Dentist says you should never use mouthwash after brushing for an important reason

Mouthwash is a bathroom staple for for many. And while most of the country follows a routine ‘brush then rinse with mouthwash’, one Londondentist made a shocking revelation that we’ve been doing it all wrong.

Anna Peterson (@annapetersondental) took to TikTok with an astonishing claim that using mouthwash after brushing your teeth can in fact result in tooth decay. In a video that has since racked up a whopping 1.9M views, the dentist urged people to stop doing it.

Anna’s revelation left TikTok viewers stunned TikTok

It’s all down to the concentrations of fluoride. Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral found in toothpaste and other dental products to strengthen the tooth enamel and help prevent decay.

In a follow-up video, Anna explained: “Your toothpaste that you brush your teeth with has around 1450ppm fluoride. Your mouthwash has only 220ppm fluoride.

This is a much lower concentration and it’s not enough to protect your teeth from sugars that you are going to eat and drink,

So, when you brush your teeth, and you rinse with mouthwash straight away,

You just rinse off all the high concentration fluoride, for a low concentration fluoride.”

The video encouraged hundreds of curious comments - one of the most occurring questions was asking when people should actually use the dental product.

Confused viewers wanted to know when is the ‘right time’ to use mouthwashTikTok

Dentist Anna followed up by suggesting that mouthwash can be a great product - but only if it is used at the right time of the day. She explained that when you eat sugar, your mouth becomes acidic which causes it to drop in PH.

Once it drops below the critical PH of 5.5, your teeth start to dissolve. “To get your teeth out of this zone, use mouthwash”, she advised.

Mind blown!