You don’t want to eat after brushing in the evenin. It is not the end of the world if you do it very rarely.
I used to use brushing my teeth in the evening as a wight loss strategy. Don’t wanna eat with a clean mouth.
this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2025
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I brushed in the night earlier than usual I normally brush when going to sleep but I decided to brush earlier, I am probably overthinking it way too much because I have OCD.
You are good man.
If you're going to do it, at least rinse your mouth after you eat. And actually, according to my hygenist, it's good practice to always rinse your mouth after you eat.
I don't think it matters to your dental health as long as it's not a regular thing. but for me, I would always rebrush in a scenario like that just because I can't really go to sleep without a freshly brushed mouth.
I heard on the radio at some point that it's not great to eat after brushing, but it's more important to brush your teeth at all. Unfortunately, they didn't explain why, but from what I can tell, brushing your teeth with (normal) toothpaste does two things:
-
Removes the plaque from your teeth, which is basically a layer of bacteria, which can damage the enamel, since they can produce acids. Or if you don't brush for a longer time, they can form into hard layers which cannot be brushed away (so-called calculus/tartar).
-
Repairs the enamel by providing fluoride molecules, which stick into places where the enamel is missing molecules. This is important in particular, since the places with missing molecules are more likely to get further damaged by the acids.
So, if you eat after brushing, you're providing new food to the bacteria, which allows them to form into a new layer of plaque.
But it's gonna take a few hours to re-form the new plaque, during which your teeth won't get damaged as much anyways. And the new plaque sits on top of freshly repaired enamel, too.
This is definitely simplifying it, too, like apparently plaque can also affect the gums and obviously different people have more or less problems with teeth in general, but it still seems plausible to me...
2 things i have noticed which wasnt pointed out by others:
- You should be flossing then brushing.
- Water flossing isnt a replacement to regular flossing.
i fucking despise string floss and floss picks and water flossing tho i love it, i will consider flossing before brushing.
Do not brush immediately after eating or vice versa. It hurts your teeth's coating
I think this is well intentioned but generally bad advice when stated so definitively. Brush your teeth. Don't let perfection be the enemy of good though and do what you need to do to brush your teeth. Know that it may be better to do it a while after eating but don't let timing prevent you from doing it.
I say this as someone who was told this and the overall result was bad.
Doing the imperfect thing with knowledge is better than doing it without knowledge.
Do not eat anything sweet or sour or what turns sour*
Ever?
Ever.
uh oh
One time, probably fine. But I would avoid doing it all the time. Food remnants just sitting in there for 6-8 hours while you sleep is not good.
Ideally, don't eat after you brush your teeth/floss, wait at least 30 minutes and don't eat (or drink anything other than water) before bed.
Realistically, it's not going to kill you or anything but if you do it a lot, you will be more likely to end up with cavities.
i would just rinse it with mouthwash if you dont want to brush again. as long as you are not using a super-abrasive brush, or brushing aggressively, some toothpaste are pretty abrasive to the teeth.
If you are worried about brushing too much you can always lightly brush with water but not toothpaste to knock food bits off. Flossing would depend on whether you think something is stuck in there.
Flossing is healthier than brushing in this scenario, without risk of wearing out enamel.
Eh, short term it's no big deal. Teeth are durable as hell and won't get fucked up by anything that minor if it's a rare thing. But, the more you do it, the more damage accumulates over time. A few times a year over decades? Never gonna notice it.
A few times a month, and it'll be a decade or two before it would be a problem.
A few times a week, and you'd better have dental coverage and/or good income, because you're looking at a few years before it starts showing up as carries. Less if circumstances are bad, or you didn't start out with very good teeth.
There's also the fact that keeping in the habit of brushing after eating stays a habit better if you don't deviate from it without an important reason. In my mind, if you're awake enough to eat, you're awake enough to brush afterward. If you aren't awake enough to brush, then you probably shouldn't be eating either. Fucks with digestion and metabolism. It's better to just stay on track and skip the snack, if you dig me.
But nah, if it's a rare thing, you'll take more damage from a soda than a single night skipping brushing after a midnight nosh. It's all about the acids.
Now, if you can't be bothered to at least swish out with some water, I'd say you've got worse things to worry about because you can do that on your way back to bed, swallow it and take zero extra effort beyond the mouthful of water. If your energy is that low, or there's some other impediment involved, focus on that.