Electric toothbrushes really are better than manual ones
I frequently get asked whether it is worth spending $50 or more on one of these fancy electric toothbrushes you see advertised on television and in print media. Well, the answer is “yes”! There is no question, it is worth it because you will do a better job brushing your teeth and gums with an electric toothbrush than you would with a manual toothbrush, and there are a number of reasons for this.
An electric toothbrush forces you to brush for two minutes
Anyone who visits the dentist regularly knows that they are supposed to brush for two minutes. But do they really do what they are supposed to do? Researchers looking into the matter found that the average person, when told to brush for 2 minutes actually only brushed their teeth for 38 seconds. It just felt like 2 minutes! With an electric toothbrush, you simply run the brushing cycle that will give you a beep or pulse every 30 seconds to signal that it is time to change quadrants of the mouth. At the conclusion of the fourth 30 second interval the toothbrush shuts itself off. It is that simple.
You don’t need great technique with an electric toothbrush
With manual brushing, technique is critical. You mush angle the bristles at a 45 degree angle to the teeth at the gum line and use a horizontal back and forth motion with periodic sweeps to the biting surface. Honestly it is hard to get it right. With an electric toothbrush all you have to do is turn the device on, put the bristles at the teeth and gum area, push the button, and start moving it across the teeth. Its pretty hard to mess this up!
The bristles send waves through the toothpaste to help clean up areas the bristles don’t even reach
These electric toothbrushes pulsate so rapidly sending waves through the toothpaste do help do a better job of cleaning your teeth and gums- something manual brushing cannot do.
So which one should I get?
Right now the electric toothbrush market is dominated by two brushes- The Phillips Sonicare, and the Braun OralB. Honestly you can’t go wrong with either one.
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