The Protocols of the Elders of Toothbrush

[shubla]

I agree that teeth should be removed at birth. They only cause harm.
I have been quite lazy to brush my teeth, but recently I have started to brush them more often. Still I have had a lot of problems with them. (Going to dentist does not help because public dental care sucks in Finland, but that's a subject for another thread...) Some people never brush their teeth and eat candy and drink all kinds of sugar liquids all the time, and they don't have many problems with their teeth. I'm doing quite the opposite, drinking only water and eating normal stuff regularly, but still there are a lot of problems. I guess it could be related to genetic things such as structure of the teeth, composition of the spit/saliva and other such things.

What comes to toothpaste. I have done some very small research about some studies on toothpaste. And only reason to use toothpaste is the fluoride. Rest of it is quite useless for your teeth.
Basically your teeth have a certain mineral called apatite covering them. This mineral protects inside-part of your teeth from nasty bacteria and other things.
If this mineral dissolves or there will be a hole in it, it will give all kinds of bacteria a direct access into your bloodstream, there are also some nerves inside your teeth which make it hurt quite a lot.
Acids dissolve this mineral, fluoride-ions attach into this mineral, turning it from apatite into fluorapatite, which is much more durable against acids than apatite is.

Of course it takes some time for the reaction to happen. The fluoride molecules must hit your apatite just right for them to form fluoroapatite. This is the reason why many people recommend you to brush your teeth for at least 2 minutes and then not rinse the mouth with water but spit out the remaining paste instead. Actually I wonder if this reaction could be made faster by using warm toothpaste...

I also read about some study where monkeys were given lots of sugar to eat. Half of the monkeys were also given some calcium-compound (or equivalent), blended into the sugar. The other half were given only sugar. Some time later, monkeys that had been given only sugar had all lots of cavities, while monkeys that had calcium-compound mixed in their sugar did not have cavities at all. Maybe it does not apply to humans, and studies like that aren't exactly modeling diets of humans. Usually your saliva contains some calcium, but maybe adding some calcium-compound into your mouth could remineralize your teeth more efficiently? For toothpaste its probably not a good idea to add it as rubbing it against your teeth may do more harm than benefit.

Flossing is quite useless. I have bad experiences with it. My teeth are so crowded that I cannot floss between them at all.

Also, recently I bought a new toothbrush. "Curaprox ultra soft" it is. As the name says, the bristles are really soft. Which is a good thing, there is absolutely no reason for the bristles in your toothbrush to be hard, actually, its quite the opposite. Hard bristles in your toothbrush are harmful, because they permanently damage your gums, causing them to go away from the teeth, exposing them more and more. I recommend that everyone buys a toothbrush with ultra soft bristles. It also feels quite nice to brush with it, because they are soft. They also go into all kinds of holes between your teeth more easily, cleaning them more efficiently.

[jorb]

[shubla]

Using toothpaste without fluoride is like using life vests that don't have anything to make you float.

[MrPunchers]

Not trying bump this thread, but not rinsing after brushing has significantly has improved my teeth experience. 10/10

[DatSheep]

Is there a conspiracy theory going around that fluoride is BAD for us? D:
I mean the reason I didnt use toothpaste was cause of sodium laureth sulfate and then also its nasty mint taste. I always saw for the most part that fluoride = good unless toothpastes have a bad version of it or an unhealthy amount. reeeeeeeee we need real answers!!