I almost always read in the news/press that dentists recommend to brush teeth two times a day for 2-3 minutes.
This drives me crazy, because it does not make sense; The point for dental health is to systematical clean every surface of your teeth twice a day (and use inter-dental brushes/floss once a day). For me, brushing my teeth takes around 6 minutes, if I hurry up. For someone faster it might be possible in 1 minute.
So, why do dentists always give the 2-3 minutes recommendation?
My electric toothbrush does 30 seconds per quadrant, 2 minutes total. I'm 38 have zero cavities and my teeth are fine. I only brush once a day.
Brushing for longer has diminishing returns and hurts your gums. I'm just speculating, but it's mostly about removing debris from your mouth and applying flouride to your teeth.
I think it’s a game of diminishing returns.
Let’s say 6 minutes gives you perfect 100% cleaning.
Well 30 seconds probably already gets you 50% or more of the total benefit just by getting fluoride on your teeth and rinsing your mouth a bit so getting people to 3 minutes is probably approaching perfection anyway and if you start asking people to do 6 minutes then they’ll say fuck it I won’t bother at all so settle for the 80% win.
I assume.
What's really strange to me, is that for all the expertise around dentistry, AFAIK there has never been an actual evidence-based study for how long and how often you should brush and floss.
Its literally the most important piece of dental advice they could study, and no research has been done. How much plaque builds up on average when only brushing once per week, once per month? It makes me question the whole discipline and wonder if they don't just say "brush 10 times a day" in order to sell more dental products.
Maybe they'd discover that actually you only need to brush twice a week, and floss twice a week. Maybe it ends up being flossing every day, and brushing once a month... who knows.
AFAIK there has never been an actual evidence-based study for how long and how often you should brush and floss.
The National Institute of Health has a ton of public-paid studies. Did you even bother to search it before making your astounding claim? https://www.nih.gov
Just one search for
nih brush timeshows several studies. Let me just link the top two...https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19723429/ -> "This study was undertaken to measure plaque removal during untutored brushing over timed periods between 30 and 180 seconds with"
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16355646/ -> "This review shows that there is consensus in the literature that (meticulous) tooth brushing once per day is sufficient to maintain oral health and to prevent caries and periodontal diseases. Tooth brushing is also regarded as an important vehicle for application of anti-caries agents, such as fluorides. However, most patients are not able to achieve sufficient plaque removal by performing oral hygiene measures at home. Therefore, tooth brushing twice daily is recommended by most of the dentists in order to improve plaque control."
OP poses one question with two parts. The first study answers the time (2-3 minutes) part. The second link answers the other part (twice daily).
Is there any way to actually see those articles? All that's given is an abstract, and the articles don't appear to be linked.
https://kagi.com/search?q=pubmed+download+full+text
-> https://www.nlm.nih.gov/oet/ed/pubmed/quicktours/fulltext/index.html
It looks like the two articles I linked don't have free sources available. You might also search for the co-authors of the studies -- for example the first author in the first study has other citations https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Creeth+JE&filter=simsearch2.ffrft with full text available. You could download those, obtain the author's contact information, and send a request for a copy of the one you want. Just be nice about it :) If that doesn't work then maybe you have a friend with a "subscription" to download such things... from school or work or... something.
From someone with a science background: There are a lot of expenses with that type of clinical trial.
In particular, if you're going to assign someone to a group that is known to be unhealthy (brushing once a month) you need to pay for any dental or medical problems that arise from them not brushing.
For sure, and they should def stop if there were any serious long-term affects, like any medical trial.
You are harming your teeth if you brush them that much, that’s why. Overbrushing is just as bad as brushing too little.
I'm also like you with my timing but most people I know say I take ages with my teeth. Apparently most people are done with their brushing in less than one minute. Therefore, dentists recommend spending at least two or three. I don't think you need to brush for less time than what you already are.
i figure it's a good point that'll get most people most of the way there. not too confusing
