On the Internet you come across a curious tip again and again: After brushing your teeth, you shouldn’t rinse your mouth with water. Does that really make sense? Utopia asked experts.
Toothpaste on the brush, cleaning, flushing out, rinsing – in this way most probably brush their teeth. But you shouldn’t always do it that way.
Online you read at least again and again that it makes sense not to rinse your mouth out with water so that you can better protect your teeth from caries. Is that correct?
At the request of Utopia, the Federal Dentistry Chamber (BZäk) replies that it was wise to spit out the toothpaste from time to time after cleaning and not to rinse so that fluoride is letting on the tooth surfaces longer.
Do not rinse: Fluoride is important for the teeth
Fluoride is an active ingredient in toothpastes that combines saliva in the mouth with calcium to form a protective layer of calcium fluoride on the tooth surface. This makes the teeth resistant to acids released by caries bacteria.
“Studies show that fluoride -containing toothpaste can reduce caries by up to 40 percent with twice daily use,” said the BZÄK.
Can it be dangerous to swallow toothpaste?
Too much fluoride can theoretically be harmful. But you swallow some toothpaste because you don’t wash, this is no longer dangerous.
Most toothpastes for adults contain between 1,000 and 1,500 ppm (parts per million) fluoride, which corresponds to 0.1 to 0.15 percent. According to EFSA, adults should absorb fluoride per day.
Initial symptoms of poisoning can occur from a fluoride per kilogram of body weight from around 5 milligrams. For an adult person with 60 kg body weight, this would mean that they would have to fully swallow about three tubes toothpaste (75 ml each with 1,400 ppm fluoride) in order to achieve this dose. In children, limit values ​​are lower, and children’s toothpaste also contains less fluoride.
And what about mouthwash?
And if you usually use a mouthwash or a mouthwash after brushing your teeth? The BZÄK recommends: “So that the fluorides from the toothpaste remain on the teeth for as long as possible, you should not use spark solutions directly after brushing your teeth, but using it at a different time.”
Read more on utopia.de:
- Öko-Test: A “very good” mouthwash does not have to be an expensive branded product
- Zero-WASTE BAD ROOM: 17 practical tips for less plastic in the bathroom
- The worst ingredients in cosmetics
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