"Nick Brooks" wrote | SWMBO is a dentist and offered the following advice:- (in order | of importance) | Your toothpaste should contain flouride | Brush your teeth at least twice a day. preferably after every meal. | Use any tooth brush you like as long as it had a small head (she uses a | cheap electric one)
I would say that brush after every meal is the most important.
Soot-and-salt was the traditional tooth powder, combining mild abrasive and antibacterial qualities. I'm not convinced that toothpaste does much good apart from minty taste (and I hate the taste of toothpaste) and there are reasons to avoid the use of fluoride.
Avoiding sugary foods is another important thing that can be done. I can remember my boss (a Chief Dental Officer) catching me enjoying a jumbo bar of Cadbury and a can of {a leading cola drink} in the office one lunchtime and exclaiming "do you know ow many tablespoons of sugar are in that" and I responded "the {popular cola drink}'s worse because it's acidic". "Oh you do know about such things then".
When I was little my dentist was firmly of the belief that beer was better for children than {cola drink}.
Owain