Side-effects of taking care of your teeth

From Chris Pirillo's blog, Toothpaste Can Help You Lose Weight:

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Went to dentist for checkup and got reamed by the hygenist for not taking better care of my teeth. Since I have poor memory skills, I decided to form a new habit, that of brushing immediately after every meal. Which led to not eating between meals or after supper. Know what? I started losing weight.
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This reminded me of something I've been meaning to blog about for a while now. I posted it as a comment on Chris's blog entry, but wanted to put it up here as well, for better visibility/archiving:

I found that braces have a similar effect, especially with rubber bands. It's such a pain to take care of your teeth when you have braces, that it makes me slightly less interested in eating. Rubber bands are supposed to be worn anytime I'm not eating, and they are a pain to attach, so that's yet another reason not to eat.

I've lost about 20 pounds in the past 9 months, since I got braces. I've also stopped biting my nails, a habit I've had for as long as I can remember. Not that I'd recommend braces as a dieting tool or habit-breaking technique (more of a very expensive torture device, I think).