Many individuals like a late-night snack, but according to a recent survey, few feel obligated to rinse their teeth to eliminate all the food.
According to a poll on sleep routines sponsored by Wake Up Sleepy Head, eating is becoming increasingly popular as a strategy to avoid waking up during the middle of the night. Even a popular TikTok video promoting a late-night snack to avoid sleepless nights in bed was inspired by it.
How important is your dental health?
But according to the same report, 1 in 10 Americans wouldn’t brush before bed! Also, an additional one in ten Americans only uses their toothbrushes at night, between two and four times per week. The majority of people (63%) claim to clean their teeth daily before going to bed.
What is alarming, though, is that Americans are not going for their dental exams. For instance, a survey sponsored by Byte showed that a third of Americans had not had a dental examination for a long time. Moreover, some claim that since the COVID-19 pandemic began, they have not visited a dentist.
Experts recommend that it is good to have a dental exam after every 6 to 12 months. Therefore going for more than two years is like five missed dental exams. Although virus transmissions are a concern for most Americans, around 59% say the high cost of treatment is their greatest barrier. Around a third of the respondents say they are paying out of pocket since they don’t have dental insurance.
Americans postponing dental exams
Approximately 61% of Americans say they delay dental appointments because of anxiety and not being ready to visit a dentist. In addition, some 52% of the respondents say that they had a worse experience with a dentist.
In the US, the biggest procrastinators are people from Las Vegas, followed by Miami, Arlington, Atlanta, and Minneapolis. On the other hand, cities where people take their dental health seriously, include New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Diego, where there number of Americans who put off their dental exam was least.