Hold The Rinse! Spitting Is Best.

Rinsing after brushing is a life-long habit that can impact our oral health and one we all do without thinking. It’s often something we’re taught as soon as we can brush our teeth. So, something we’ve all been taught to do our whole lives can’t be wrong, right? 

Not necessarily... New studies show that spitting, and not rinsing after brushing, is the way to go and below we’ll explain why. 

Why Rinse? 

Rinsing after brushing can help to remove excess toothpaste foam and spit, and simply makes your mouth feel cleaner. With water-based toothpaste, the extra product left in the mouth can make it feel foamy or even furry so it’s perfectly understandable that most people don’t like this feeling. 

But rinsing can have an impact on your oral health because it washes away the key ingredients that aid enamel repair, mainly fluoride and hydroxyapatite. You might already know that these are vital for oral health, but you might not know why. 

Fluoride helps with enamel repair through a process called remineralisation. This, and its counterpart, demineralisation, are naturally occurring processes in your mouth. Over time, your teeth’s enamel gets attacked by bacteria (demineralisation), meaning you need to add back the things that get attacked (remineralisation). 

Fluoride in toothpaste gets absorbed into your spit and then into your teeth. Through remineralisation, it binds calcium and phosphate ions to tooth enamel, making it more resistant to acid attacks. Check out our blog piece on high acid foods.

As you can imagine, this process takes time, and isn’t something that happens when you’re actually brushing. So, rinsing your mouth after brushing removes all the good stuff before it has chance to do its thing. While this isn’t specifically bad for your oral health, it means you’re not getting any of the benefits of using a fluoride toothpaste. The same is true for other tooth-repairing ingredients like hydroxyapatite and arginine.  

Making Sure You Spit 

Some people have never rinsed after brushing. In fact, a 2016 study by the Oral Health Foundation found that 23% of respondents don’t rinse after brushing. However, 62% rinse with water, and 14% even rinse with mouthwash! The bottom line is that for as many as 76% of us, stopping rinsing after brushing is breaking the habit of a lifetime. 

What’s the alternative? All you need to do is spit out the excess. It’s as simple as that. Finish brushing like normal, swill the foam around in your mouth and just spit it out. Importantly, though, make sure you wait at least 10 minutes after brushing before eating or drinking as this gives the fluoride and other ingredients time to work. 

For adults deep into the habit of rinsing, making the switch can be slightly more difficult than for kids just learning to brush, it’s a much easier habit to instil from early on. 

The Risks of Not Rinsing 

That header might be a bit misleading, as there aren’t any real risks of not rinsing your teeth. One thing to watch out for (particularly with kids) is that they don’t use too much toothpaste and therefore overuse fluoride. Doing so can result in fluorosis, which causes discolouration of their permanent teeth. 

Overuse is a frequent occurrence with water-based toothpaste, which you can easily squeeze too much of onto your brush, but not an issue with toothpaste tablets as each tab is the exact perfect amount of each ingredient, such as fluoride and hydroxyapatite. It means that no one, even kids, needs to worry about using too much. 

Another thing to consider is the potential of food debris remaining around your teeth. After all, spitting out excess toothpaste won’t give the same clean feeling as a full rinse. Providing you brush your teeth with care, there shouldn’t be any food debris left in your mouth – it should all get caught in the foam. But if you’re concerned, have a quick rinse at least 10 minutes after brushing. 

Spitting Your Way to a Healthy Smile with GudYu 

Spitting is the new rinsing if you want to retain as much fluoride as possible in your mouth. Breaking the habit can be difficult, but with a bit of conscious commitment, you’ll get there. 

Give our tabs a try, we’re certain you’ll love them as they’ve been formulated to have a perfect amount of foaminess, which will of course help with the need to rinse!