Brushing before you eat breakfast is better for your tooth enamel and overall oral health. However, if you prefer brushing after you eat, wait about 30-60 minutes.
The American Dental Association has long recommended that you brush your teeth twice a day for a full 2 minutes both times. But what these guidelines don’t recommend is when, exactly, to do your brushing.
To establish a regular brushing habit, many people brush their teeth at the same time each day. Brushing every morning and again at night before bedtime seems to be the standard for most people. This simple schedule builds brushing into a routine.
But what if you’ve been brushing your teeth at the wrong part of your morning routine?
While nobody wants to drink their morning orange juice when they still have the taste of fluoride in their mouth, the best thing for your teeth may be to do just that.
This article will consider the advice that brushing your teeth as soon as you wake up, instead of after breakfast, is better for your teeth.
There may actually be a scientific answer to this question. While you sleep, plaque-causing bacteria in your mouth multiply. That’s part of why you may wake up with a “mossy” taste and “morning breath.”
Washing those bacteria right out with a fluoride toothpaste rids your teeth of plaque and bacteria. It also coats your enamel with a protective barrier against acid in your food.
You should avoid brushing your teeth after eating for at least 30 minutes if you consume something acidic. Breakfast foods and drinks such as toast, citrus, and coffee fit the criteria for acidic food.
When you brush first thing in the morning, you also jump-start your saliva production.
One small studyTrusted Source of 21 older adults showed that after brushing, study participants saw their saliva production jump for up to 5 minutes. Your saliva helps your food break down and naturally kills harmful bacteria in your mouth.
If it works better for your morning routine to brush after breakfast, you can still do so — but here’s some information to keep in mind.
Brushing immediately after eating breakfast may actually cover your teeth with remnants of acidic food, which weakens your enamel. Breakfast staples are some of the worst foods for your tooth enamel, including:
- orange juice
- citrus fruit
- dried fruit
- bread
- pastries
So, brushing may be particularly bad for your teeth right after breakfast.
Waiting 30 minutes to an hour after eating to brush your teeth is the best way to ensure that you’re protecting your teeth and not tampering with your enamel.
The American Dental Association recommends you wait 60 minutes after eating before you brush, especially after having acidic foods.
Drink water or chew sugar-free gum after eating to clean your teeth before you brush.
Brushing your teeth properly is as important as (if not more important) than when you brush.
Whether you’re using an electric toothbrush or a standard manual toothbrush with nylon bristles, you can follow the steps below:
- Wet your brush head with a small amount of water to lubricate it. Add a small amount of fluoride toothpaste, about the size of a pea.
- Brush your teeth at an angle so you can get hard-to-reach spots. Brush for 2 minutes, ensuring you’re brushing your front teeth, the sides of your teeth, and the chewing surface of your teeth.
- Brush off the bacterial residue from your tongue that may have accumulated during the brushing process.
- Spit out any leftover toothpaste.
When you’re looking to protect your tooth enamel, brushing right after you wake up in the morning is better than brushing your teeth after breakfast.
If you have to brush your teeth after breakfast, try to wait 30 to 60 minutes before you brush.
Brushing in the morning, whenever you’re able to do it, is still better than skipping brushing your teeth at all.
Written By
Kathryn Watson
Edited By
Lauren Bullen
Copy Edited By
Douglas Backstrom
