So my teeth used to be heavily crowded and impossible to floss, plus as a teen I had very serious depression and executive dysfunction. My teeth were a disaster by the time I got braces on, and those things seriously impeded my ability to brush and stuff. I got them off a few years ago; one of my molars legitimately broke in half when I bit down on soft chocolate, it was so bad.
It's been a lot of repairative work and I've been lucky to have access to it. I'm told I'm doing well on caring for my teeth now which is rad. But two seperate people, my dentist and one of his guys, made a funny suggestion.
"Yeah sis, you got this super strong toothpaste right, 1.1% sodium fluoride? Just leave some of that on your teeth every night, in your lil plastic retainees, trust me sis."
This feels so incredibly wrong, like I didn't even rinse my mouth, and now there is toothpaste on my teeth. I'm supposed to sleep like this? This shit is as bad as upper lip estradiol absorbtion. Why am I tormented by silly sensory suggestions lately? 'Just leave the toothpaste on'...
I think leaving the toothpaste on the surface of your teeth makes sense at least from an efficacy standpoint, because that's why you're not supposed to rinse it, right? Sometimes I just rub some on when I don't have the energy to sit upright long enough for a full brush. But I feel you on the sensory aspect. One thing that I've been doing for my dental health is leaving xylitol to sit on my teeth as much as I can. It's basically just a sugar substitute so not a sensory issue for me like toothpaste. I have gum, lollipops, candies (all sugar free of course) and I also put it in my tea all day long. If your teeth are covered with it, the bacteria in your mouth eat the xylitol and starve to death because it's empty calories. Most sugar alcohols have this effect I believe - it's pretty neat.
Don't suppose you've got any inexpensive xylitol stuff you can recommend? I was chewing Mentos gum for the longest time, but apparently that just gave me TMJ so.... 💩 I bought some Epic mints but they were like $25 for three 180 count bottles. And I guess it's not a lot for that many individual mints, but it feels like it.😅
Yeah unfortunately most of my stuff is on the pricier side 😞 because I have celiac so I have to look for things that are labeled gluten-free as well. Probably the cheapest thing I get is Spry mints, but based on the Amazon price at least they're about the same cost/mint as the Epic ones you got. It's part of the reason I lean on adding straight xylitol to my tea so much.
Ah, well. No worries. You have given me the idea of using xylitol powder to make my own candies, cookies, and ice cream though. So thank you for that!