Dentists of the world, I hate to break it to you, but.....none of us floss. Seriously. Yet for some reason we give in to all of the fancy whitening strips and charcoal toothpastes with all of the bells and whistles that come with it. Here's why we should probably stop.
u/you-gee-el-why asked: Dentists and Dental Care Professionals of Reddit, what oral hygiene products out there are gimmicks, and what are some underrated products that people should use more often?
Gum is good....except when it's not.
Xylitol (usually found in gum) is good for generating more saliva, which helps your natural defenses against bacteria (by washing out debris from your mouth). Just don't chew gum so consistently that it f*cks up your TMJ (temporomandibular joint).
You're not joking about the TMJ thing. Started chewing gum more after meals. Mouth feels nice... jaw doesn't.
Sound advice.
GiphyDentist here, another thing nobody has mentioned: if you ever puke, don't brush right afterwards since the pH of your stomach acid can temporarily soften your teeth and you can then damage your teeth when you brush. Instead you should rinse with a baking soda solution to neutralize the acid. and then you can brush your teeth maybe 30-60 minutes later.
Also, I agree. Use electric toothbrush, brand doesn't matter as long as it is a real one that doesn't use a AA battery. Also use real string floss every day. Lastly, cavities come from FREQUENCY of sugar exposure, not AMOUNT of sugar exposure, so sipping a soda/juice/Gatorade/Redbull for hours is much worse than drinking it in five minutes.
Edit: by "real" toothbrush, I mean a Sonicare or Oral B, not one of those $5 jobs from the grocery store that you put a AA battery into.
Definitely do this.
Dentist here, imagine if I offered you $10,000 to paint a wall white with no imperfections but you have to wear a blindfold. How would you approach this? The best method to do this would be to start in one corner and work methodically to the other corner to ensure you don't miss spots.
This is also how you brush, you can't see what you're doing so the best method to avoid missing spots is to start on one molar and work your way to the other one in the arch, then do the other arch.
That being said, please go to the dentist every six months. It will help you get the spots you miss consistently as well as screen you for other oral diseases.
Activated charcoal nonsense.
Dental nurse here! Anything 'activated charcoal' is nonsense. Black toothpaste is no more beneficial than normal toothpaste. As long as your toothpaste has fluoride, it's doing its job.
Floss 'alternatives' are gimmicks. Most are intended to be used in conjunction with floss, not instead of. Just floss, it's the most effective.
Electric toothbrushes are your friend, but regardless of electric/manual, make sure it's soft bristled.
Brush your dog's teeth!
GiphyI'm a vet, and used to work in clinical practice, so obligatory "not a dentist" but a significant proportion of chews, supplements, pastes, droplets etc marketed to improve your dog's teeth/breath/tartar/etc are unlikely to do much.
Speak to your vet about teeth brushing though - there's actually some data on that being effective if done a few times a week. Oh, and hard kibble tends to be better than soft pouches/tins.
Didn't even know this.
If you aren't already tongue scraping, you should be. Absolutely most underrated oral hygiene product that most people don't even know about. You will NEVER have bad breath again because you scrape that nasty ass white coat your tongue keeps dressing up in right off! And even if you aren't a smoker you will cough up so much sh*t right after because that nice little phlegm blanket you just spat out was holding back it's buddies in your throat who are now FREE.
Seriously you will never be able to go back, go try scraping your tongue with a spoon right now (which isn't as effective but will convince you to drive to the store right this godd*mn second to get yourself the real deal) and see how good a clean mouth finally feels.
Trickery is best.
Not the professionals in question.
When I had my wisdom teeth surgically removed, the guy gave me two pills and told me they "won't put you to sleep, but they'll numb the pain and make you calm enough to forget the whole thing. He gave me two more to take at home, and asked me to wait in the lobby for an hour.
Surgery went ok, but I was fully alert and aware... Yet very calm. They wrenched my head around a bunch and drilled and poked and pulled things. Screwdrivers were used as chisels. Blood was suctioned. Still calm.
At home, I actually looked at the bottle. Those four pills had just been plain Atasol. Not even the f*cking codeine kind. He tricked me.
Many years later, I happily recommend trickery.
Problem solved.
GiphyNot a pro but had been having bleeding-while-brushing issues for awhile. Dentist just said make sure to brush and floss but I was doing that already. Read up on it and found out that the oral microbiome is a thing.
Ditched my detergent/foaming agent-filled toothpaste for Zendium (European brand) and Carifree (American brand but formulated to keep PH in the mouth where it should be and uses the ingredient - hydroxyapatite - that most of Japan uses instead of fluoride). Note that both do have fluoride, I just wanted to try the hydroxyapatite as an experiment. Also switched to an X-Pur once a week high-fluoride, alcohol-free, PH balancing mouthwash.
Took about a week and I haven't had bleeding gums since (started new regimen about 6 months ago). Dentist was all blown away at my last checkup and asked what I was doing.
Ofc I use 3 new products so I can't be sure if it's one of them alone or some combo of the three or just the absence of the harsher ingredients. But it's working very well, this is the first time I've had no bleeding issues since I was about 15.
EDIT: I forgot to add that I also no longer rinse my mouth with water after brushing. Just spit and go about my day. That's apparently becoming a thing, my dentist says it mean the fluoride doesn't just immediately get washed away and can hang out in your mouth for awhile to do good stuff to your teefies.
That should go without saying.
Don't do meth. Saliva is used to control the pH of your mouth, and doing meth often reduces the amount of saliva in your mouth. Since your mouth's pH becomes off, bacteria can easily grow on the part of your teeth next to your tongue, and eventually this area erodes and the tooth breaks off.
Important.
Mouthwash/mouth rinse!
When it says it kills bacteria it means for when you use it, bacteria returns in the next 10 minutes.
Basically it makes things feel fresh but nothing else, only regular manual removal (brushing and flossing, can be electric toothbrush) of plaque and food will clean your teeth and reduce bacteria.
I work as a dental assistant for a periodontist i.e. specialists in gum disease and oral hygiene.
(Also mouth rinse after a surgery/procedure is necessary when you can't brush the area, this is the exception).
There are several things in this life we know to be rare, resulting in millions of people seeking them out, or taking the opportunity to enjoy them.
These include seeing a solar or lunar eclipse, vintage bottles of wine, the first issue of a comic book, or being upgraded to first class without warning.
Sometimes, however, we take for granted certain things we just assume are part of daily life which are, in fact, quite rare.
Be it an uninterrupted night's sleep, a life-threatening illness, or a old recording on our DVR (or, for that matter a VHS!), some things we think can be enjoyed or could happen to anyone might be much harder to come by than we think.
Redditor f*ckandfrolic was curious to learn all about the seemingly everyday things that are, in fact, anything but common, leading them to ask:
"What is far more rare than people realize?"
Or, Perhaps, The Vaccines Are What Made It Rare?
"Tetanus."
"We get vaccines for it, but it's actually a bit harder to get than you may believe."- pheat0n
Meow
"Solid brown fur cats, apparently it’s some kind of recessive gene in them."- TheJadedSF
"We have a male tortoiseshell cat."
"Cat people tend to know they’re quite rare but others probably don’t."- Tacoma__Crow
In Love Cat GIFGiphyYou Never Know Who Your Friends Really Are...
"People who remain friends with you once you leave school."- GrockleKaug
"Good, honest friends who don’t have ulterior motives."
"The ones that genuinely enjoy your company and friendship."
"Hold onto them!"- ZealousidealWealth88
Think Carefully About The Last Time You Saw One...
"Blimps."
"I live in northeast Ohio near the Goodyear hangar."
"We see them all the time."
"I had to pull up a list, that northeast Ohio has 3 out of 4 operating Goodyear blimps named Wingfoot 1 2 and 3."
"Only maybe 12 are operating anywhere in the world, with a total of 25 existing at all."
"But we see them all the time at Wingfoot lake disc golf course."- Worried_Place_917·
good year zeppelin GIF by DiggGiphyMaking Others Green With Envy?
"Green eyes make up just two percent of the global population."- New-Tomorrow-4309
Not A Routine Occurrence
"Northern lights."
"The amount of people I’ve heard say: 'We’ve come all this way, what time do they come on?' Is staggering."- The_Town_of_Canada
Amen!
"Bit of peace and f*cking quiet."- Winoforevr1
Taking A Long, Hard Look At Ourselves...
"Humility and an understanding that we’re sometimes the victim and sometimes the perpetrator."
"No one is ever just one or the other."- Fitandfriendlydude
Money Talks
"Being a multi-millionaire."
"Lots of people faking it out here."- tab_completion
Some Might Say Thinking In General...
"Critical thinking skills."- hstarbird11
Thinking Think GIF by Rodney DangerfieldGiphySobering Reality
"Clean water."
'My son and I have been discussing this lately."
"He is a chemical engineer and works exclusively with water."
"Many of the studies he has been published on also have to do with clean water and forever chemicals."
"Water is a huge issue that is becoming bigger everyday and normal people are forgetting about it."
"Flint Michigan is in year 9!"- No-Fishing5325
Rare, Or A Myth?
"A stable, loving, peaceful domestic life."- reginapinsley
In Dreams, Maybe...
"Absolute silence and being in a place where no man-made light exists."- whiskey_formymen
black and white dark GIFGiphyPerhaps we can all rest a little easier knowing that some things that keep us up at night worrying are actually not a big deal in the slightest.
Or, next time we see and experience something truly beautiful, we might want to stop and truly take it in.
For all we know, we just experienced something that was truly once in a lifetime.
Parents are meant to teach offspring how to survive in this world.
They're meant to guide us on how to be a good member of society.
But either some parents fail, or too many adults don't get the message.
And all that can lead to a mighty dysfunctional adult.
Redditor spirallinggg wanted to hear about the ways we can decipher if others have bad parenting, so they asked:
"What immediately tells you that a person wasn't raised right?"
Basic human decency is a sign of a good upbringing.
Garbage
"They throw trash out a car window."
shershae
"I live on a busy road and I’m so sick of people throwing their trash in front of my house. Some guy tosses out a tall boy beer nearly every workday. I can’t wait to move. Also- so many cigarette butts! We live in a high fire hazard area so I’m worried one of these days they’ll start a fire. I try to go pick up litter twice a month."
Pinkmongoose
Random Aisles
"People who dump refrigerated grocery products on random aisles."
glockops
"I work in a grocery store. The best one I saw was someone who ordered a hot pizza from our pizza station, which is made-to-order. Then abandoned it in the cooler with the refrigerated take-and-bake pizzas we have."
"I get finding stuff from our service case abandoned, it's already cold and our prices are much higher than some people think (the last abandoned item I found was a $20 container of our fresh fruit salad [which comes in pre-cut]), but the pizza station has set menu prices, they should have known what they were getting into before they ordered."
weedtrek
Be Responsible
"Lack of personal accountability. they can never admit wrongdoing on their part. it's always someone else's fault."
Sona-kin
I always told my kids that a mistake doesn't define who you are... but what you do AFTER the mistake DOES. We're human. We're gonna screw up throughout our lives. It's unavoidable. What we can control, however, is choosing to apologize, fix the situation, make amends, etc."
nakedwithoutmyhoodie
Rude
Mean Girls Gossip GIF by Paramount MoviesGiphy"When they talk badly about someone who hasn’t done anything wrong behind their back."
flowerzforthedead
THIS. I've seen coworkers talking behind the backs of new employees and drawing conclusions about every aspect of their lives. Like, you've seen that person for three days, you MF.
Cold-Load-4388
If you can't say it to their face, then don't say it.
Why do people have to crap talk?
Check Please
Escalate Customer Service GIF by FILMRISEGiphy"Being super rude to people in any service profession. There is a time and place for actual, appropriate complaints but I see people constantly abuse service staff for no damn reason. Hell, even using 'please' and 'thank you' seems beyond some people. Bums me out."
CaptainLawyerDude
Others
"Lack of consideration for others."
NewVAinvestor1
"A lot of people do not fundamentally understand other people exist. They understand things exist. They understand those things should be referred to as people. But they do not understand those things have an entire existence and experience all their own exactly like them."
Sh3lls
No!
"When they can't take no for an answer."
NerdyPlaneResident
"I'm going to step up and admit to being guilty of this. For the longest time, I had it in my head that persistence pays off. Some of that was pop culture, some of that was tenacity in other areas of my life being rewarded, and then applying that to interpersonal relationships. Older and wiser me, though is more along the lines of learning to let go. It's still a struggle though, working against that original conditioning."
SergeantPsycho
Professions
"When someone looks down at others based on what they do. That just clearly shows that they've learned the same thing from their caregivers."
Leekayleigh_
"Oh yes. My husband took on a second job doing pizza deliveries. A few people laughed at him doing that at his age. They don't laugh when he explains his main job is simple and, deliveries are just driving blasting tunes and adds $900 a month after tax to our income. Then they see all the travel. Usually shuts them up."
CurvePuzzleheaded361
Offensive
For Real Wow GIF by DeStormGiphy"Zero manners."'
Fuzzteam7
"I took a guy to a family beach condo because he says he never goes to the beach. Let him tag along with our group. Never said thank you one time. I dropped him back off at his house, and I said can you at least say thanks, he was so offended I asked or was trying to force a thank you."
berrey7
"BUT"
"When someone apologizes, and then adds a but onto it. For example, my boss held a meeting among the kitchen staff where he apologized for his attitude, and then added 'But you guys need to understand that I'm a no-bulls**t kind of person.' No sir, that's not how apologies work."
GimmickInfringement1
I hate a BUT.
Either you mean what you offer or don't say it.