Tooth Brush and Spit – DON’T Rinse

Since 1999, when John Featherstone PhD published his new data on the mechanisms of Fluoride in oral fluoride mouth rinse after brushing for the express purpose of leaving fluoride on their teeth.  The same concept can be accomplished by merely leaving the residual toothpaste on your teeth.

health, I and many prevention oriented colleagues have promoted the concept that one should not rinse after brushing one’s teeth.  Just spit the excess foam out and leave the residual toothpaste on your teeth.  After all, don’t we tell you the same after your dental appointment where we give you a fluoride application and tell you not to eat or rinse for 30 minutes?  Many folks will use a

If you like to rinse with a mouthwash for other than a fluoride based reason, then I would recommend waiting at least 30 minutes after brushing if you are going to use a non-fluoride mouth rinse.

2 Minutes 2 Times

Brush your child's teeth for 2 minutes, 2 times a day!

As I have told you in previous blogs, doing fillings and crowns on teeth does not improve oral health or dental health. Effective prevention of dental disease requires a little simple education of the patient and the desire to have healthy, cavity free beautiful smiles. With that in mind the California Dental Association and American Academy of Pediatric Dentists and 12 other organizations have started a nationwide educational program designed to help patients improve their own oral health and prevent cavities.


2min2x.org is the website it will originate from and where you can find all the information needed to create oral health for you and your children. It includes great videos to educate, entertain and motivate your children to want and achieve good oral health.  Check it out!

Winning With Smiles - Pediatric Dentistry
Meadow Vista, California 95722

Sports Drinks - Not What You Might Hope They Are.

Have you checked out the ingredients of your "sports drink?"  Basically you will find:  1) water,  2) sugar of some kind,  3) organic acids (or citrus juices) for the tangy taste, and  4) some electrolytes.

The water is obvious and great.  We need to rehydrate during and after sweaty exercise.  No problem.

Sugar of some kind?  The amount of Calories we burn during exercise is not as much as you might think.  A jogger running for an hour only uses about 400 Calories.  (Just 1 scone at your favorite coffee shop will replace that!)  A marathon runner will run for 3 hard hours before he depletes his easily available glucose energy storage in his muscles.  Sports event players don't need sugar of any kind in their water.  To the contrary, adults and kids alike are consuming hundreds of excess (un-necessary) calories, empty calories (containing no nutrients to help adequately metabolize the calories), with these drinks.

The sipping nature that many people employ drinking these sports drinks is also boosting the sugar loving, cavity causing germs in our mouths.  The bacteria that cause cavities will thrive at high metabolic rates for 40 minutes following a simple sugar exposure.  Assuming 3 meals and 2 snacks, the teeth are under acid attack 4 hours.  The other 20 hours each day the teeth are recovering calcium from the saliva.

People who sip sports drinks from backpacks or before, during and after sports events and celebrations have their teeth under attack a majority of the day with inadequate recovery times to maintain healthy enamel.  Screw cap lids make it possible to sip these beverages all day and for those children who do, the teeth have no opportunity to recover the calcium lost during the constant acid attack of the bacteria.  Their cavity rates begin to soar.

The human condition has evolved over several millennia with water to hydrate us.  In the last couple decades sports drinks have not made us healthier or improved our sports performance.  However, they have:

1)  Done huge damage to our teeth and oral health.

2)  Contributed heavily to an overweight and obese population, especially our kids, that pediatricians and other physicians and health care workers are working desperately to change.

3)  Been a significant contributor to the growing problem of Type II diabetes in our children.

A third and highly “hyped” ingredient is electrolytes.  Electrolyte replacement with these sports drinks is not necessary and inefficient besides.  With a mere 25 cent envelope of Emergen-C I can:  1) replace those electrolytes and more,  2) get a healthy dose of vitamins and minerals as well,  3) get only 25 Calories in the bargain, and  4) gulp it down in short order any time during the day so it is not bathing my teeth for hours.  The real bottom line, however, is that our daily diet gives us adequate electrolytes each day so unless you are an extreme athlete doing strenuous exercise several hours each day, you don’t need to be concerned about electrolytes.  If you are truly concerned about chemical balance, the 3^rd article in this series on sports drinks will address a few additives of real “concern” that are in these sports drinks.

The last primary ingredient in sports drinks is organic acids (citric acid, ascorbic acid, malic acid, etc.)  Next week I'll tell you how to dissolve the enamel off your teeth the easy way with sports drinks.