Went with my son for his semi-annual dental checkup and I learnt an interesting thing from his dentist.

We are used to brushing our teeth once in the morning (I have the habit of doing it as soon as I wake up) and once before going to bed.

The dentist gave a new suggestion that we should brush our teeth once after breakfast and once before going to bed at night. I was initially puzzled by this thought as I could not imagine how someone could have their breakfast without brushing their teeth in the morning. As I started thinking more about it, a few interesting thoughts came up, which tend to support the dentists reasoning behind this new suggestion.

If we follow what the dentist suggested, then we would be brushing once at 8am and once at 8pm (that is my approximate time of completion of breakfast and dinner), then we get into the habit of brushing our teeth every 12 hours and we brush after two meals, and thus leaving the teeth well protected for more number of hours.

I have been following that routine for the past four days and I just gargle my mouth well when I wake up, and then continue to brush my teeth only after breakfast. I should say, I am quite impressed at the positive psychological effect this has given me and I feel good about it.

I am quite sure old fashioned people like my dad might find this idea a bit crazy, as they have always taught us to brush our teeth as soon as we wake up. Not sure if there is a middle ground, but overall, I intend to continue this for 21 days, as I strongly believe in what Robin Sharma mentioned in ‘The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari’ about doing anything for 21 days and it becomes a part of our daily routine.