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The better advice is to ask the flight attendants for a cup of bottled water and use that instead, especially for brushing teeth.


> especially for brushing teeth

As someone in a dental family and with excellent teeth, you absolutely do not need to brush your teeth on a flight.


Not everyone is the same. My teeth and gums are not that good and I definitely feel much better brushing them after every meal (though I'm aware I should wait after acidic food).

(time-wise, I started increasing brushing after the situation got worse. The root cause for the worsening was not seeing a dentist for two years. Don't do that, definitely see a dentist periodically. And the dentist seems happy with my brushing decision, need to do as much as I can to prevent plaque formation)

For airplanes, I buy three small bottles of water before flight (15hr flight). And I use that for drinking, rinsing and washing my toothbrush. While we cannot bring bottled water from outside the airport to the embarking area, there are usually shops in that area that sell small bottles.


As someone who's never had even a single cavity, when I brush it, it's not because of dental health but for comfort.


Sure, I hate the way my teeth feel if I don't brush. But I also don't care enough to use a gross plane bathroom.

If I'm that concerned, I'd use some mouthwash.


If I'm taking an 8 hour flight after hours at the airport, transit, etc. and am already using the plane bathroom for physiological reasons, I don't mind a quick brush with bottled water...


16 hour flight?


If you have good dental hygiene missing a brushing shouldn’t be a big deal. It can wait until you reach your destination.


It's fine. If you're consistent, you can go a few days and it won't make a difference to your health.


You'll survive.


There's a YouTuber named Stig Shift who chronicles his job as an airline mechanic and he insists the bathroom water is clean enough to drink.


It says right on the bathroom faucet that it isn’t for drinking - anyone brushing their teeth with the sink water is a fool.


Newer planes do not have that sign and even supply paper drinking cups https://i0.wp.com/roomreviews.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/06...


I think that's a bit of a harsh take. People will use what they can get, and they may be assuming the signage was placed there for compliance/legal box-ticking reasons rather than because it will actually make them sick.


If you fail to heed a warning, though, the law provides that you assume the risk of injury that could result and contributed to your own injury. Without assumption of risk, anyone who provides any services would be strictly liable for any injury, even for those that don’t result from inherently dangerous activities. That would mark a significant change in the law and would suddenly make a lot of activities and services infeasible to provide.




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