Water Cooler: What happens if you stop brushing your teeth?

When you’re dead tired and just want to flop into bed, it’s tempting to skip brushing your teeth for the night. Skipping it occasionally will likely not have much of an affect on your oral health, but do it often enough and that habit will catch up with you more quickly than you might expect.

What exactly would happen if you stopped brushing your teeth for a day, a month or even a year? Nothing good, that’s for sure. Where did we begin the habit of brushing our teeth anyway?

Humans made a habit of cleaning their teeth as far back as 3000 B.C. Ancient Egyptians made crude toothbrushes from twigs and leaves, and other cultures would chew one end of a twig until it frayed and use the fibers to clean the teeth and gums.

In Europe, the French were early adopters of teeth brushing and other oral hygiene methods, promoting their use in the 17th and 18th centuries. Boar bristle toothbrushes were invented in China in 1498 and remained in popular use until replaced by the nylon bristle brush invented in 1938.

Teeth brushing only became popular in the United States after World War II when soldiers brought their strict hygiene habits back home. Brushing your teeth at least once a day became accepted as an important element of health across the country. It was much later that the first electric toothbrush was invented in 1960.

Although it seems like common sense to us now, daily toothbrushing is a relatively new but very important habit. It doesn’t take long for the bacteria in your mouth to wreak havoc.

Within minutes after eating, food debris and saliva in your mouth provides the perfect moist environment for bacteria to thrive. Streptococcus is a common bacteria found in the mouth. It isn’t inherently harmful, but that changes once it metabolizes the sugar or protein from lingering food debris.

After a full day without brushing your teeth, Streptococci will have produced a significant amount of plaque which is a type of slimy, sticky biofilm. Plaque helps these bacteria adhere to the surface of your teeth where they can multiply, create more plaque and continue the cycle. According to “Shafer’s Textbook of Oral Pathology,” dental plaque can even begin to decalcify dentin within 48 hours. Dentin is hard, calcified tissue found below the protective enamel. It provides structure to the tooth, reinforces the enamel and surrounds the tooth’s soft tissue.

In about 48 hours to one week, plaque build-up hardens into yellow tartar. The enamel takes on damage as the proliferation of bacteria creates a large amount of lactic acid. Lactic acid eats away at the enamel, which eventually leads to cavities, or holes formed from permanent enamel damage.

After a month of no brushing, the gums will likely develop gingivitis. Gingivitis is an immune response to the build up of bacterial biofilm. The immune system tries to attack the bacteria and causes redness, irritation, sensitivity, inflammation and bleeding in the gums in the process.

One year into neglecting brushing your teeth, gingivitis will progress into periodontitis. The gums begin to pull away from the tooth. Bone cells will begin to break down surrounding bone tissue in attempt to rid the mouth of the tissue it thinks is causing the gum disease. The teeth will eventually become loose and fall out. This infection can be spread throughout the body through the circulatory system and cause a whole host of other issues.

This timeline can be different for everyone depending on factors like genetics, diet and overall health, but just make sure to brush those pearly whites before things take a turn for the worse.

Rachel Baker can be reached at (509) 459-5583 or rachelb@spokesman.com.