Getting rid of your, er, waste is an uncomfortable subject. But we all do it, hopefully on the daily, and a few times if your digestion is up to it. We eat and then get rid of the stuff our bodies don’t need, so we need to talk about clean-up after a bowel movement.
Curtis Asbury, MD a dermatologist practicing in Selbyville, Delaware, sees a lot of people complaining about irritation on their behinds. Patients will come into his office with an irritated rectum and emphatically proclaim they aren’t doing anything wrong. His simple response, “You’re not wiping correctly.”
In an interview with Mental Floss, Asbury said, “It’s called perianal dermatitis.” This inflammation of the skin around the anus is most often caused by poor anal hygiene. Some of the behaviors involved with that: wiping poorly, wiping infrequently, wiping overzealously, and wiping with things our bodies don’t like and have allergic reactions to.
Here are five pro tips for a pristine butt:
Wipe in the correct direction
There’s a right and wrong direction to this thing? Yep. We all should be wiping front to back. In order to avoid urinary tract infections and getting feces in the vaginal canal, it’s been suggested women should always wipe front to back. When I was a teenager, a girlfriend was mortified I did it the other way. Apparently she was right.
Be thorough but be tender
Some people really want to be clean, so aggressively attacking the area is the thought process. “I see people scrubbing hard,” Dr. Asbury said. “That just makes the problem worse.” We want to gently wipe until we see clean paper. Then it’s blotting and dabbing to get at the extra moisture. Excessive wiping can bring tears to the anal tissue, so clean the area instead of approaching it like trying to remove a layer of paint off the wall with a scraper.
No more wet wipes
I’ve personally received praise and appreciation from guests for having wet wipes in the restroom. Apparently, I have been mistreating them and myself all these years. The chemical methylisothiazolinone is often added to inhibit bacterial growth before the wipes get from the stores to your homes. Any chemicals in the wipes stay on you unless washed off. These harmful chemicals can lead to rashes from allergic reactions. “Even the all-natural ones can cause problems,” says Dr. Asbury.
Purchase a bidet
Who doesn’t remember bidet’s flying off the shelves during the pandemic? These cute little add-ons for every toilet send a spray of water right between your butt cheeks. The system flushes out the area offering an optimal approach to the clean up. Setting up the device is quite easy as it connects to the existing plumbing of the toilet.
Lastly, water soaked paper towels
It’s suggested to dampen a paper towel instead of toilet paper because TP is too flimsy and often just falls apart. We know disintegrating toilet paper creates a whole new problem. One very important note: the towel should be placed in a waste basket after use. Some may find this concept rather disgusting. However, the bill for a plumber to unclog your pipes is equally disturbing. Throw the used towels in the trash.
And there you have it; these five pro tips to cleaning up after your visit to the toilet bowl should make a world of difference for your health.
This article originally appeared in May.
