“was not associated” tells us more about the sample size than the effect, as far as I can tell, though, doesn’t it? The 0.82-2.42 CI does not seem very reassuring. Especially given this is just observational—it could well be that people who brush immediately after intake of something that’s bad for your teeth are generally conscientious about their dental health, so if they still end up with worse outcomes in this study (albeit not reaching statistical significance), then brushing quickly after acid intake could potentially be even worse than this CI (weakly) suggests.
That said, the measured odds ratios for fruit/acids between meals were so much larger that it might indeed make more sense to focus on these than on the exact timing of brushing.
“was not associated” tells us more about the sample size than the effect, as far as I can tell, though, doesn’t it? The 0.82-2.42 CI does not seem very reassuring. Especially given this is just observational—it could well be that people who brush immediately after intake of something that’s bad for your teeth are generally conscientious about their dental health, so if they still end up with worse outcomes in this study (albeit not reaching statistical significance), then brushing quickly after acid intake could potentially be even worse than this CI (weakly) suggests.
That said, the measured odds ratios for fruit/acids between meals were so much larger that it might indeed make more sense to focus on these than on the exact timing of brushing.
Thank you for double checking.
Overall I am still very uncertain, but lean towards it being fine. Even dentists are giving mixed signals.
Unfortunately Chinese sources but these are dentists saying you can brush immediately
https://www.facebook.com/starlitdental/posts/pfbid0SdX4RLmkxdzUYSXDRfnsbH6kpPJrFCjsKVFrJGjEprzkseKs85oYVwH4e3kii1Wrl (archive)
https://dentistry.tw/when-brushing-teeth/ (archive)
Definitely there are dentists saying you should wait too