Brushing your teeth: no longer the best thing for your teeth?

http://bio230fall2010.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/brushing-your-teeth-no-longer-the-best-thing-for-your-teeth/

by joedevon • 13 years ago

65 67 13 years ago

bio230fall2010.wordpress.com

Brakenshire• 13 years ago

Possibly, maybe will no longer best the best thing for your teeth.

Seems very interesting, but very early stage.

s0rce• 13 years ago

Why is it snowing?

cedar• 13 years ago

its 1999

ivanca• 13 years ago

I don't know man; those snowflakes seem gpu accelerated to me.

nsmartt• 13 years ago

Why not? I find it to be fairly pleasant, albeit unnecessary.

aestra3• 13 years ago

Because it is extremely distracting and I actually couldn't read the article because of it.

MereInterest2• 13 years ago

Because the animation is incredibly CPU intensive for the effect that it has.

Schwolop• 13 years ago

Urgh.

Ctrl+A Ctrl+C Ctrl+L data:text/html, <html contenteditable> <ENTER> Ctrl+V

phew

ars• 13 years ago

Thank you. I couldn't read it - the snow kept triggering my orienting reflex and making it harder than necessary to simply read the article.

neil_s• 13 years ago

That's a cool trick, thanks!

agumonkey• 13 years ago

I thought I had a sudden floaters spike. Very worried for a second.

Who still does that ?

/me summon printfriendly.com

jdpage2• 13 years ago

I would guess that the wrinkle is that one's mouth would still be chock-full of bacteria, lending the breath a fœtid odour.

sliverstorm2• 13 years ago

Why are we randomly switching to latin characters?

jdpage2• 13 years ago

Sorry. That's actually the original (and still an acceptable) spelling, and I rather prefer it. English doesn't really have enough vowels, so distinguishing between `e' and `œ' makes sense, orthographically. I also tend to use diæreses where appropriate.

Of course, normally I would give at least a passing thought to using more modernized spellings in this context, but I have spent most of the week writing up a series of observation sessions and my brain is beginning to revolt, liquefy, and dribble out of my ears.

bmelton• 13 years ago

Interesting assertion. You're undoubtedly right, of course, but it just reminds me of the ideals promoted by the deodorant companies.

Once upon a time, everybody smelled like everybody smells, which is to say, probably not quite as pleasant as people smell now -- arguably. Then somebody came along and invented deodorant, began marketing it to women to give them a competitive dating advantage -- "Smell better than the next woman and get more men" -- which they (historically obviously) fell for, and now deodorant is considered necessary... but for what purpose?

People are very adaptive to smell, and beyond the same statistical outliers we have now, generally speaking, people would have smelled about the same. Now though, the bar has been arbitrarily raised, and the result is that everybody not wearing deodorant is a grotesquely smelling freak, where the only outcome is that, once again, we all smell the same, but slightly different -- and of course, we're now all spending an extra $10 a month on a product that nobody really needs, but that was marketed well enough initially that it's become a staple.

hrjet• 13 years ago

Not a fan of deodorants but, biologically, they may not be completely useless:

1. Being able to afford a deodorant indicates wealth, and thus better chances of survival of the offspring.

2. Using a deodorant might also indicate an awareness of personal hygiene in the individual (atleast purportedly). This might again increase the survival chances of the offspring.

reubenmorais• 13 years ago

While reading this I realized most of the times when I've been complimented for my smell, I was far from being perfumed – getting home after a busy day, arriving somewhere after having to run to catch a bus, things like that.

babby• 13 years ago

I also find deodorant to be useless.

I can anecdotally attest to my own strategy. I buy rubbing alcohol. Have a shower, clean the problem areas. Shortly after I get out I apply the alcohol to my arm pits, and if I think I'm going to really be sweating I spray some over my upper back, chest etc. Nothing close to the amount one would use if they were spraying deodorant. The result is that I can go several days without any bad odor, even when I sweat so much that my shirts are saturated, they don't even smell, to me or anyone else.

The side effect of doing this is that I am far more sensitive to perfumes and deodorants people use, and they just aren't at all pleasant in the quantities people feel they need to use to smell "nice".

sandGorgon• 13 years ago

actually, there is a related phenomenon called "Beyond Shampoo" or "nopoo" (the website seems to be down). There is a huge movement around giving up soap and shampoo permanently to avoid and cure stuff like dandruff, acne, etc.

I personally had HUGE successes with it in improving my overall hygiene - but be warned that it takes upto six months for your body to "reboot". during that time, your hygiene grows worse - before getting extremely better. I suspect it is the same case with the brushing thing : it will take quite some time before the flora and fauna of your mouth reboots.

[1] http://freetheanimal.com/2010/12/a-most-successful-self-expe... [2] http://paleohacks.com/questions/17060/no-poo-and-dandruff.ht...

sliverstorm2• 13 years ago

Our natural smell developed in a time when humans were naked and lived outdoors.

Let's just put it this way; I find it noteworthy that deodorant was developed around the same time that humans started to be packed tightly into office buildings while wrapped up in wool suits.

kstenerud• 13 years ago

The problem is that there is a huge range of smell (or stench) depending on what bacteria tends to cluster in your underarms. I was one of those unlucky ones who had terrible BO until a friend introduced me to potassium alum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_alum , commonly sold as "crystal deodorant".

It's now been almost 3 years since I stopped using soap or shampoo, and I no longer have any skin problems or odor problems, although I'll smell up pretty quick if I forget the crystal deodorant. The only weird part was the two month transitionary phase where my body was still producing excess oils to compensate for daily washing with soap, giving a constant, icky "you've been wearing those jeans for a whole week" feel.

Another protip: If you find your feet stink after a full day at work, try switching to wool socks.

baby2• 13 years ago

you need to brush your tongue for that.

aestra3• 13 years ago

I would suggest not using a toothbrush on your tongue, those are designed for teeth. Get a dedicated tongue cleaner. You'll be glad you did; everyone should clean their tongue.

pyduan• 13 years ago

From what I understand these would be complementary: the advantage of a probiotic solution would be that you basically get the treatment from time to time then never have to care about periodontal disease (which affects almost half of the US population [1]) or tooth decay, and then just have to brush your teeth or tongue to freshen your breath (but without long-term consequences if you don't).

[1] http://www.perio.org/consumer/cdc-study.htm

x0x0• 13 years ago

I googled. It appears bad breath is (mainly?) due to the presence of hydrogen sulfide and methyl mercaptan [1]. These are mostly not produced by s.mutans but instead by gram-negative bacteria. otoh, S. salivarius K12 appears (and it being studied) to produce substances which inhibit s. mutans and the gram-negative bacteria [same article].

[1] http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=beat-bad-br...

goggles99• 13 years ago

Probiotics will form the future of medical and dental preventative care. That and Epigenetics.

toomuchtodo• 13 years ago

And most likely nutrition. It appears that your weight is determined by your gut bacteria: https://www.google.com/search?q=gut+bacteria+obesity

tiatia• 13 years ago

"Your weight is determined" No. If at all, they are only a part of the problem and you have the chicken - egg problem. Do you have different bacteria because you are fat or are you fat because you have different bacteria?

Causes are: -genetic -epigenetic -life style -nutrition (cabrs!) -viruses (no kidding, obesity may be infectious) etc.

vezzy-fnord• 13 years ago

Excessive brushing has always been detrimental to the enamel.

pmiller2• 13 years ago

This is why the ADA recommends brushing your teeth only twice a day, rather than after every meal.

elwell• 13 years ago

I doubt this will ever be a problem for me...

bigd• 13 years ago

neat snowing background, loved the fall direction controlled by the mouse motion.

coldcode• 13 years ago

It would be neater if it piled up.

Wingman4l73• 13 years ago

Obligatory mention of Betteridge's law of headlines: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headline...

ok_craig• 13 years ago

It should be noted that the title on the actual blog does not contain a question mark.

drsingleton2• 13 years ago

Wow! A link on HN of a two year article gave my poor classroom blog a 5000 fold spike in page views. Apologies if the snow annoyed people, but it wasn't me but a checkbox on the free Wordpress backend. It doesn't even show on the mobile version. The science comments above are interesting, but my intended take home message was NOT to promote an alternative to the tried and true methods of proper dental care, but instead draw attention to the incredible complexity of the human oral microbiota.

jafaku• 13 years ago

It's not really obligatory, and it would be nice if you guys just stopped posting that, especially on science articles since asking questions is what science does.

Wingman4l73• 13 years ago

Fair enough. However, it's hoped that this might encourage less linkbait-y titles, especially for overviews of new science research. A headline like "Biofilm-inhibiting bacteria may provide an alternative to brushing your teeth" conveys much more information about the content (and doesn't break that "law", either).

aptwebapps• 13 years ago

The article was fine, but the title is still fits the pattern. The answer is 'No'. Or, maybe, 'No, not yet'.

dfc• 13 years ago

Well said. Anything comment that begins with "Obligatory" is usually worthless almost as bad as "This."

dredmorbius2• 13 years ago

Might be worth mentioning Weston Price, an early 20th century dentist "known primarily for his theories on the relationship between nutrition, dental health, and physical health. He founded the research institute of the National Dental Association, which later became the research section of the American Dental Association, and served as its chair from 1914–1928." (Wikipedia)

In particular, he drew a lot of relationships between diet and not only dental but general health. Some of which sounds a bit kooky but a lot of which seems to be getting confirmed, especially regards the role of sugar and processed carbohydrates.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weston_Price

yetanotherphd• 13 years ago

That is in no way relevant to this article, it's enough to have people promoting fad diets on articles where it is actually relevant, without this too.

lukifer• 13 years ago

It isn't exactly controversial that frequent sugar consumption exacerbates oral microbial growth. My mouth health got drastically better after giving up soda, and more so again after giving up grains.

dredmorbius2• 13 years ago

The salient part is Price's assertion that health was strongly dependent on diet. As I said, it's kooky, and frankly, I don't know whether I find his views credible or not, though I've shifted from my initial highly skeptical viewpoint. The work of others in the relationship of sugars to health (particularly Roger Lustig and Gary Taubes) makes me somewhat more receptive of Price's general theory.

My reason for posting was more to show that lines of inquiry similar / related to those of the source article have been pursued for a long time.

So: yes, actually, it is relevant.

Incidentally: if you're familiar with any specific criticisms of Prices work, posting those might be of interest. To myself as well as others.

erikb• 13 years ago

Well, let's not be too fast about throwing away a well known solution because one research shows that there might be (better?) alternatives.

Brushing your teeth: no longer the best thing for your teeth?

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