diff --git a/manimlib/mobject/svg/labelled_string.py b/manimlib/mobject/svg/labelled_string.py
index 9c927e0e..a0d1343e 100644
--- a/manimlib/mobject/svg/labelled_string.py
+++ b/manimlib/mobject/svg/labelled_string.py
@@ -103,6 +103,7 @@ class LabelledString(SVGMobject, ABC):
     def pre_parse(self) -> None:
         self.string_len = len(self.string)
         self.full_span = (0, self.string_len)
+        self.space_spans = self.find_spans(r"\s+")
         self.base_color_int = self.color_to_int(self.base_color)
 
     def parse(self) -> None:
@@ -137,14 +138,17 @@ class LabelledString(SVGMobject, ABC):
     def get_substr(self, span: Span) -> str:
         return self.string[slice(*span)]
 
-    def find_spans(self, pattern: str | re.Pattern, **kwargs) -> list[Span]:
+    def find_spans(self, pattern: str | re.Pattern) -> list[Span]:
         if isinstance(pattern, str):
             pattern = re.compile(pattern)
         return [
             match_obj.span()
-            for match_obj in pattern.finditer(self.string, **kwargs)
+            for match_obj in pattern.finditer(self.string)
         ]
 
+    def match_at(self, pattern: str, pos: int) -> re.Pattern | None:
+        return re.compile(pattern).match(self.string, pos=pos)
+
     def find_spans_by_selector(self, selector: Selector) -> list[Span]:
         if isinstance(selector, str):
             result = self.find_spans(re.escape(selector))
diff --git a/manimlib/mobject/svg/mtex_mobject.py b/manimlib/mobject/svg/mtex_mobject.py
index 46ea13e8..878ba94e 100644
--- a/manimlib/mobject/svg/mtex_mobject.py
+++ b/manimlib/mobject/svg/mtex_mobject.py
@@ -131,12 +131,12 @@ class MTex(LabelledString):
         brace_indices_dict = dict(self.brace_index_pairs)
         script_pattern = r"[a-zA-Z0-9]|\\[a-zA-Z]+"
         for char_span in self.script_char_spans:
-            span_begin = self.find_spans(r"\s*", pos=char_span[1])[0][1]
+            span_begin = self.rslide(char_span[1], self.space_spans)
             if span_begin in brace_indices_dict.keys():
                 span_end = brace_indices_dict[span_begin] + 1
             else:
-                spans = self.find_spans(script_pattern, pos=span_begin)
-                if not spans or spans[0][0] != span_begin:
+                match_obj = self.match_at(script_pattern, span_begin)
+                if match_obj is None:
                     script_name = {
                         "_": "subscript",
                         "^": "superscript"
@@ -146,14 +146,14 @@ class MTex(LabelledString):
                         f"(position {char_span[0]}). "
                         "Please use braces to clarify"
                     )
-                span_end = spans[0][1]
+                span_end = match_obj.end()
             result.append((span_begin, span_end))
         return result
 
     def get_script_spans(self) -> list[Span]:
         return [
             (
-                self.find_spans(r"\s*", endpos=char_span[0])[-1][0],
+                self.lslide(char_span[0], self.space_spans),
                 script_content_span[1]
             )
             for char_span, script_content_span in zip(
@@ -202,7 +202,7 @@ class MTex(LabelledString):
 
     def get_extra_entity_spans(self) -> list[Span]:
         return [
-            self.find_spans(r"\\([a-zA-Z]+|.?)", pos=index)[0]
+            self.match_at(r"\\([a-zA-Z]+|.?)", index).span()
             for index in self.backslash_indices
         ]
 
diff --git a/manimlib/mobject/svg/text_mobject.py b/manimlib/mobject/svg/text_mobject.py
index f79bb79a..d02e7bc2 100644
--- a/manimlib/mobject/svg/text_mobject.py
+++ b/manimlib/mobject/svg/text_mobject.py
@@ -434,8 +434,8 @@ class MarkupText(LabelledString):
 
     def get_label_span_list(self) -> list[Span]:
         breakup_indices = remove_list_redundancies(list(it.chain(*it.chain(
-            self.find_spans(r"\s+"),
             self.find_spans(r"\b"),
+            self.space_spans,
             self.specified_spans
         ))))
         breakup_indices = sorted(filter(