What’s on your list of top 5 things to do when you get out of bed? It may be different for everyone, but I’d say for the most part, brushing your teeth is somewhere on there. Now brushing your teeth is natural to most of us. We at least brush our teeth every morning when we wake up and hopefully every evening before we fall asleep. Surprisingly enough, there are many countries around the world that only brush once a day, or not at all!
We learn to brush our teeth at a very young age and then we obsess about our teeth through bi-annual visits to the dentist with teeth cleanings, braces, surgery and more. It’s hard to imagine not brushing your teeth right?
Well surprisingly enough there are many indigenous societies that don’t pay much attention to oral hygiene and can get away with it because of their natural diet. Foods that are rich in Vitamin K prevent acid build-up and cultures that eat very natural foods and stay away from processed sugars and fats see a less detrimental effect on their teeth.
Now let’s focus on the places that do brush their teeth – does everyone use the same type of toothbrush? What about toothpaste?
Some societies use twigs that are broken, slayed and softened to crete bristles at the end. Various trees and plants can create this effect and make it easy to brush one’s teeth and discard a disposable, natural product.
For what Americans consider as toothpaste, some people in rural India, Africa, Southeast Asia and South America use brick, charcoal, rangoli powder, mud, salt or ash for cleaning their teeth. These all have negative effects for gum health and, not surprisingly, aide in gingival recession, abrasion and dentin sensitivity.
I’d have to say that I’m pretty obsessive about my teeth and try to take the best possible care of them. I couldn’t imagine not having routine checkups, flossing, brushing, etc. to take care of my oral hygiene.