QuickCheck: Should you avoid rinsing your mouth after brushing your teeth?

WHEN a character finishes brushing their teeth in the movies or on TV, they often just spit out the excess without rinsing their mouths with water and gargling. However, most of us adopt the rinse-gargle-spit routine after brushing our teeth – after all, we were taught to do so since young, often by those older and wiser.

Since Hollywood-made entertainment is make-believe, it is easy to dismiss this non-rinsing behaviour as an on-screen quirk.