The scary reason you should never brush your teeth after oral sex

Experts warn against it

Oral sex and teeth brushing do not go hand in hand. Image: Unsplash

While you may get the urge to brush your teeth after oral sex, doctors warn it's not safe.

When it comes to having sex, everyone knows that condoms are the way to go.  

They offer a buffer for unwanted pregnancies, along with much-needed protection from any sexually transmitted infections a person may be susceptible to contracting. 

However, oral sex is a different ballgame, so to speak. While dental dams are recommended by medical professionals they’re mostly a thing of the past – and aren’t much help for anyone practising oral sex on women. Thus, by and large, people tend to have oral sex without protection. 

While that comes with its own set of risk factors, certain things can increase the risk of contracting an infection when practising oral sex. And shockingly, brushing your teeth is one of them. 

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After engaging in oral sex, many people beeline straight to the bathroom to do a proper scrub of their teeth and tongue – which we think is pretty goddamn fair, given oral sex is a particularly intimate act. 

However, experts say that brushing your teeth is actually the worst thing you can do after giving oral sex, due to tiny microtears in your gums, caused by the bristles in the brush. 

‘So what?’ you may ask. As GP Dr Prasanthi Purusothaman tells Body+Soul, “The risk is the abrasion causing cuts and minor bleeding of gums which acts as a possible opening for pathogenic bacteria and viruses and possible STIs to enter the bloodstream.” 

Yep, think chlamydia, herpes, hepatitis A and B, syphilis, gonorrhoea and HIV. Any STI you could catch from sex will have an entry point straight into your gums. 

And no, it doesn’t matter whether you’re having sex with a male or a female. If you’re going down on a man or a woman, the advice is clear: do not brush your teeth immediately after. 

Brushing your teeth after oral sex could result in STIs. Image: iStock

Medical advice aside, it’s pretty normal to want to wash out your mouth after oral sex, and water doesn’t always seem to cut it. 

Fortunately, there are other things you can do to help feel fresh post-coitus. 

“Rather than brushing, rinse the mouth with water only or try an antibacterial mouthwash,” says Dr Purusothaman. That will help to cleanse the mouth but won’t cause any cuts. 

“Also spitting semen as soon as possible rather than letting it linger in the mouth,” Purusothaman says is always recommended practice. 

The same rules apply if you’re a pre-sex brusher too. “The suggestion is no oral sex until at least 30 mins after brushing the teeth pre-oral sex,” she says. 

So next time you’re planning on getting hot and heavy, go au naturale and leave the brushing for later that night, and buy a mouthwash for post-sex cleansing instead.

Originally published as The scary reason you should never brush your teeth after oral sex