Three days lost a year...

I didn't quite believe it when I first did the sum - brushing your teeth for two minutes twice a day equates to about 2 hours a month or 24 hours a year. Thought of another way, that's three whole working days every single year.

I really can't quite get my head round this. I know that cleaning my teeth thoroughly is something very worthwhile and that it saves pain and bills in the long term, etc etc. But to spend three working days a year doing it????!!! Two minutes seems such a small amount on each occasion but does seems rather unproductive when multiplied up that far. Perhaps I should be listening to little doses of something instructive at the same time - brushing up on my Spanish while I brush?

I have been quite diligent about cleaning since getting a posh Oral B Triumph toothbrush last year. I initially scoffed at the fact it included a timer (or Smartguide to use their jargon) but have found that it does help spur you to the full two minutes by prompting you to to change quadrants every 30 seconds. And it does reward you with a smiley face after two minutes...



I've occasionally experimented with using it for longer - you sometimes then get one of several different winking expressions. Leaving it running on my desk for five minutes just now only resulted in one change so I'm no nearer to knowing how many expressions are in its repertoire.



Perhaps I'm out of favour because I haven't yet responded to its instruction to bin my existing brush?