Here’s the Truth About Rinsing After Brushing Your Teeth

After years of being told to spit and rinse, Americans are now being told merely to spit, as dental experts pour water on the notion of swish-swishing after attending to our pearly whites.

Brittany Seymour, a representative for the American Dental Association and a Harvard School of Dental Medicine professor, has recommended that people should brush their teeth at least twice a day with a fluoride-containing toothpaste.

“When you rinse, you are basically rinsing away the active ingredients of the toothpaste that you just put on your teeth,” Margherita Fontana, a professor at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry, told the Washington Post. “Another option for those who want to rinse after brushing is to follow up with a mouthwash containing fluoride,” she added.

According to a 1999 study of over 2,800 teenagers in England, those who used less water in their mouths after brushing had fewer cavities and less tooth decay than those who rinsed thoroughly.

They also found that for people with healthier teeth, skipping the splash of the H2O isn’t as important as for those who have a high-sugar diet. The extra fluoride left in the mouth from the toothpaste could be a big help in these cases.

For children, the amount of fluoride ingested should be monitored. Kids who are younger than three should sweep their teeth with just a smear or a rice grain-sized amount of paste. Ages 3 to 6 should be using a pea-sized squirt for their teeth.

Pediatric dentist Scott Cashion advised that to prevent children from swallowing toothpaste, they need to spit out as much as they can. “We recommend that they spit it out but try not to rinse it,” he said. “When they go off to bed, if there’s fluoride on those teeth, it’s going to help protect them through the night.”