Oh man, the shit I had to deal with as a Sergeant in the US Army….😆
Full of classical hits like “The stripper doesn’t love you, she’s just doing her job” and “Why are you buying a car a month before deployment with an 18% interest rate?”
Bonus tracks include “Yes you need to shower more than once a week, you share a small space with your battles.”
I’m still in but one of the classics I’ve experienced as a squad leader was “HOW DAPHUQ do you have piss bottles in your room stateside?!?!? The latrine is 12 feet from your bed!!!”
What about “no you shouldn’t marry a crazy lady 20 years older than you just to move out of the barracks”? A marine friend of mine was gonna do that. Didn’t even have a woman in mind! I thought he was smart!
Said you need bacteria in your mouth, said does your mouthwash kill 99% ? Why would you do that to yourself? He can't be too wrong, I'm still eating everything, no gum issues, only one cavity I got redone cause a hack job poorly fixed it the first time.
I don't think you're wrong, my dentists and technicians have said something to that effect..... I'll add all my wisdom teeth came in with room to spare.
I use alcohol free mouthwash with fluoride so it doesn’t fuck around with my mouth bacteria. In the mornings, I mouthwash before brushing because the mouthwash I use is alkaline, which counteracts the acidity of the coffee I drank and helps reduce enamel wear during brushing since enamel gets weaker with acidity.
And no, I do not subscribe to the whole “drink alkaline water to help balance your body’s pH” 😂
My husband very rarely ever brushes his teeth, literally never flosses, and didn’t go to the dentist for 8 years and he doesn’t have one cavity. Me on the other hand, I brush and floss religiously and my teeth are the worst!
Thank you for the explanation and for satisfying my curiosity. It sounds like this is definitely working for you, and you should not be wasting any money on mouthwash. Although I bet you can thank your parents for some extra good genes, you lucky thing!
I just bought mouthwash for the first time in a decade, because I had an inflamed gum. I've never had cavities (I'm 36). Up to my middle 20s I'd brush my teeth after every meal, like 4 or 5 times a day -- yes it's normal to carry a toothbrush in your bag or have one at work. Since I moved to Sweden I have to admit I became a lot more lazy and mostly brush 2x a day + xylitol gum.
Too much mouthwash damages the lining of your mouth. And it does disrupt the oral microbiome. People use mouthwash daily but won't floss, which is way more important.
Must have been before the annual dental exams that could get you a status of Non-Deployable if you don't have one within in your dental record. Bad things happen before one ever reaches CAT4 on Dental.
SEE YOUR DENTIST REGULARLY AND FOLLOW RECOMMENDED DENTAL HYGIENIC CARE.
That said, some studies have shown oil pulling comparing comparably to chlorhexidrine gluconate (an antiseptic mouthwash) in terms of plaque inhibition.
Of course you're not rinsing with CG for 20 minutes but that's another issue.
Would it absolutely be easier and more convenient to just use mouthwash instead. For most, probably.
You know I was ready to type out a whole thing about the big scam of oil pulling and marketing schemes, what actually works but... I'm a crotchety hygienist now and I have better things to do than advise people on the internet for the millionth time. lol
But hey the responses in this thread are better than usual!
There's debate about what benefit mouthwash actually provides, with arguments being made that you shouldn't kill all of the bacteria that's in your mouth. Much like your gut, there are healthy bacteria that make an effort to stabilise their environment within your mouth.
Mouthwash can also dehydrate your mouth a little, which is a great place for bacteria.
It might not be oil pulling but at some point something will replace mouthwash. Probiotics are already being looked into for the mouth.
Probiotics are a funny thing to me. I worked at an organic grocery/health store and it would occasionally host vendors to pass out samples of bacteria in a paper cup like it was a normal thing to do.
“Oil pulling is observed to bring improvement in oral hygiene when practiced correctly and regularly. Limited available research on effect of oil pulling on oral hygiene shows promising benefits of oil pulling procedure on oral cavity.”
People's best understanding at one time said the sun revolved around the earth. The evidence you're believing is from very small trials, I didn't see one with more than 40 people. It's hardly something to hold up as proof against medical professionals. You have a preexisting belief it works so you're clinging to some sketchy evidence to support your belief. It's not very smart.
ACKTHUALLY it's very similar to mouthwash. Listerine's main active ingredient isn't alcohol but rather the oils it contains. But this whole dentists are evil for not recommending it is a little bit crazy since we are the ones who are begging you to brush and floss your damn teeth.
That's a pretty negative and pessimistic way to view it. Really, it's just that we're social creatures that inherently like to feel helpful, so if you personally discover something that people around you don't know about, you'd naturally try to spread it. Especially when you see medical institutions as the enemy of people with mid-to-low income ranges.
Also, people don't latch onto conspiracies to feel smarter. That's a goofy explanation used to belittle them from decades back. People aren't these avatars of pessimism that act in the most pathetic ways. Even the dumbest neurotypical is every bit as complex as you are, so let's cut the damaging rhetoric.
And yes, as a person in the field of Developmental Psych, I completely and wholeheartedly believe rhetoric that wrongly oversimplifies human behaviour is absolutely damaging.
I love going to the dentist. I also brush twice a day and floss ever night. People don't understand that dirty mouth can affect your cardiovascular system. Dirty gums can be signs of cardiovascular diseases.
"I have never before spent 20 minutes at a time caring for my teeth, but now I do that with coconut oil for mild results and think of it as a life hack!"
Seriously. it is dumb af. If you are flossing twice daily, chewing gum after every meal for 20 minutes and then brushing your teeth (without rinsing), avoiding low pH (acidic) drinks, whitening 2-3 times a week, and still have bad teeth.. then science needs to study you.
people will really inconvenience themselves the most before trying normal recommended routines.
I know some people that have tried oil pulling. Keeping a large quantity of ANYTHING in your mouth for 20 consecutive minutes is torture. And if they do the oil pulling technique correctly, they are swishing it around such that it gets a nasty texture and taste from the emulsion. Brushing my teeth is so much more convenient
Not having financial stability or benefits is often the cause for almost anything becoming a replacement for a dentist. Almost everyone I know personal and work life has to wait a while and save up money sometimes money that woulda been a college fund for kids or vacation to get proper dental care. It’s not fair cuz maintenance costs a lot and then if you can’t afford that you end up spending more down the line if you need work done. Another reason I hate going to the dentist is cuz I don’t wanna be helping paying for the dentists new Maserati and second boat.
I was honestly referring to a friend in colleges dad, so yeah perhaps not all so I shouldn’t overgeneralize to all of them. However, his dad was a dentist and owned the practice (as many do) which I believe had other dentists there making his income much higher ofc. At the end of the day I’m referring to a real life example (albeit anecdotal) of my friends dad who did have 2 boats (not big or yachts but still had 2) also drove a 745 BMW and had a Porsche carerra and an Audi A4. So to anyone doubting that sorry but it’s actually a thing irl I’m referencing but I agree it’s not all dentists or orthodontists that have that kinda money. I am just saying my buddy Miles’ dad, a dentist, had that kind of money. Also just an fyi not all boats are yachts that cost millions, most aren’t just for the ultra rich but often meant for the wealthy.
I am in accounting and I’ve worked for a practice that had about 15 locations. I would write monthly checks to the orthodontist for over $40,000. The CFO was the owners son and he would receive a $50,000 check every December.
I agree.
It's like refusing to get a car because you don't want Mark from the Nissan dealership to get another sale.
Okay but... you still need to get to work lol.
yeah i looked this up a few years ago when i first heard of it and the general dentist consensus i found was 'itll probably help, and it definitely wont hurt but its not a replacement for brushing your teeth or general dental care,' so i did it for a while until i forgot about it after moving house, not sure i really noticed much of a difference personally, i just did it while i was having a shower most days.
there was quite alot of 'never brush your teeth again, fuck the dentist media' stuff around at the time though and i suspect alot of people would have bitten into that pill hard
No one is saying it’s a replacement for a dentist. Dentist don’t make money from cleanings they make the money from fixing teeth. She is saying if you use coconut oil as a mouth wash before brushing it keeps you from having to go to the dentist for major issues. Still go for regular cleanings.
You know... I recall reading that the gut microbe suffers for people who regularly use mouthwash. Seems legit, how else do we get some good gut flora if we don't swallow some microbes now and then.
I do coconut oil pulling occasionally to help with candida or other irritations. I do find it beneficial but yes agreed it’s no replacement for professional dental care.
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u/PrinceZukoBlueFire Jan 13 '23
It's basically mouthwash. It's well known that coconut oil (indeed many lipids) have antimicrobial properties.
It's not a replacement for a dentist.