Do you leave the tap on when you brush your teeth?

No, never

My H leaves the tap running, it drives me crazy.

I don't even wet my brush before I brush, just rinse it afterwards.

presumably people leave it on out of habit. I usually brush my teeth in the shower though.

No, it's a ridiculous waste of water.

I turn off H leaves it runing - he drives me potty!

I never have but H is the only other person I know who turns it off. He grew up in a country where wasting water was pretty much a crime.

I do. It had never occured to me to turn it off until I watched H one day. I still can't get out of the habit though.

H Leaves it on and it drives me nuts! What a waste!

Habits can be broken. Leave yourself a post-it saying 'wasting water' on your mirror to remind you to turn off.

If everyone left their taps on, the world would dry up. Probably.

ETA that while I might be evangelical about wasting water, I'm terrible for leaving lights on. So I need reminder post-its too!

I clean mine in the shower usually. Do you use hot or cold water? I use cold, OH uses hot, which just seems wrong to me, although also makes sense at the same time!!

No, I don't.

I had an interesting conversation with my CBM about this last year when we had no water due to the floods. She was quite happily saying 'gah, I can't even clean my teeth because I can't run the tap and everyone has the tap running don't they?' and I just had to say 'erm, no, I don't'. She then said 'oh, you've obviously been brought up better than me' (laughingly, it was all in good humour)

I pointed out that she goes to the effort of saving up her wine bottles to put in the recycling bin and even saves up her paper and drives them to the recycling facilities (our recycling collection doesn't handle paper, for some strange reason) - all of this recycling actually uses up energy and isn't terribly efficient, yet she was happy to waste a finite resouce by leaving a tap running.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not evangelical about this. I'm nowhere near as green as I could / should be and I don't recycle everything that I should, but it was interesting that someone who proclaims to be good at recycling and therefore being green hadn't made the mental connection between that and leaving the tap running.

I did, until I read a similar thread on Hitched a while ago, I have stopped but H still carries on.

I'm trying to get into the habit of turning it off - the problem I have is that I normally have my toddler in with me who brushes his teeth at the same time - for some reason he likes it on full whack - I keep having to explain to him its a waste and we dont need it on until we need to rinse the brush - he's gradually getting it but does keep turning it on full power!

I'm not all evangelic about it either, I just don't understand it. I've never left the tap running while I brush my teeth. I just fill up a cup with water, start brushing, when finished I use the water from the cup to rinse, turn the tap back on the rinse my toothbrush, cup and sink. That's the way I've always done it since I was little. So I don't think of it as a water or money saving effort, to me it just doesn't seem logical to leave the tap on. It never occured to me that people would leave the tap running.

Hot water changes the softness of the toothbrush - so a medium brush becomes more like a soft one.

I turn the tap off and have 'trained' H to do the same!

I'm always shocked how many people rinse their mouth out after brushing their teeth. The topical application of the fluoride is so important too yet most peple just rinse it away.

Shiny what about mouthwash? I use Dentyl as it helps me ensure I've done a good clean.

In answer to the original question, I always used to leave the tap running until my kids told me off. I also wasn't cleaning my teeth properly which meant the tap would only run for about a minute. Whereas now I'm conscious of brushing correctly so wet my brush, turn the tap off, sit on the edge of the bath, brush every single tooth then rinse.

Do people using hot water use hot water from the hot water tap? Erk, aren't you worried about it going through the hot water piping? (ETA, I never used to be but H, who is a plumber, told me that I really shouldn't be using the hot water tap for anything other than washing, etc, due to what happens to the water before it comes out the tap.

On another note, I was always taught to put the toothpaste onto a dry toothbrush, (i.e. not to wet it first), so I still do this out of habit. Is this an old wives' tale, do you think?

I turn it off, and am trying to get the kids to do the same - our water is metered, so never mind saving water I want to save money as well!

ETA Oh Zippy, what happens to the water in the hot pipes then? I know that if you've got a water tank in the loft it's not a great idea to use/drink hot water as you might eg have a dead rat floating about in your water tank (it'd be a while before you knew, if ever!). But we have a combi boiler so our 'hot' water is actually just direct from the 'cold' mains supply, and heated as it passes through the boiler on the way up, so I don't mind using hot water from the tap for 'mouth' things now. Not that I use hot for cleaning my teeth, just something I thought I'd ask about!

But if you don't rinse your mouth afterwards it tastes too minty and weird doesn't it? I've never heard anything suggesting you shouldn't rinse your mouth afterwards. As for topical application of fluoride, isn't that why water is fluoridated (if that's a word)?

Very few water supplies are fluoridated.

Spacecadet I googled as I'm feeding my baby and it is easier to copy/paste than type ?

Fluoride is effective in preventing and reversing the early signs of dental caries (tooth decay). Researchers have shown that there are several ways through which fluoride achieves its decay-preventive effects. It makes the tooth structure stronger, so teeth are more resistant to acid attacks. Acid is formed when the bacteria in plaque break down sugars and carbohydrates from the diet. Repeated acid attacks break down the tooth, which causes cavities. Fluoride also acts to repair, or remineralize, areas in which acid attacks have already begun. The remineralization effect of fluoride is important because it reverses the early decay process as well as creating a tooth surface that is more resistant to decay.

Basically if you rinse you lose that action.

Ah yes, the other thing I meant to say - you can find maps by googling to see if yours is.

Not me, but H does and it drives me nuts. I've even hopped out of bed to go to the bathroom and turn it off while he's brushing, but not a bit of difference. Our water is metered here, never mind the wastage issues. Grrr....

Just typed out a reply to this and it crashed on me.

I used to think exactly as you do - that if it came from a combi boiler then it would be okay to use for mouth things. H seemed to indicate otherwise when we first me. I think it was something to do with the pipes that are used to heat the water. I will ask him tonight specifically what he meant by this, but he certainly indicated the water wasn't quite as 'okay' as I had assumed it would be.

Thank goodness - flouride has a lot of negative effects too (flouridosis, links to depression and thyroid problems) and frankly should be something individuals decide if they want to take supplements of, not have it forced upon them. I use a flouride free toothpaste too.

I turn the tap off. I vividly remember watching an episode of Sesame Street as a child where there was a little cartoon about a boy who ran the tap while brushing his teeth and ran all the water out of a lake. All the fish were struggling to breathe and shouting (?singing?) at him to turn the tap off.

It obviously made a big impression on me! 20-odd years later I'll turn off any tap left running. ?

I do but again it's out of habit, i was never taught to turn the tap off whilst brushing and so i do leave it on.

I do tend to rinse my toothbrush mid brushing though too.

One problem you can get from hot water systems is lead. Its still legal to use lead solder on hot water systems.

As for the fluoride - Dept of health want inner city (especially) areas to be fluoridated but its not that easy as water supplies aren't that distinct. Hopefully they'll give up soon when they realise that by wanting fluoridation for, say, Peckham they'll be doing the whole of London.

I always used to leave the tap on, it was how I was taught. I turn it off now ?

Never leave the tap on, ever.

I've not left the tap running for years, but have become more conscious of the waste since having a home with a meter. DH leaves it running at full tilt and it drives me mad.

I also work for a water company so am aware of lots of issues surrounding the wise use of water.

I'd have thought the amount of nastiness from hot water would be minimal given the amount of water you're ingesting when you brush your teeth? It makes sense to try and avoid it, but you probably inhale more lead from walking along a busy road than brushing your teeth.