> I’ve long suspected that a good diet + brushing the teeth very carefully a few times per week would be more effective than drinking soda and sweet and starchy foods + brushing after every meal
That seems like a false dilemma. Those two things are never at odds with one another. People don't eat sugar because it is part of their brushing regimen, they eat sugar because they like/are addicted to the stuff.
So if you're eating sugar for reasons that have nothing to do with promoting teeth health, then brushing more often to combat that damage makes a lot of sense.
Could you eat less bad stuff and brush less? Potentially, but if people wished to drop sugar from their diet the list of benefits to doing so is so long that brushing less is just a minor footnote at best.
That seems like a false dilemma. Those two things are never at odds with one another. People don't eat sugar because it is part of their brushing regimen, they eat sugar because they like/are addicted to the stuff.
So if you're eating sugar for reasons that have nothing to do with promoting teeth health, then brushing more often to combat that damage makes a lot of sense.
Could you eat less bad stuff and brush less? Potentially, but if people wished to drop sugar from their diet the list of benefits to doing so is so long that brushing less is just a minor footnote at best.