Facebook poll

I conducted a Facebook poll starting on February 23 at 12:05am and lasting for a week, and here are the results using Flourish.

Results to the survey question, "After brushing your teeth, do you rinse or just spit out the toothpaste without rinsing?" 22 people (79%) voted "rinse," and 6 people (21%) voted "spit." 

The results of the Facebook poll "I'm curious, y'all. After brushing your teeth, do you rinse or just spit out the toothpaste without rinsing? 🤔 (or none of the above?)." 79% rinse, 21% just spit.

I asked my immediate Facebook friends whether they rinse or spit out their toothpaste, and the engagement was pleasantly surprising. 

Overall, 22 people (79%) voted "rinse," and 6 people (21%) voted "just spit." This is fascinating because it is an aspect of dental hygiene that isn't consequential or exciting enough for anyone to talk about. According to page one of Google search results, overall blogs seem to say that dentists recommend not rinsing with water or even mouthwash after brushing your teeth because that washes away any residual fluoride that might help promote re-mineralization of enamel on teeth.

My main takeaway from this little experiment were further questions. Now, I want to ask: what aspect of the question (i.e. phrasing) made this an easily engage-able question? On the other hand, why were there only a total of 28 respondents out of my hundreds of Facebook friends that might have seen it? Is rinsing or spitting actually better or worse for you (correlation with incidence of caries)? Is it cultural whether or not we learn to spit or rinse?