I’m a dentist and these are the weird things I do to stay healthy in my 60s: ‘I only ever order the cheese plate’

A leading dentist has revealed the ‘weird’ everyday habits he swears by to remain healthy and cavity-free in his 60s – including eating cheese for dessert and refusing to rinse after brushing.

Dr Mark Burhenne has worked as a family dentist in private practice for 35 years and is a member of the Dental Board of California.

Best known online for his popular ‘Ask the Dentist’ series, he regularly shares practical health advice with his 1.2 million Instagram followers, often explaining how seemingly harmless everyday habits can affect everything from oral health to sleep.

And after going decades without developing a new cavity, Dr Burhenne has now revealed the simple rules he follows himself.

While some may ‘sound a little strange’, he said most are incredibly easy – and cost next to nothing.

First on the list is something many people instinctively do every morning: rinsing their mouth with water after brushing.

Dr Burhenne never does it.

Instead, he simply spits out the excess toothpaste and leaves the residue on his teeth, allowing its active ingredients to continue working.

‘I don’t rinse after brushing. I spit into the sink, and that’s it. Rinsing washes off the minerals in the toothpaste that were about to reinforce your enamel,’ he said.

‘Rinsing after using toothpaste with an active ingredient rinses that active ingredient away.’

He also prefers to brush before breakfast, rather than immediately afterwards, when acids from food and drink can temporarily soften enamel.

Perhaps his most surprising habit, however, involves dessert.

Whenever he’s eating out, Dr Burhenne orders a cheese plate at the end of the meal, claiming it can help ‘buffer’ acids and provide calcium and phosphate used by teeth during the re-mineralisation process.

He dubbed cheese plates the ‘most dentist-approved dessert on any menu’.

The dentist also adds electrolytes to his water, which he says helps support saliva and its role in protecting teeth against decay.

At night, he uses a small piece of mouth tape in an effort to encourage nasal breathing and prevent the dry mouth associated with sleeping with an open mouth.

‘A small piece of tape keeps me breathing through my nose while I sleep, so I don’t wake up with the bone-dry mouth that is basically a cavity factory,’ he said.

Dr Burhenne also skips conventional mouthwash, instead incorporating tongue scraping and oil pulling into his routine.

And when he gets sick, he reaches for throat spray rather than buying cough drops.

‘Most cough drops are basically candy – you’re bathing your teeth in sugar for 20 minutes at a time, right when your mouth is already dry,’ he said.

His other non-negotiables include drinking good-quality green tea every day, replacing his toothbrush head every four weeks ‘like clockwork’ before the bristles begin to fray and having his teeth professionally cleaned three times a year.

He described the latter as potentially ‘the difference between catching a problem early versus the drill stage’.

But one of his most important habits has nothing to do with a toothbrush.

Dr Burhenne is dedicated to taking a walk after dinner – and recently warned that collapsing on the couch immediately after eating could have consequences beyond your waistline.

He said even a simple 10-minute walk after a meal can help moderate blood sugar levels and potentially support wider metabolic and cardiovascular health.

According to Dr Burhenne, one of the worst things people can do after eating is remain completely sedentary, particularly when it becomes a daily habit.

He argues that chronically elevated blood glucose can create conditions that are less favourable for oral health and may contribute to inflammation.

Moving within 30 minutes of eating allows working muscles to take up glucose more effectively, helping reduce the size of the post-meal blood sugar spike.

There is plenty of scientific evidence supporting the benefits of post-meal movement.

A meta-analysis published in the journal Sports Medicine found that interrupting prolonged sitting with light-intensity walking significantly reduced post-meal glucose and insulin levels compared with uninterrupted sitting.

Separate research has also found that taking a 10-minute walk after each main meal can be more effective at lowering post-meal blood glucose than completing a single 30-minute walk at another point in the day.

For Dr Burhenne, the takeaway is simple: protecting your teeth isn’t only about what happens during brushing and the small habits add up over time.