Stop Brushing After Breakfast — It’s Damaging Your Teeth

Morning Brushing vs Breakfast 0:00

The timeless question, when to brush? Before or after breakfast? This is a little bit of a joke, is it that serious? But there are some things that are really important to understand about this. So first of all, we're going to jump into how are cavities formed? And how does gum disease develop? Well, a lot of that has to do with two things. Number one, the acid level in the mouth or the pH of the mouth. And number two, the bacteria level in the mouth. So let's talk about what happens at night time.

We go to sleep, right? Hopefully. And during sleep time, saliva decreases. Do you ever wonder why you don't have to swallow at night? Well, your mouth isn't creating saliva. So when saliva isn't there, bacteria have a little bit of a heyday. Saliva is a natural clearer of the mouth that also naturally increases the pH or gets rid of some of the acid. So none of that's happening at nighttime. Bacteria, this is the time where they wake up and they have a great time. They're able to flourish. They're able to start reproducing and building colonies on the teeth.

We call this plaque. So you wake up in the morning and you have that sticky stuff on the outside of the teeth. What is that? Well, that's simply bacteria building up and creating little cities all over your teeth. That's problem number one. Problem number two is during that bacterial growth and a bacterial invasion in the mouth, they start to eat whatever might be left over in the mouth,

How Cavities and Plaque Form 1:28

any kinds of sugars, anything that they might enjoy. As soon as they do that, they drop the pH in the mouth or increase the acidity of the mouth. Now we know the tooth decay happens when the pH drops. So this is a time when the teeth are most at risk. Low pH, high bacterial load. This is really a kind of delicate balance of time when the teeth could be moving towards demineralization, towards weakening. You wake up in the morning, You've got that ugh, you know, feeling in your mouth. Now you know what that is.

That's bacteria reproducing. You have that bad breath. We call this morning breath. What's that? Bacteria, yeasts reproducing on the tongue, reproducing in the digestive tract. We all know about this. So what do we do? Do we brush now or do we eat and then brush after? The answer is preferably before breakfast. Why? Well, let's think again about those bacteria colonies. They're all thriving in there, and then you give them their favorite thing. What is that food? And a lot of times for breakfast, what do we eat?

A lot of carbohydrates. Bacteria love carbohydrates. So now they feast. They create more acid. The pH in your mouth drops even more, leaving you more prone to demineralization and cavity creation. We don't want that to happen. So we want to remove those bacteria colonies. They're new. They're young. They're barely sticking to the teeth. They're easy to get off. First thing in the morning, get them out of there. Get them cleaned out. A lot of the brushing activity actually will raise the pH in the mouth as well.

A lot of the products you use will do this. as well as some good remineralizing mouthwashes like my mouthwash. So that is the ideal time to brush before you're going to give those bacteria any more food.

Why Brush Before Breakfast 3:25

You also are going to strengthen the mouth when you use a hydroxyapatite containing tooth product. So if you use toothpaste, tooth powder, mouthwash that has hydroxyapatite for this early morning brushing. What you're doing is any weakening or minerals that have been removed from the teeth due to those bacteria flourishing and growing in the mouth, you're going to replenish right then before there's any chance for damage to happen. So you're going to rebuild, you're going to strengthen the teeth.

Now they have this hydroxyapatite barrier and strengthening before you go to your meal and potentially actually eat acidic foods, which will take away some minerals from the teeth, you want them to be strong and resistant to problems before you get to that first meal of the day. Now, people will always ask, what about that first meal? What about foods during breakfast? Shouldn't I brush after that as well? Let's talk about this. Anytime you eat anything, doesn't matter what you put in your mouth, the pH in the mouth is going to drop.

It's going to get a little more acidic just because of all of the enzyme activity and everything that's happening in the mouth with food. So you're always going to drop pH with a meal. We just talked about how pH dropping leads to tooth decay. We don't want that. It's already lower after we wake up in the morning. So then you eat and you're going to drop it even lower. We want to get up higher, stronger teeth, more resilient before you naturally drop during that meal. Are we concerned about the food that might be on the teeth after breakfast?

Well, some of that depends on what you're eating. If you're eating a lot of real sticky carbohydrates, then yes, you probably need to do something after the meal. But let's talk about that as well. For 30 to 60 minutes after that meal, the teeth are weaker.

After-Meal Care and Remineralizing Mints 5:14

They're softer. Because of that pH drop, more acidity in the mouth just because of eating, now all of a sudden, of the minerals are a little more prone to being pulled out of the tooth. The worst time to brush is directly after a meal because you're literally going to potentially brush some of those minerals away. So what do you do? Well, water rinsing is a great way to just clean off any debris, anything that may have stuck to the teeth during that meal. That's very simple to do, right? Drink some water, swish it around, spit it out.

You're going to clear off any debris that those bacteria might enjoy feasting on. Now, are you going to get everything off? No. So what else can you do? You can brush, but please don't do it for 30 to 60 minutes after that meal. What I prefer is I love to pop in hydroxyapatite mint. These are our remins. I love them for a couple of different reasons. Number one, they taste great. They really do freshen up your breath after a meal. But number two, they literally remineralize your teeth. So any minerals that have been pulled out during that acid increase during, you know, eating because of eating, you're going to put back with these mints.

It's a great way to protect your teeth, to remineralize everything and really Substitute for that brushing. You've done it first thing in the morning. Now, how about gum disease? How does this also relate? Well, gum disease is largely based on, again, bacteria growth around the gum line of the teeth. If those bacterial growth colonies stay there, what happens is as minerals are introduced into the diet and into the body for the rest of the day, minerals will incorporate into those bacterial colonies.

That turns into what we call tartar. You've heard this before, tartar on the teeth. Well, tartar is very difficult to remove. So now you go to brush it off and it doesn't come off with just regular brushing. So more bacteria congregate in that tartar and they create bigger colonies.

Gum Disease, Tartar, and Protectin 7:10

They mineralize, more tartar grows. Now this entire colony you can't remove it yourself and it is constantly consuming sugar and creating acid. Your gums hate it so they retreat along with the bone that's underneath the gum. This is what gum disease really starts from. So going back to when do we brush? The sooner you can get that bacteria off the better and preferably before it starts to mineralize. Every single morning First thing in the morning is the best time to do this. Those colonies are new, they're fresh, they're going to come off easily.

This is going to really benefit your gum disease situation as well. One other thing to consider, my mouthwash, toothpaste, and remints all have something in them called protectin. What is protectin? Protectin is actually a prebiotic. Now, a prebiotic means it's food for bacteria. And there's something amazing about this prebiotic. It feeds the good bacteria. It starves the bad bacteria. So what this prebiotic or protectin is doing is it's actually helping good bacteria that are going to help good gum health every single time you use the product.

So let's summarize. What should we do? Brush first thing before breakfast, if possible. use a hydroxyapatite containing product as well as one with protectin and you are going to basically armor coat your teeth and your gums for the remainder of the day. Repeat this again in the evening and you have a very solid healthy routine for good gum health, good tooth health and one that's going to really be sustainable and usable long term for your overall oral and body health.