Regular oral hygiene is a decent predictor of oral health. However this does not explain why the incidence of caries and irreversible gum disease are so high. Almost half of all Americans have some form of gum disease, which we can predict using the oral microbiome, which are the same people that regularly see a dentist and have “normal” hygiene habits.
Let’s stop normalizing reactive medicine and start thinking about personalized preventive approaches to health. There is no one size fits all approach to your systemic health, and the same applies to oral health.
I was in my thirties before I was taught to floss halfway correctly, and since then my gums have sorted themselves out great. I think we just don’t educate people enough on this.
A link to brushing and flossing correctly is below! In summary:
- Brushing: Hold your toothbrush at a 45-degree angle. This is the best angle for cleaning both the surface of your teeth and inside the gumline (killing two birds with one stone).
- Flossing: Use the "C Technique". Wrap the floss around the side of your tooth in a C-shape, and gently guide it up and down the length of your tooth and softly below your gum line.
Maybe? There seems to be evidence that alcohol based mouthwash is an increased risk when associated with other factors (most notably smoking, drinking, and betel nut chewing), but not much data to show it is an independent risk factor in itself.
Here is one study and a meta-analysis for reference:
Any alcohol would most likely, it is not very good for you. Really, anything that causes a lot of repair to be needed due to cell death. For example, hot drinks, smoking, hydrogen peroxide, life.
You can find out more about my theories here:
www.stopfallingforshittybiomestartups.com