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Comment by shmde | Hacker News Reader

What is your diet ? I am assuminf there is no processed sugar or refined wheat/gluten ?

Not OP, but in a similar situation. I'm 39, the last time a dentist looked in my mouth I was probably 16 or so* and I brush only once a day (after breakfast, which is the least effective over doing it before going to sleep). Never had a cavity. I don't think I have halitosis, at least the people I have kissed over the years never complained to me.

Being Italian, I eat pasta literally every day, and my daily breakfast is chocolate chip cookies.

My impression is that mouth health is 100% genetics and biome lottery.

* I have extreme mistrust in their profession, due to bad experiences. When I was a kid, I injured a milk tooth which turned black. The dentist shrugged and said that it would fall normally. It didn't and it fucked up all permanent teeth that sprouted in random directions in the area. Every single dentist surveyed to fix the problem requested gigantic payments (to the tune of tens thousands of dollars, this was in the 90s in Italy, so adjust for inflation and cost of living to know how crazy this was) without providing any result guarantees, so I kept my crooked teeth. It doesn't help dentistry in Italy is that profession where you mainly do tax evasion, and occasionally look into people mouths to pass the time.

41 here, and also not seen by a dentist since I was around 16. No cavities for now, that I know of. If I have any, they don't hurt, at least for now. Fingers crossed.

My diet is rather unremarkable, I don't consume a lot of sugar or sweets but don't refrain from them either. I brush 3 times a day. I do have occasional halitosis but it seems to be related to acid reflux, my breath seems to be fine when I have no reflux.

37 and same here. I brush twice a day with an electric toothbrush. I also brush my tongue well and rinse and gargle vigorously with water afterwards. I find I need to an electric toothbrush or I can't brush my wisdom teeth properly.

Last time I went to the dentist they removed 4 teeth because my mouth was crowded. Then I had braces. They came out when I was 16 or so and haven't been since.

I also spit several times a day. I don't know if this is relevant, but it seems to me it might be. At some point in my life I developed a habit, whenever I go to the toilet, I spit. My mouth actually salivates to get ready for it. I feel like it might do something to keep my mouth fresh.

I don't eat fruit. Very little sugar. I only eat within an 8 hour window each day. Lots of cheese. Every meal is balanced (plenty of fat to accompany any carbs, protein is incidental, I don't think about it).

Anecdata: all members of my nuclear family have crowded, crooked teeth. We all have a penchant for sweets across the day. My mom is 93 and has no cavities, but her A1c started reading for 6 in the last few years. I'm 61 and have one filling. FWIW, offer the years, lots of dentists have found other cavities in my mouth, but no two dentists have ever found the same cavities... Between the four of us in my family, there aren't even 5 fillings in our ugly teeth.

Diet doesn't do much if you have bad genetics, I eat and brush the same as my gf, we don't smoke/drink, exercise the same, we basically have the same exact lifestyle. She has teeth issues multiple times a year, I never had a single problem

Are you sure? My girlfriend says one thing but I observe the daily unaccounted for consumption of fruit and sweets. Fair enough if you also consume lots of sweets, though.

100% sure, first because I trust her and second because there is no way I wouldn't notice given our current work/life situation

Sorry to say but you're naive to think you can trust someone when it comes to diet. There's a reason human diet studies are considered very difficult if not impossible (given ethical requirements, although of course it can be done unethically like making people afraid of saturated fats for no good reason). Fair enough on the second point, though, I believe you.

idk what kind of relationships you have but I can assure you this isn't a problem here

Nothing that severe. I have beer, toast, sandwiches and burgers. I don't do a ton of sweets / soda but I do some (and if I do my teeth definitely get a fuzz that motivates brushing!).

My great grandma loved jello “salad”s (eg jello with fruit in it). It’s just genetics.

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