Was noticing over the past week how all my relatives (seven people aged 21 to 94) were having major problems with dental caries. One has no teeth left, one has only three teeth left, three had completely lost one or more teeth to caries and one of those had 5 crowns, the remaining two people had nine or more fillings. I have fewer cavities than any of the others, including my daughter.

Given that we’re all living in the era of fluoridated water, and all regularly clean teeth, it made me wonder if there was any scientific evidence that brushing of teeth actually reduces the occurrence of dental caries?

So far as I can tell, there has been no scientific study in the past ten years of whether oral hygiene actually works. But I did find a study from 1999 of 1,450 British pre-school children. To my way of thinking British pre-school children is not necessarily representative of the whole world or all ages.
Dental_caries_in_pre-school_children_associations_with_social_class_toothbrushing_habit_and_consumption_of_sugars_and_sugar-containing_foods

This project examined the relative significance of dietary
sugars, toothbrushing frequency and social class as
predictors of caries of children aged 1.5–4.5 years
studied in 1992/3. Children
were classified into four groups according to social
class and toothbrushing habit. Diet/caries associations
were examined for biscuits and cakes, sugar confectionery,
chocolate confectionery and soft drinks, and the
percentage of energy from non-milk extrinsic sugars.

The strength of the association between social
class and caries experience was twice that between
toothbrushing and caries, and nearly three times that
between sugar confectionery and caries (other dietary
variables were not significant).

Social class (occupation of the head of household) in
Britain remains the most potent discriminator of health
inequalities.

Toothbrushing is associated with a significantly reduced risk of caries in smaller studies of 4 and 5-year olds from Scotland and Sweden.

From that and other small studies, it is found that fluoride tablets only help if combined with brushing two or more times a day, and that sugar confectionary only correlates with dental caries if combined with brushing two or more times a day.

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A more recent study (2001/2006) for Swedish adults and late teens suggested that the variables called “social class” and “foreign-born mother” are really a measure of how often people visit the dentist.

I personally think that toothbrushing doesn’t work well because it doesn’t remove anywhere near all of the material around the teeth. Separate to brushing, I use three other strategies for cleaning teeth.

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Apparently “social class” as the best predictor of dental caries even applies in Australia! See Predictors of untreated dental decay among 15–34-year-old Australians

Data were from Australia’s National Survey of Adult Oral Health.

25.8% of 15–34-year-old Australians had untreated dental decay. Those who lived in a location other than a capital city had 2.0 times the odds of having untreated dental decay. Those whose highest level of education was not a university degree had 2.1 times the odds of experiencing untreated dental decay. Participants who experienced fear of dentists had 2.2 times the odds of having untreated dental decay, while those who reported experiencing toothache, orofacial pain or food avoidance in the last 12 months had 1.9 times the odds of having untreated dental decay.

I’m simply minded to mention the expose of Toorale man. His dentures and the explanation, eating a natural diet.

Here brush few times, sometimes three to four times consecutively with fresh paste each time, swish it vigorously (not sure what call that action), then listerine same action thorough, then straight peroxide same action, then swish straight toothpaste, spit much as possible out.
Had one composite filling worn patch back of a front top tooth maybe 12 years ago, previous to that work done maybe thirty + years ago.
I brush like that once a day before bed, occasionally twice a day. The type of toothpaste matters, the white old school stuff seems better.
Only started this way so thoroughly maybe eight years back (lapsed some here and there). Gums are healthy, teeth pearly white. Have most, lost couple only, way up the back along the way, maybe 8 -12years back.
Sometimes I alternate the order of listerine and peroxide. Very salty warm water is good for a swish after brushing too.
Watch out of you’re sticking you tongue down someones neck that has that brown around their teeth, contagious IMO, you’ll need battery acid to be rid of it.
Brushing teeth alone seems to have little penetration in hard to get to places.

So far as I can tell, there has been no scientific study in the past ten years of whether oral hygiene actually works. But I did find a study from 1999 of 1,450 British pre-school children. To my way of thinking British pre-school children is not necessarily representative of the whole world or all ages.

It’s not the bits in your teeth that cause decay. It’s the bacteria that eat it which produce an acid that attacks the teeth, which whilst tough are not that good against acid. So it makes sense to over a lifetime reduce the bits that bacteria eat. Plus not having furry teeth makes you feel better and your breath smell better.

I normally use an anti-bacterial toothpaste but sometimes use bicarb of soda, which also works well.

Earlier on mouth wash was mentioned. Mouth wash has been implicated in cancers of the mouth. Some dentists reckon not to use it.

AwesomeO said:

Earlier on mouth wash was mentioned. Mouth wash has been implicated in cancers of the mouth. Some dentists reckon not to use it.

Apparently recent studies show no statistically significant link:

However, the link between oral cancer and mouthwash is not at all clear. The association in this study was only significant when looking at very frequent use, three times a day.(1) As this is not considered normal use, the reliability of this risk estimate is diminished. There is certainly no credible evidence that mouthwash causes cancer. The results do suggest a link between poor dental hygiene and oral cancers, and reinforce the importance of maintaining good dental health.

As the use of mouthwash and an increased risk of oral cancer has been a source of controversy for decades, a meta-analysis of epidemiological studies of mouthwash and oral cancer and, specifically, mouthwash containing over 25% alcohol, was completed.(2) The quantitative analysis of eighteen studies of mouthwash use and oral malignancy revealed no statistically significant associations between mouthwash use and risk of oral cancer. As well, it did not show any noteworthy trend in risk with increasing daily use, as well as no association between use of mouthwash containing alcohol and oral cancer risk.(2)

http://www.dentistryiq.com/articles/2014/06/mouthwash-and-cancer.html

Bubblecar said:

AwesomeO said:

Earlier on mouth wash was mentioned. Mouth wash has been implicated in cancers of the mouth. Some dentists reckon not to use it.

Apparently recent studies show no statistically significant link:

However, the link between oral cancer and mouthwash is not at all clear. The association in this study was only significant when looking at very frequent use, three times a day.(1) As this is not considered normal use, the reliability of this risk estimate is diminished. There is certainly no credible evidence that mouthwash causes cancer. The results do suggest a link between poor dental hygiene and oral cancers, and reinforce the importance of maintaining good dental health.

As the use of mouthwash and an increased risk of oral cancer has been a source of controversy for decades, a meta-analysis of epidemiological studies of mouthwash and oral cancer and, specifically, mouthwash containing over 25% alcohol, was completed.(2) The quantitative analysis of eighteen studies of mouthwash use and oral malignancy revealed no statistically significant associations between mouthwash use and risk of oral cancer. As well, it did not show any noteworthy trend in risk with increasing daily use, as well as no association between use of mouthwash containing alcohol and oral cancer risk.(2)

http://www.dentistryiq.com/articles/2014/06/mouthwash-and-cancer.html

Okely dokely. A dentist told me that years ago.

IIRC the mouthwash-cancer thing was big news around 2009. I remember because there was a thing on The Gruen Transfer where they were discussing how Listerine could come back from the bad publicity.

At the time it was thought that mouthwash could damage the mouth lining, allowing nicotine and other smoking-related carcinogens to enter to mouth membranes more easily, thus causing cancer.