Astronaut Reveals How To Brush Your Teeth In Space

When we think about breaking free of planet Earth and making it into space, our minds are usually on the big things like landing on the moon or the scientific achievements of the International Space Station.

Less prominent is how to complete regular day to day tasks such as sleeping, exercising and brushing your teeth.

With no gravity in outer space, astronauts can sleep in any position they want and need to exercise for about 2.5 hours each day to counteract the effects of no gravity forcing your muscles to do any work.

As for brushing your teeth, that's quite a tricky process when there's no gravity to keep the water, toothpaste or brush where they should be.

Fortunately for inquiring minds, astronaut and former commander of the International Space Station Chris Hadfield has made a video to show everyone just what it takes to keep your teeth clean in space.

Check it out:

Hadfield's demonstration started with applying a blob of water to his toothbrush, which fortunately stayed where it should because 'toothbrushes soak up water nicely'.

He then sucked the water into his mouth because in his own words 'where else would it go', before applying a small amount of toothpaste to his brush.

The astronaut noted the importance of using as little toothpaste as possible because of all the mess it would make, which would be all the worse when you're in space and it can float around anywhere.

What follows is a pretty normal brushing of teeth, even when you're in space there's not much room for the toothpaste to go when it's finally in your mouth.

The International Space Station, the only place where swallowing your toothpaste is recommended. (Alamy)

However, another one of the big differences between brushing your teeth on Earth and in space comes once you're done and you've got a mouthful of toothpaste you need to get rid of.

You can't spit it out because it'll go everywhere, making a mess and running the risk that you'll go down in history as the person who destroyed the International Space Station with a toothbrush.

Hadfield's solution is just to swallow it all down, which isn't usually recommended but the people who put the warnings on the tube probably didn't consider whether an astronaut would be using it in outer space.

Now you know how to brush your teeth in space, whether you'll be lucky enough to actually make it up there and have a go for yourself is another problem to solve.

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Topics: Space, International Space Station

Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

@MrJoeHarker