We read 92,564 messages about teeth. Here is what people do when they can't brush.

We read 92,564 public messages about teeth, gums and breath — 48,718 different people, across 43 forums and 2,267 separate discussions. Not a survey. Not a focus group. People talking to each other, mostly anonymously, mostly late, about something they would rather not say out loud.

We wanted the answer to one question: what do people actually do when they can't brush their teeth? Not what they are advised to do. What they do.

How this was counted, so you can judge it

Every message in the set was read by a program. Nothing was sampled and nothing was estimated. Each number below is a count of mentions — how many messages contain that idea — and not a count of people or a share of anything. One person writing five times counts five times, and a mention can be a confession, a suggestion or a question. We are describing what the conversation is made of, not what a population believes.

The largest sources were r/askdentists (17,745), r/Invisalign (11,022), r/ADHD (7,616), r/LifeProTips (7,244). Quotes are reproduced exactly as written, typos and all.

One correction worth stating, because it changed a headline finding. Our first pass counted the word "gum" and produced a much larger number — until we noticed that in a corpus about teeth, "gum" is usually the tissue, not the sweet. Restricting it to chewing gum cut the figure to a fifth of what it was. Every count below survived that kind of check.

Mouthwash wins, and nothing is close

The substitute people reach for is mouthwash: 1,521 mentions. Second is not another product at all — it is a change of room. Brushing in the shower: 573. Chewing gum comes third with 410.

I brush in the shower too! I’ve been doing it for years and now I don’t feel like I got clean in the shower until my teeth are also clean.

— r/ADHD

Below that the list gets improvised. 155 mentions of rinsing with plain water and calling it done. 54 of a wipe, a napkin or a washcloth used on the teeth. 32 of using a finger. And 82 messages in which somebody simply says they went to bed having done nothing at all.

Mouthwash? Or rubbing toothpaste on your teeth with a finger? Or using a toothbrush with no toothpaste? Just some ideas! I feel your pain lmao

— r/ADHD

Read those together and a pattern appears that no product page describes: people are not looking for a better toothbrush. They are looking for a way to do something without standing at a sink.

The reasons are not laziness

The reasons people give were the surprise of the whole exercise. The largest single explanation in the data is not carelessness — it is attention. Messages mentioning ADHD, executive function or task paralysis: 961. Depression or burnout: 630. Being too tired at night: 287.

I have ADHD and autism and I still struggle with brushing teeth because it's so boring. It doesn't stimulate me at all and I don't see the benefit because it's not immediate.

— r/autism

After the states of mind come the circumstances: travel and commuting, 492 mentions, and work or night shifts, 250. Different lives, same shape — the person is awake, willing, and nowhere near a bathroom.

Yes! I used to keep a pack at work. I’d sit at my desk after lunch and sort of just mindlessly brush until my mouth felt squeaky clean. Even when the paste was gone, it felt nice just to massage my gums.

— r/ADHD

It is worth saying plainly, because most writing on this subject assumes the opposite: in 92,564 messages, we found far more people describing an obstacle than people describing indifference.

Night is where the problem lives

Mentions of night, bedtime or the sleeping hours: 1,875. Mentions of the morning: 999. People are not mainly worried about the middle of the day. They are worried about the eight hours when the mouth goes quiet, saliva slows down, and whatever was or wasn't done at eleven at night has to hold until morning.

It is also the window in which the least is possible. Chewing gum ends when sleep starts, and mouthwash is over in thirty seconds. What the data points at is a different requirement: something that stays on the tooth after the lights go out. CariSpray is built for exactly that stretch — a nano-hydroxyapatite spray that stays put, works without rinsing and works without a sink.

Oh RIP my teeth I always forget at night, in the morning I have meds or breakfast to act as prompts, but the only nighttime constants are removing pants and moving from my chair to my bed.

— r/ADHD

Shame is doing damage of its own

Messages using the words embarrassed, ashamed or humiliated: 518. Messages about hiding it — covering the mouth, standing further back, saying less: 257. And 152 in which someone writes that they have given up.

thank God I'm not alone, I rarely brush them bc I fucking hate it, but I get too embarrassed to talk about it

— r/autism

That matters for anyone who writes about oral health. This audience is not neutral. Somebody searching at two in the morning has usually already concluded that something is wrong with them, and reads everything through that. Advice written as instruction lands badly on a person in that state, which may be part of why so much of it fails.

Three things we take from it

The gap is the sink, not the toothbrush. Nearly every workaround in the data is a workaround for being somewhere without one. The problem is location far more often than motivation.

The night is the unguarded stretch. Mentioned nearly twice as often as the morning, and the one period in which every common answer on the list stops working.

Shame changes behaviour before decay does. 152 people writing that they have given up is a small number beside 92,564 — but it is the end of a road that begins with hiding, and hiding is mentioned 257 times.

Using these numbers

You are welcome to quote any figure on this page, in print or online, provided you link back to it as the source. If you want a specific cut — one condition, one age group, one country — write to us and we will run it and publish the result here.

Common questions

What exactly is in this data set?

Public messages from 43 discussion forums about teeth, gums, breath, braces, dentures and dry mouth — 92,564 of them, written by 48,718 accounts across 2,267 separate threads. Everything in it was posted publicly. No private messages, no accounts, no names.

Does a mention mean a person?

No, and the difference matters. A mention is one message containing an idea. One person writing about mouthwash five times is counted five times, and a message can be advice to somebody else rather than a description of the writer. Every figure here is a count of messages, which is why none of them is given as a percentage.

Why is mouthwash first if dentists say it does not replace brushing?

Because the question was what people do, not what works. The count describes behaviour, and the two are often different. That gap is arguably the most useful thing in the data for anybody trying to help.

Can I quote these numbers?

Yes. Quote any figure in print or online with a link back to this page as the source. If you need a cut we have not published — a single condition, an age group, a country — ask and we will run it.

How often is this updated?

The set grows as new discussions are added, and the page is recounted in place rather than replaced. The date below is the date of the current count.

Figures compiled 2026-08-29. The set keeps growing. This page is recounted and updated in place rather than replaced, so the numbers here are always the current ones.