Garak Market Station Dental Clinic - When Is the Best Time to Brush Your Teeth?

Garak Market Station Dental Clinic - When Is the Best Time to Brush Your Teeth

Hello. I’m Shin Seung-hwan, the chief director of Yonsei Uline Dental Clinic, Garak Market Station Branch, near Garak-dong, Songpa-gu.

Today, I’d like to talk about a topic we get asked about a lot.

How many times a day should you brush your teeth?

Let’s look at this from a practical point of view.

From a checkup standard, brushing after meals and

before bed adds up to four times a day,

which is considered ideal.

The idea is to brush after meals and then once more

right before going to sleep.

But in reality, I know very well that it’s not easy to follow all of that.

Some days you wake up late, skip lunch, or eat dinner out late.

So what matters more than the number of times is when you brush.

There are really two reasons to brush your teeth.

First, to remove food debris,

and second, to reduce the number of bacteria in the mouth.

Of course, food debris is most likely to remain right after a meal,

and if you leave it there, the bacteria in your mouth

will feed on it and multiply quickly.

From that point on, cavities and gum inflammation can progress rapidly.

So it’s best to brush after meals whenever possible.

If you absolutely can’t brush after eating,

at the very least, you should remove the food debris

with dental floss or an interdental brush.

And here’s the most important point.

When you fall asleep, saliva production almost stops,

so your body’s ability to wash away bacteria drops significantly.

So if you go to sleep with food debris or sugar left in your mouth,

cavities and gum disease progress much faster

than during the day.

That’s why, if you can only brush once a day,

it must be before bed. There are no exceptions to this.

Morning brushing is also more meaningful than you might think.

Because we can’t perfectly manage our mouths overnight,

the bacteria that increase while we sleep are most concentrated

in the mouth in the morning.

That’s why our mouths feel unpleasant when we wake up,

and brushing at that time is not only for yourself,

but also a matter of courtesy to others in social settings.

In the end, here’s the summary.

If you’re only going to brush once a day, do it before bed.

If you’re brushing twice a day, make sure to include

before bed + after breakfast.

Brushing after meals is best when you can do it,

and even if you can’t, it’s important to at least use dental floss.

More important than the number of times is remembering

which situations call for brushing.

This has been Yonsei Uline Dental Clinic near Exit 4 of Garak Market Station.