Funny, I had heard floss then mouthwash because the flossing opens up more space for the mouthwash to get into.

But I think the chief thing dentists recommend is toothpaste last and not to rinse.

Either way, if you're doing all three then you're ahead of 90% of tooth owners

My hygienist is very against mouthwash because it kills the good germs. But yeah I also just learned that you floss first when I was always taught to floss last. Doesn't make sense to go last I should've figured that one out.

then let the toothpaste sit on your teeth for ten minutes instead of rinsing immediately.

So is that also after I throw up from the toothpaste on my teeth? When do I rinse my mouth after barfing?

If you're a psychopath. Who doesn't rinse?

There's a story I've heard about that which drives me nuts. It might be apocryphal, but it does sound believable.

When I was pursuing a degree in IT, I had to take a Business 101 class for reasons I never quite understood. The instructor launches into this story about a guy who goes to a big toothpaste company - Crest or Colgate probably, but the who of it doesn't really matter.

This guy comes in with a pitch, he says that he's got an idea that's guaranteed to increase their revenue by 25% but he won't share it with them unless he's given an arbitrarily large sum of money. It must have been convincing because they agree to hear him out.

So they pay him out and he tells them the idea: make the nozzle on the toothpaste 25% larger.

My instructor asked what lesson we learned from the story. "You can make a bundle by helping corporations cheat their consumers," was not marked as correct, but I maintain that's the chief lesson.