How to protect our teeth?

Does rinsing your mouth with water help protect your teeth?

• Just a quick question about dental hygiene. As i understand it, tooth decay is caused both by sugars and acids (with bacteria converting sugars into acids which slowly errodes enamel, etc) with the mouths saliva helping to protect teeth by returning the pH to neutral. So my question is, would rinsing your mouth with water after eating help to protect your teeth? For instance; apples help to clean your teeth but all apples contain various sugars and acids which do indeed cause tooth decay, so would rinsing after eating the apple help reduce the amount of sugars and acids left on your teeth and hence help protect your teeth?

• Answer:

  Yes, it helps, but other things help more: brushing, flossing and rinsing with mouthwash after eating is the ideal.