My wife and I have had a major discussion about this one. She insists on using warm water to brush her teeth, but cold to wash her hands/teeth?!!? WTF???

I use cold water for my tooth brush, and after sufficient scrubbing, I not only rinse my tooth brush, but I load it with as much water as possible to then conduct a series of re-brush-slash-rinsing manuevres. The end state will leave me with a clean and tooth paste free mouth.

fun times.

That said, I don’t rebrush with a rinsed toothbrush but I use one of those ‘color the plaque’ rinses first, then brush, then use a whitening rinse and..then brush again..and then rinse with water. See OCD, a bit.

For the kids though, I consider it a victory if everyone gets their teeth brushed at least once a day (and man, if you knew the mess that was their mouths in my sister’s care…ugh) and so long as they rinse at least with water when they’re done, it’s all good.

Also, we got a great package in the mail today and just to let your readers know, you are an incredibly kind and generous person. You guys, she sent my family a movie, candy, cards and POPCORN!! So, so touched. Thank you and a proper follow up email and thank you note are on the way.

I am totally paranoid about too much fluoride, so that’s why we get the fluoride-free stuff; that being said, I still swish with water after brushing!

If you drink tap water, your teeth get plenty of fluoride.

P.S. My toothbrush must be moistened with WARM water; is that paranoid?

I rinse and brush my tongue, but my kids don’t even spit when they brush. It’s flouride-free toothpaste, so don’t have a coronary. Actually, I’m pretty sure that it’s the same stuff as the bubblegum-in-a-tube we used to get as kids. It probably causes more cavities than it prevents. Oh, training toothpaste.

In fact, I’ve caught my kids sharing long sips straight from the tube, so the wife has to hide their toothpaste. I can’t wait until they try to eat my spearmint or the wife’s fennel stuff. Bleeech!