Dr. Victoria Sampson

So instead, you can chew some sugar-free gum or there are lots of pastels that we use.

So like I use like chewable mints and you can chew one of those and it will actually neutralize your saliva really quickly so that you don't have that acid causing the demineralization.

Just because that's the sort of biggest window, I guess, that's the best way to... Yeah, the most important time to brush your teeth is right before you go to bed because you spend two minutes spreading all this lovely goodness on your teeth.

And then when you go to sleep, going back to saliva, when you sleep, your saliva flow reduces massively.

So all of a sudden, these bacteria are left to their own devices

And if you don't have good toothpaste there, then they can cause a lot of problems.

Spit.

So you should never rinse your mouth out with water after you brush your teeth.

So brush, brush, brush, spit into the basin, and that's it.

Reason being, again, going back to my sunscreen analogy, imagine you spend two minutes putting all this lovely sunscreen all over your skin to then just go and have a shower right before you go into the sun.

So with the toothpaste, you spend two minutes putting all of that on your teeth.

And then if you rinse it, then you're actually removing all of that goodness from your teeth and gums.

And it's kind of like you haven't done anything.

I generally prefer an electric toothbrush.

Why?

Usually they kind of do the work for you.

So it just means that patients have better oral health because most people don't know how to brush their teeth properly, actually.

We're never really taught or trained or we get taught by our parents.

Our parents don't really know.

They've been taught by their parents.