Spit; Don’t Rinse.

25 / 05 / 2023

Spit; Don’t Rinse.

I read an article recently written by a friend from way back, Mr Tim Ives, the most fantastic dental hygienist and co founder of the digital and eco-friendly online O’Hehir University.

I know he will be happy for me to pass it on to you all as it is the most brilliant message and one you can easily share.

Turn off the tap when brushing to minimise negative effects on the environment.

He said “World leaders have been meeting to reach an agreement to reduce carbon omissions to decrease the heating of our planet and the subsequent dangers that would result, such as global sea level rise. If all the people in the world started to make this one small change of turning the tap off when brushing our teeth, we would already be well on our way to meeting the target for the first year in energy consumption. Some people think it is such a small thing and that it will have very little impact compared to the effects of changes in transport and industry, but it is all about helping to meet the targets set by our leaders, who will be setting goals for reductions in energy consumption throughout the forthcoming years.

According to his calculations the tap would run for 2 minutes each cleaning and the water flow would typically be 2.5 gallons per minute, annually this equated to 1,825 gallons of water per year per person. If this was reduced to 10 seconds twice a day, each person would use 182.5 gallons of water per year making a massive 90% saving.

The worlds population is 7.7 billion so we can only guess what the energy and water savings could be globally with this one small change.

Also important is the huge impact “Spit; don’t Rinse” has on reducing dental decay. By rinsing after brushing you are rinsing away all the fluoride or de-sensitising agents in your toothpaste – and that’s just foolish!