A few years ago, at Costco, I purchased an Oral B motorized tooth brush. You know, the kind with an oscillating head, recharging station, five different clean settings, and (inexplicably) Bluetooth. On setting 2 (deep clean), it will prompt you every 45 seconds to switch to a different quadrant in your mouth.
Recently, I realized that in all the time I've been using it, I always start with the lower left quadrant of my teeth, move to the lower right, then upper right, and finish at the upper left. I got to wondering if I should be rotating the starting position to get a better cleaning result overall. After all, why should the lower left always get the fresh toothpaste? So, the next morning, I began my teeth cleaning in the upper right quadrant.
My mind usually wanders a lot in the morning, and as I was guiding the brush over my teeth, I got to wondering why Van Halen’s cover of You’re No Good was rolling around in the back of my brain. I honestly don’t think I’d heard that song in more than 20 years. It’s not really that good of a cover anyway. I mean it’s hard to beat Linda Ronstadt…and Roth’s squeals sorta ruin the whole Blues vibe. I was marveling over the random nature of my brain’s morning sound track when I noticed the brush advised me that I was finished. Only, I was at the upper left quadrant! What the hell? I should have been finishing up at the lower right. Did I miss a section of my teeth? Did I miss the entire bottom row? Just to make sure, I started over again.
I'm sticking with lower left starting position from now on.