Oral hygiene is a key aspect of personal care and dentists recommend brushing twice a day. However, when to brush is left to personal preference, and in the morning, the question is clear: do you brush your teeth before or after eating breakfast? 

CivicScience data show that among those who eat breakfast, 44% brush their teeth before breakfast, while 56% do it after. Age plays a role, as adults aged 45-64 are the most likely to brush before, while those aged 65+ just barely edge out Millennials and Gen Z to rank as the most likely to brush their teeth after breakfast. 

It’s also worth noting that high-income earners are seven percentage points more likely than middle and low-income earners to brush their teeth before breakfast. However, this data is just the start of what sets pre-breakfast tooth-brushers apart from post-breakfast tooth-brushers. 

Beyond demographics, CivicScience data allows us to dive deeper into how pre-breakfast brushers distinguish themselves from those who brush after breakfast, based on what these consumers have told us. Here’s what the data show: 

Favorite Breakfast Meat: Pre-breakfast brushers are most likely to say bacon is their favorite breakfast meat, outpacing post-breakfast brushers who say the same by eight points (52% to 44%). Those who brush after breakfast, meanwhile, are more likely to say sausage patties are their preferred breakfast meat (20% to 15%).

Spice Favorability: Those who brush their teeth before breakfast are four percentage points more likely to be favorable towards spicy food than those who brush their teeth after breakfast (70% vs 66%). 

Sugar in Coffee: Forty-four percent of those who brush before breakfast say they usually take sugar in their coffee, compared to 38% of those who brush after breakfast (among those who drink coffee.

Home Exercise Equipment: Those who brush their teeth before breakfast are seven percentage points more likely to have new home exercise equipment than those who brush their teeth after breakfast. 

Deep Cleaning Schedule: While 19% of those who brush their teeth before breakfast say they deep clean their home quarterly, 27% of those who brush their teeth after breakfast say the same. 

Friendship Dealbreaker: While 23% of those who brush their teeth before breakfast would not end a friendship over bad hygiene practices, 31% of those who brush their teeth after breakfast say the same. 

Clearly, when you choose to brush your teeth in the morning is more than just a moment of personal care, it’s a choice that is linked to countless other consumer behaviors across all aspects of life.

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This article’s data comes solely from CivicScience’s database, which contains nearly 700,000 poll questions and 5 billion consumer insights.