Welcome to our first blog.  And of course, this being a dental practice website, what is our first post about?  Well, of course it’s about your daily brushing and flossing habits! What else could it be?

The Golden Rule is quite simple: brush twice a day with fluoride toothpaste and floss once a day at least.

Even with a rule this simple rule people still make mistakes, and a common one is the order in which these tasks should be accomplished.  Do I brush and then floss?  Should I brush after eating or before eating?

To help us remember the lesson, I’ll ask a question: would you go and work out at the gym without your deodorant on? I assume and hope not!  Brushing your teeth is similar, except that instead of jogging or lifting weights, we are eating.  Our teeth will be working out, and in order to protect them we really should first brush them.

The thing is you do want to brush your teeth before eating breakfast in the morning, its kind of like putting deodorant on before your workout.  🙂  One benefit of doing this is of course purely indulgent: having fresh-smelling breath in the morning.  However it also provides another and arguably (to a dentist at least) much more important benefit: it protects your teeth against the acidic items you might consume.

So I will offer up a new version of the Golden Rule: “Brush your teeth before breakfast!!”

Next time we will work on refining the golden rule again with some added tips.

Ruth Dieleman-Levine