From twigs to electrical toothbrushes humans have been cleaning our teeth since the ancient Egyptians in 5000 BCE.
But, what if you just straight-up stopped brushing your teeth at all for the rest of your life?
Within minutes of stopping, the food debris and moist environment from your saliva creates an ideal environment for bacteria to survive.
Streptococci is one of the most common bacteria found in our mouth and it's normally not harmful,
until it metabolizes sugar or protein from food debris.
But after a full day, these bacteria would have already produced significant amounts of plaque from sugars.
Plaque is the slimy layer of biofilm that you can feel on your teeth when you
"accidentally" forget to brush sometimes.
And this plaque actually helps the bacteria adhere to your teeth,
which allows them to produce even more plaque creating a cycle of bacteria and plaque build up.
After a week, all this build-up will cause some pretty serious bad breath.
Not to mention that the plaque begins to harden and form tartar that lead to your teeth appearing yellow.
At this point, you're also causing significant damage to tooth enamel
as the bacteria break down sugar to produce lactic acid.
Enamel is the hard mineralized outer layer of the tooth.
And once it breaks down,
you can't make any more.
After a month, your decaying teeth will form cavities.
These holes in your teeth get deeper and deeper if left untreated, leading to gingivitis, an early form of gum disease.
This is because the immune system
attacks your gums and teeth in response to the bacteria build up.
Your cavities will fill up with pus, which is a protein-rich fluid filled
with dead white blood cells and your gums will be
extremely sensitive at this point, turning red when you touch it and bleeding with any significant pressure.
After an entire year of neglect, you now have Periodontitis.
The inner layer of the gum and bone are broken down by enzymes and pull away from the teeth to form pockets,
which only further allow collected food debris and bacteria to gather.
This causes the immune system to go into overdrive and destroys your gums and ligaments,
resulting in advanced Periodontitis where your teeth become loose and begin to fall out.
Any longer, and the issues can spread beyond your mouth and into your blood,
causing inflammation throughout your organs and increasing the likelihood of erectile disfunction,
head and neck cancer, chronic heart disease, and even dementia development.
Combine your lack of brushing with a poor diet high in processed foods, and especially sugar,
which is much more common now than early Homo sapiens would have experienced,
and you have a much more accelerated breeding ground for bacteria,
putting your whole body's health at risk.
Brush your teeth kids!
[Mitch] Thank you guys for watching if you have any burning questions.
If you have any burning questions
[Greg] -Flaming questions
[Mitch] -that you want us to answer leave it in the comments below and we'll try to tackle it this year.
[Greg] -Seriously. Let us know what you want to see; we'll make it.
Okay, make sure you're following us on Instagram and Twitter and make sure you subscribe to this channel for new science videos every Thursday.
Ok, we'll see you next week. Peace! [Mitch] -See you!