right about the study you mention. But, there were plenty of studies that say otherwise.
It is an accepted theory in dental health.
Ill give you a source as well. Its a site owned Aetna and review by Columbia University(Dental Wing) http://www.simplestepsdental.com/SS/ihtSS/r.WSIHW/st.31848/t.92306/pr.3.html
it is true. The baby will have the same bacterial makeup as the primary caregiver. If the primary caregiver has less cariogenic bacteria, so will the baby. If the caregiver has more virulent bacteria, so will the baby.
I know this affirmation is late, but babies are born with sterile mouths. It is taught in our dental schools in Australia. Cariogenic bacteria in babies are usually a result of parental transmission.
Did you also know that sodium fluoride is the active ingredient in insecticide and rat poison. And even though you may not be swallowing your toothpaste, the fluoride it contains is still getting absorbed into your bloodstream through the mucous membrane in your mouth; basically working on the same principle as dipping tobacco.
So now the question is, are we willingly poisoning ourselves?
“Sodium flouride is the active ingredient in … rat poison” – No. It isn’t.
Warfarin is commonly used in rat poison, but it’s not sodium flouride.
Some phosphates are used in some rat poisons. Again, not sodium flouride.
Sodium flouride is toxic and potentially fatal at high doses but you’d need to eat several hundred tubes of toothpaste to get enough sodium flouride inside you. You’d probably be dead from peppermint flavor poisoning well before then
Well, children will not have to ingest several tubes of toothpaste to get fluoride toxicity. Habitual ingestion over a prolonged period can lead to fluoride toxicity.
“Sodium flouride is the active ingredient in … rat poison” – No. It isn’t.
Thank you. Now I can stop brushing my rats’ teeth to try to get kill them. I knew I should have just bought a couple rat traps.
Actually, it only takes about two or three tubes of toothpaste to kill an adult human, not hundreds.
So, here is just one more example of how useless the FDA is!!!
The FDA is not useless. There are many great people there trying to do what is best, and they, I have no problem with.
The problem is the top tier of the FDA, which is political appointment. They will stop those people from doing good work, or allow something to be entered into our food based on political back scratching, not on science. Your anger should be directed at the top political management.
If you would like some evidence of how this works, search “Monsanto revolving door” for some great reading. You will see how it is all about money, and not peoples health with the top management.
Flouride is also regularly added to public drinking water to prevent tooth decay from what i understand
The thing with fluoride is that its a double edged sword. Too much of it can cause poisoning. Not using it in water will leave us prone to tooth decay..
wait, so fathers don’t have tooth decay bacteria? or they don’t kiss their babies or blow in hot food/drink?
i dont think that was meant to be a gender issue
Sure do they, But just not as often as mothers.
Those evil mothers…
Very good comments for the above. Many Senior Dentists will always tell the patients to pull out the wisdom teeth when the teeth are workg in good conditions. Once the patients agree with their explanations, the junior dentists will do the extractions under study. This happened to my friend. Now he left over few more teeth to bite everyday.
Those people who like to drink beer or alcohol daily. All beer, alcohol, coffee and tea will be dissolved the calcium & iron from the teeth, bones and joints depending the amount of quantity that take each day. Their teeth wld be deteriorated very soon.
I used to drink beer and alcohol nightly when I was young. After several years, I consulted doctors about the bones and joints were getting weak and painful. He stopped me drinking beer and alcohol immediately. Otherwise I wld be more painful. So, I stopped drinking.
It was very difficult to stop drinking at first. It took a lot of tolerance and determinations.
Yes, thats true, Alchohol, beer, soda or any acidic drinks for that matter cause dimineralization of the tooth structure.. which basically means its degrading the tooth structure..
Question – So, my question is about wisdom teeth. What exactly are
they for if all we do is get them pulled? What is their signifigance and
why hasn’t evolution weeded them out of our bodies? Also, why do we get them at such a late age?
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This is a great example of structures that are in transition and that
humans are still in the process of evolving. If you compare the skull of an ancient human, such as Neanderthals, with a modern human the jaw in the ancient human was more massive. This probably was due to the food sources that were available that required more force in chewing. As food sources changed, if the jaw started becoming smaller due to mutation it wouldn’t affect survival. Remember, structures don’t go away* because* they aren’t used anymore. If they DO start to change AND it doesn’t affect survival it doesn’t matter. So, as the jaw became smaller, that doesn’t necessarily mean the teeth would automatically also start to go away. These are separate structures under the control of separate genes. But that does mean that there is not as much room in the jaw for them. Some people don’t have wisdom teeth-this would have been a disadvantage to a Neanderthal, but isn’t for Homo sapiens. I only had 3 wisdom teeth. Why do they come in later in life?
Not sure, but they are genetically programmed to do so.
We, as people, did not descend from Neanderthals so comparing our skulls to theirs would not be accurate. Rather, we evolved from Cro magnon humans. The rest is pretty much accurate.
The wisdom teeth are genetically programmed to come in later when the jaw has had enough time to develop and sufficient room is available for the teeth.
Is it true that WHO guideline is to brush tooth once in 2days?
Absolutely incorrect. No organization has ever suggested that. It’s a well accepted fact in dental health to brush twice a day.
A good portion of caution should be used for any sentence that starts with ”It’s a well accepted fact [that] . . . ”
Either way, newborns don’t have teeth yet, so tooth decay bacteria doesn’t really do much, does it?
Bacteria colonizes in the oral cavity, So once the teeth erupt and they have a good habitat to grow, they can cause tooth decay.
Every dentist tell us different issue about how to brush our teeth that are capped; some advise us to use forced water flush; others said it is bad for cups and use the electric brush better.
THOSE DENTIST THAT ADVISE US NOT TO USE FLUSH WATER BELIEVE IT PUCH FOOD DERVIS FARTHER INTO THE GUMS. MY COMMUN SENSE AGREES WITH IT.
NOW, WHAT ABOUT THE ELECTRIC BRUSH, IT COULD NOT DAMAGES THE PORCELAIN IN THE TEETHS?
There is no “porcelain” in your teeth and your spelling is atrocious.
Keep your toothbrush away from strong sources of electromagnetic energy such as loudspeakers. Otherwise your fillings will eventually become magnetized and interfere with the reception on your TV.
I knew there had to be a reason my TV picture wasn’t working right. Thanks!
does it affect digital tv reception?
HAHA! You made my day. Thanks.
The first commercial toothbrushes were available in U K long before 1938. I was born in 1927 and used one from age three, or earlier, ie c.1929
The first commercially available nylon bristled toothbrush were produced by DuPont in 1938.
Number 7 is also highly suspect. Cold and flu viruses thrive in cool, dry environments. That’s why you get more of them in the winter. Your furnace dries the air in your house and people generally keep their homes cooler in the winter than in the summer to save on heating bills.
Although I am still very susceptible to head colds, I have been getting fewer of them since we installed a good humidifier on our furnace three years ago. Keeping the humidity between 40 and 60% works well.
So rinsing your toothbrush with warm water should eliminate the viruses.
At least that is what I have read over the years. Who knows – medical “knowledge” changes every five years.
Viruses are pretty sticky creatures. Rinsing with warm water won’t do any good to eliminate them.
Best option is to replace your brush
As a dental hygienist we DO recommend replacing your toothbrush after a bout with a cold, and also right before entering the hospital for any sort of procedure.
Many brushes do not fully dry between uses (even if it sits all day or night moisture may be present) and the moist environment allows bacteria, viruses, and fungi to thrive.
Viruses are resilient, rinsing with warm water won’t kill them. For some viruses even boiling your toothbrush wouldn’t kill them, which is why reusable items in a dental office are processed thru an Autoclave.
As for the so-called “infected” toothbrush you have after a cold or flu: stick the darn thing in a cup with some bleach in it, and in a couple of minutes, the toothbrush is absolutely sterile.
Well, not recommended by the dentists. Since, bleach can simply disinfect an object. It can’t sterlize it. Other important fact, if the bleach is not properly rinsed off and you use the toothbrush, you can get yourself poisoned.
So, in short, not effective and unsafe.
Please do not attempt to do this. If any amount of bleach is not rinsed off from the toothbrush, it can cause acute poisoning.
Apart from this, bleach only disinfects. It does not sterilize. So, the best option is to replace the brush.
>> Please do not attempt to do this. If any amount of bleach is not rinsed off from the toothbrush, it can cause acute poisoning.
Nonsense! Most water wells and many municipal water supplies are purified with chlorine bleach. In small quantities, it won’t hurt you.
>>Apart from this, bleach only disinfects. It does not sterilize. So, the best option is to replace the brush.
Do you work for Oral-B or some other toothbrush manufacturer or are you just overly germophobic?
Soak it in alcohol, isopropyl or ethyl, either will work. No bacteria can survive in alcohol and you can drink it!
I found no way of providing trackback to this post, so I just posted a link to your website
Also, I’m pretty sure they coverd the whole leaving the toothbrush by the toilet thing on Myth Busters. They actually found almost the same levels of e coli on their control toothbrush kept in a room more than 20ft away from the bathroom
One study can’t change a perception brought about by many prior studies. A few more similar studies and I guess we can call it a myth then.
8th one makes me wonder?
this is in regards with the Number 3, i have copy pasted the answer the exact similar question got.
Sugared sodas get to your teeth both ways. Phosphoric and carbonic acids in
sodas directly eat at the tooth enamel. Sugar feeds bacteria that form plaque
and that excrete acids which also attack the enamel!
That, and all that refined sugar, caffeine and acids are not all that healthy
for the rest of your body, either.
R. Avakian
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The full answer is BOTH.
The dissolved CO2 becomes carbonic acid, which is a very weak acid, but one that
is able to cause tooth damage over time. This is shown in people who regularly
drink for ground waters which are high in dissolved gases – natural Perrier water
if you like.
Much more significant is the sugar in the soft drink. (remember I am in Australia
- Soft Drink = Soda ) Sugar provides the perfect nutrient conditions for a
little bug called a lactobacillus. This bacterium (plural = bacteria ) is able to
digest the sugar, and other carbohydrates, such as bread and biscuits, and one of
its waste products is a substance called lactic acid. Lactic acid is a stronger
acid than carbonic, and since it is generally produced right on the tooth surface,
it is much more damaging.
The lactobacillus likes to live in an acidic environment. It has too – it makes an
acidic environment wherever it goes. Usually the lactobacillus has to produce some
acid to get things just right for it to be able to divide and multiply. The carbonic
acid in the soft drink helps to make the environment in your mouth more acidic, and
so makes the lactobacillus very happy, and prompts it to breed faster in the early
stages. The lactobacillus lives in your mouth, and my mouth and every body else’s
mouth too. The disease which is caused by this bacillus is called dental caries,
and researches think it may be the one disease that everyone on the planet has.
When you eat anything sugary, or with lots of simple carbohydrate, they begin to
multiply furiously. When bits of sugary food are left on your teeth, the
lactobacillus breed in the soft wet goo, fermenting the sugars, and replacing the
water in the gooey paste into lactic acid. Since the goo holds that lactic acid
right on the enamel of your tooth, usually at the point where the tooth meets the
gum, the acid gets a good chance to damage the enamel. If you regularly forget to
brush your teeth, then food will likely keep getting stuck in the same spots, and
the damage keeps getting done to the same part of the tooth. In time the enamel is
breached, and the acid can now start to eat away at the interior of the tooth. What
makes this even more worrying at this stage is that the hollow in your tooth surface
often serves to trap more food, more often. You have made a perfect little protected
cubbyhole for the bacillus to get to work and to do further damage – eating deeper
and deeper into the soft part of the tooth until it gets to the living tissue …
and the nerve!! THAT is when you really know you have a problem.
If you are very fortunate, and have a very active mouth and salivary glands, you
will wash most of the acid out of your mouth before too much damage can be caused,
but even active salivators cannot get rid of that little bit of biscuit that clings
to the back of tooth six, or the little bit of bread that makes a tiny pellet in
that gap between your two front teeth.
The answer is to brush your teeth regularly, and to drink water in place of sugary
soft drinks.
Nigel Skelton
Tennant Creek High School
AUSTRALIA
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Hi William,
Sugars and acids are the bad guys. Put an egg into a glass of Coke for a couple
of days and feel the outside of the shell. The shell is mostly calcium, so are
your teeth. Try it with plain sugar water too. We used to do this experiment
with science class. There are around 35 calories in a tsp of sugar, so look at
the soda can for the calories and divide that by 35 in order to figure out how much
sugar to add to the water.
It’ll make you think about what you drink,
Martha Croll
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Everyone knows how alcohol based sanitizers kill germs on hands well alcohol works for toothbrushes also.
You can use bleach (which might weaken the bristles of the brush) alcohol or vinegar to disinfect the brush. All of these will kill the germs on the toothbrush.
If you have a cold, flu, streph throat or other infection or virus you should always disinfect your toothbrush daily while you are ill so the germs do not continue to go back into your mouth from the toothbrush.
After you have had dental work you should also disinfect your brush to help avoid infection.
For bligia about capped teeth:
I have root canel and a cap on one of my front teeth that has been on there for 33 years and I have always used a regular toothbrush without a problem. I have always bitten into fruit and other foods and never had a problem with it falling off either.
The dentist I went to was drunk when he put it on so I’m thinking he really used a super amount of glue to attach it which has been a good thing for me since it has lasted so long. Other dentist are always surprised that it has lasted this long and looks so good.
Like I said, Its not recommended to use bleach to disinfect. You run the risk of poisoning yourself..
Other methods can disinfect but not sterlize the toothbrush. Its recommended that you replace your brush…
Very interesting, a lot of people probably didn’t know many of these. I don’t keep my brush in the bathroom anymore for the toilet reason
Here’s conversation snippet that you can recycle over and over. Goes down a storm
“Hi, where are you from?”
“Xxx”
“Really, you come Xxx. Did you know that’s where the word toothbrush was first use ? …. Had the word been invented anywhere else it would have been called ‘teethbrush’ !”
Great Job Mujtaba. Love your facts.
Some of these are common sense.
Also, brushing farther away than 6ft from your toilet will not get you away from fecal coliform. That stuff can get all over your house and your toothbrush can become equally contaminated with bacteria anywhere in your house.
There’s a Mythbusters’ episode on that fact.
true.. But you increase the risk of having airborne particles from the flush keeping it closer than 6 feet..
Odd. I have been brushing near the toilet, and changing out tooth brushes every 4 months sick or shine since I have been born, and I’m still alive. And when you’re dead I will be still alive.
Well, These are things that are recommended by the dentists. By not following them, you are not actually endangering your lives, but they are recommended for optimum dental hygiene.
LOL, I read the article. 1498 was the first toothbrush? Damn. But you would think they would have made them commercial earlier than 1938. Sounds a bit late to me…not sure if thats true
Very interesting article! My wife is Chinese and had told me they invented Toothbrushes but I didn’t believe her! Now I have some apologizing to do!
okok fum whut i herd is that tooth brushing is good 4 u ok thx bai.
Great article. Very interesting facts. Drinking 3 or mode glasses of soda a day will harm more than just teeth. Obesity is a HUGE issue, if you pardon the pun.
The FDA is far from useless. All the people who are there only want to help you.
Obesity is way too big of a problem and should be solved immediately.
u guys r supposeto be discussing dental facts not having aconversation with other ppl!
N is sodium flouride the active ingredient in … rat poison!”
about the sanitizing of your toothbrush, you can buy a UV Light sanitizer or many electric brushes come with one attached to the charging base. Also, closing the toilet lid when flushing and covering your tooth brush with a tooth brush holder (after it has fully air-dried!) can help too.
1st things first….
If u guys think fluoride is an active ingredient of rat poison, ur true… but not the chemical combination found in toothpastes. (consider the fact that your stomach produces hydrochloric acid to digest food, but used as a face disfiguring agent, hydrochloric acid is highly destructive). just consider the fact that any fluoride releasing filling in your teeth is neither absorbed through the buccal mucosa as mentioned in an earlier post, nor is 8 or 9 tubes of tooth paste enough to kill an adult.
Stannous fluoride is one of the best filling u can get for ur teeth, cuz it helps mineralize enamel ( yes, fluoride is actually incorporated into enamel making it stronger). Quitting citric drinks and soda is a good thing, but worrying about fluoride in ur toothpaste and its relevance as a rat killer is thorougly useless.
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