Why should you brush your teeth after breakfast and not before?!

Why should you brush your teeth after breakfast and not before?

I always used to brush my teeth after breakfast...for two reasons mostly - for one, why clean your teeth and then eat, dirtying them up again, and two, food tastes gross after brushing.

But I started thinking...when you sleep, all of the plaque develops in your mouth overnight, with the bacteria getting into it. And your mouth tastes gross in the morning. So I thought it might be disgusting to eat with your mouth full of plaque and bacteria - you'd be swallowing most of it!

So what do you think? When should you brush, before breakfast or after?

Here's my professional advice, which I am qualified to give as a licensed dentist:

Brushing after breakfast is the right thing to do. Those who do not brush after breakfast are giving the plaque and food debris stuck on their teeth an entire uninterrupted morning to rot away at their enamel.

The morning breath bacteria are not harmful when swallowed. Your stomach has very strong concentrations of hydrochloric acid, and the germs in your oral cavity cannot survive in that environment.

If you don't like that morning breath gross taste, rinse with mouthwash right after waking up. Eat your breakfast, then brush your teeth to protect them for the rest of the morning.

Those who advocate brushing before breakfast then just rinsing afterwards have it bass-ackwards.

Hope this helps.