Rinsing after brushing teeth might diminish the effectiveness of fluoride toothpaste against cavities, Taipei Medical University Shuang Ho Hospital Department of Dentistry director Huang Mao-suan (黃茂栓) said at a nursing and hygiene education seminar hosted by the Health Promotion Administration on Friday.
Fluoride has been proven to be the most effective substance in preventing tooth decay, Huang said, adding that toothpaste with more than 1,000 parts per million of fluoride is recommended.
Maintaining a higher concentration of fluoride in the mouth could help prevent tooth corrosion caused by acid and help suppress bacteria, Huang said.
He added that people should spit out residual toothpaste when they finish brushing, but not rinse with water for half an hour to keep the fluoride in the mouth.
Allowing fluoride to rest in the mouth for 30 minutes is recommended for adults and children alike, Huang said.
According to a study by the Bureau of Health Promotion, the administration’s predecessor, the incidence of dental caries grew from 58 percent of three-year-olds and 73 percent of six-year-olds in 2006 to 61 percent and 79 percent respectively in 2011.
School-aged children on average have 2.5 permanent teeth that show signs of dental caries, with Taiwan narrowly trailing the Philippines and Cambodia, the study showed.
Taiwan failed to meet the WHO’s standard of an average of 2 teeth or less or its own standard of 2.3 teeth, the study showed.
Children are encouraged to use fluoridated mouthwash, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said.
Since 2013, the ministry has subsidized a program to coat the teeth of children under six with a layer of fluoride every three to six months, as well as another program to administer four applications of molar sealant in children aged six to nine.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching