Wetting the brush usually, and/or giving it a rinse (depending on how it's been stored since the last time). The failure to turn it off again until it's needed to rinse at the end is another matter :-)
Are you serious? Do you have a water meter?
Thanks. In general the brush hasn't been "stored" at all and was used in the last 24 hours, so I guessed people generally turned on the tap to wet the brush (and paste?). But why?
Another respondent asked if I was serious so he presumably thinks there's a really good and obvious reason for doing it.
I was brought up to wet the brush first. But after being in situations where water was more difficult to come by, and finding that I could clean my teeth just as well without wetting the brush first, I stopped doing it. I'm still interested in what the point was/is, if any.
Could it be that real bristle brushes were very hard if not wetted? Doesn't apply to modern nylon.
There is if the water has been still for a while..
many older houses have lead pipe or lead solder and you run the tap to reduce the levels in the water.
Some have odd tastes in the water if you don't run it for a while.
In the case of at ;east one type of electric toothbrush, you need to lubricate the head with water or the motor doesn't have the grunt to work the mechanism.
None of which justifies what brassmonkey evidently thinks is OK: turn it on and leave it on. Wetting at the beginning is normal; not then turning it off until needed is not.
Further, my anecdote was based on where I worked: a US-govt funded Lab. Hardly likely to be using lead pipes. Mains water supply in the US seems to be at quite high pressure, too.
Sometimes people use tooth powders - and you definitely want some water with that before starting.
I always have detested swishing warm water round my mouth. So running until cold has been a reason.
Children sometimes worry about not being able to wash the toothpaste out if they find it too strong - maybe as they progress from mild kiddies stuff to "adult" paste - and keeping water running is a reassurance. Becomes habitual.
Personally I like to rinse the foamy tooth paste from my hands during the process but maybe I'm just a messy tooth brusher?
What type is that? I've used Braun and Philips for extended periods and not found that problem.
charles :
Good point. It also occurs to me that when I was child we didn't have toothpaste, we had blocks of powder in tins. You *had* to wet the brush to get the powder onto it.
Both these ideas are leading me towards the idea that wetting the brush before use could be anachronistic.
Colgate Oral B. It only seems to happen after you change the batteries. It works but very slowly, and as it's not only happened to one of them IME, I'd guess it's a "design feature".
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