@meso @paula9 @straw habit forming is not the relevant issue here, nerve sensitivity is. many autistic people can make the (quite rational in context!) tradeoff that dealing with slowly debilitating dental health over time is worth the tradeoff of not acutely inflaming things in the here and now, it's the same basic thing of why they wear earplugs or stim or any of the billions of other behaviors you either barely acknowledge or don't know at all