Edit: Since it’s come up a couple times in the comment, I’ll add that there’s evidence use of a water flosser is more effective than dental floss.
Are they equally more effective at removing gums?
I floss and electric toothbrush every night. My dentist routinely complements my hygiene. Every cavity I’ve had filled in the past 8 years started from before I had an e-brush.
At a recent visit after remarking on how little plaque I had, my dentist asked if I brush twice a day. I told him no, only once a day.
He immediately changed his tune and told me that I should brush twice a day for better results.
I think he’s in the pocket of Big Paste.
Healthy teeth have a lot to do with genetics too. I’m a once/day brushed (with a powered brush) and never flush unless something’s stuck in my teeth and I don’t get cavities or have other teeth and mouth problems. My wife brushes twice a day, flosses, and uses mouth wash, and has had 12 root canals, and has cavities 25% of the time she gets her cleanings done.
There are two other main differences between us. She loves sugar and I’d prefer anything salty. I’m sure this isn’t helping her and is helping me since sugar is our mouths’ enemy.
The sugar is honestly probably the biggest factor here. Plaque is just bacteria poop, and giving them a bunch of sugar is basically speedrunning their growth and telling them to produce as much poop as they possibly can.
What I left out is that I don’t know anyone in my family with teeth issues and she definitely does. Her mother had garbage teeth as does her father. But yeah, sugar is bad for you period.
Not brushing in the morning and at night is noodling my melon. Always brushed twice a day, floss at night. Surely you have morning breath everyday?
Not really. Mouthwash as well before bed. Never struggle with odor. And I wear a night guard to boot.
Edit: oh and a tongue scraper helps
Morning breath is caused by bacteria replicating overnight so even if you use mouthwash and a tongue scraper before bed, I promise you have morning breath. I’ve tested it myself with my wife by doing all sorts of hygiene before bed. Floss, water rince, tongue cleaning, brush, then mouthwash but still my breath smelled in the morning. Its just a fact of reality. Please brush your teeth in the morning for those of us that end up smelling your breath.
People have wildly varying body chemistry. Your experience is not everyone’s experience.
I am like him and have had that experience confirmed by numerous romantic partners over the decades.
I also only brush at night with an electric toothbrush and get the same compliments from my dentist. I also keep plackers at my desk (work from home) and use them regularly. Although I’ve never told my dentist I only brush at night.
I think one thing that helps is my toothbrush does a pattern at 30 second intervals so I brush for a total of 2 minutes every time hitting each quadrant relatively evenly.
The first time I used this toothbrush, I was floored by how much cleaner my teeth felt.
Morning or night?
read the comment again from the beginning.
Mourning or knight?
Yes.
I brush with a regular brush in the morning (if I don’t have to leave the house sometimes I don’t), have perfect teeth and get compliments from my dentist.
Flossing is another story. She notices.
When’s the last time you flossed?
After going with a sonic toothbrush, I felt my teeth were actually clean. Much cleaner than before.
This was my experience as soon as I went electric too, yes. If anything, the only thing that’s surprising about the article title to me is that it’s only 20% more plaque!
Maybe it’s because the authors gathered research papers on all types of electric toothbrushes?
In my experience, the difference between manual and electric toothbrushes is huge. I’m no longer nervous about visiting my dentist.
An electric toothbrush and more importantly a water flosser have saved me thousands in dental treatment costs.
Right now electric toothbrushes just need to become more repairable.
Having to buy new ones because the battery can no longer hold a charge seems so wasteful.
to be fair, it does need to be very waterproof, I’m not saying it can’t be done but it’s one of the very few limited uses where I’m ok with it
I’ve got a waterpik and I just can’t get on with it at all. How on earth are you supposed to use it? You can’t use it sideways because there’s no pressure, so it has to be sort of vertical, which feels really weird to aim and you can’t see what you’re doing. The last time I tried, it was like I hosed down the bathroom, with water everywhere. It also managed to be so powerful that it cut my gums.
The right way to use one certainly doesn’t feel elegant. You just have to flip it around a lot while facing down at the sink and hope you don’t snipe a spider on the ceiling by accident.
Made me chuckle
Use the lower pressure settings to start and just get a feel for manipulating it around your mouth. I try to spray between my teeth and you can reach that gap from the sides as well as the bottom.
Agreed. Two things that worked for me: -open your mouth and let excess water run out as easily as possible. It feels dorky but the stream is way more effective if it doesn’t have to cut through water -just do a little bit and come back to it the next day, there’s no need to start with a deep clean
I used to brush 3 times a day, but I’m not using the filthy office restroom for my dental hygiene, so dialed it down to two. I can’t fathom brushing only once a day. I should floss more though. Once every blue moon isn’t exactly dentist recommended.
I blame the moon for not being blue more often.
I will add that a waterpik is a really nice tool to add to your dental hygiene routine.
I would like to taint this info with the knowledge that pik means ‘penis’ in Dutch
oh wait till I tell you what taint means!
You would, but chode you?
(Excuse the elaborate manner of the pun)
well i never had a penis in my mouth but i dont mind penises on my partners…
I’m not judging, just spreading useless knowledge
nice.
I feel like it’s more than that…
When I switched to electric 7 or 8 years ago, I really didn’t like it. It was super uncomfortable and tickled my mouth.
I just powered through it because I was told that I would get used to it.
Indeed I did get used to it and quickly began to feel that I had never actually properly brushed my teeth before going electric.
Part of what helps is the little extra pulse every 30 seconds and auto shut off after two minutes. Really keeps you on track with 30 seconds in each quadrant of your mouth.
Two minutes is a long time so having the timer built into the toothbrush is super helpful.
Only concern to note is that applying too much pressure and/or using the maximum vibration setting can be bad for your gums and cause recession.
Be very gentle with the electric toothbrush so that you do not cause any excessive gum recession.
Once you get used to electric, a conventional toothbrush will seem archaic.
Hey replying to you because well its an empty threat so far
Basically you me and everybody else could have improved technique with an electric toothbrush
You have to plan not too much pressure and just kind of hold it and move back and forth
I still don’t have perfect technique and I don’t brush every night. So sad for me I know
In other words cool beans good luck brushing your teeth every night
Minimum twice a day my friend, personal hygiene is the best thing you can do for yourself. Once you establish the habit you won’t even think about it.
For what it’s worth I have a bite guard and I can only wear it when I actually brush my teeth
On top of power cleaning my asshole with my shower head’s “power clean” setting…
My personal hygiene is just fine but thank you for the advice.
At first I thought you were being pretentious so I was being defensive but you’re just being straight up so cool beans then
Basically I’m just a little bit tipsy so I’m being hella aggressive right now.
All that being said, do you exclusively use toilet paper for your butt?
Because if that’s the case truth be told you could be taking personal hygiene lessons from me.
Poop schedule is directly before the morning shower - as Sarah Silverman once said, It isn’t clean unless it’s two inches deep clean.
And if it’s pretentious to brush your teeth every day then I guess I am pretentious.
Bite guard is smart, I need to use mine more.
You get ones that flash when you’re doing too much pressure.
Thetechnician is looking out for your health folks!
Not true. This is part of a scheme.
You need us all capable to act out the parts of your scheme.
- Floss
- Mouthwash
- Rinse
- Brush with electric toothbrush 45 full seconds getting full coverage.
- One real good spit.
- Don’t rinse
Enjoy perfect teeth
45 seconds? That seems a lot shorter than what I grew up being told. Then again I’m not using an electric toothbrush and I should be. I’ve let my teeth go to shit
Electric toothbrush is 2 minutes; 30 seconds per quadrant
Okay, that matches more what I was told when I had one of those sonic care toothbrushes 20 years ago.
My electric toothbrush has a timer for 2 mins, but otherwise this is my routine for no cavities going on 10 years.
I also sprinkle a little baking soda on my toothpaste to further remove plaque
Serious?
I don’t think that this removes more plaque, but it does neutralize the acids that they produce which damages teeth.
This article suggests baking soda not only neutralizes the acids produced by plaque but is also a mild abrasive effective at removing plaque
Interesting, thanks for the information!
Baking soda can be used to brush teeth. There are brands of baking soda that have their own line of toothpastes that have baking soda as an ingredient.
What if we add baking soda on those toothpastes? Is it legal?
Baking powder only
But what if… 🤔
I were to purchase baking powder and disguise it as baking soda?
Hohoho, delightfully devilish
Dentists don’t want you to know about this one crazy trick!
As a heads up, maybe speak to both your dentist and doctor about reflux.
I have good teeth, and I recently found out about acid issues that have affected my stomach AND my gums. I’ve used a new “less acidic” mouthwash that had helped a lot, alongside antacids at night. Apparently if people find baking soda to be helpful, it’s often a sign of reflux that might not have been caught.
Shit, this makes so much sense. I knew I hadn’t stopped brushing my teeth as often but I definitely went through a spell of having heartburn and daily for months. My teeth I felt like were getting worse out of nowhere.
Thanks for mentioning this, really need to figure out what foods were giving me that reaction… now I only get heartburn about once a month, so something I changed helped. Likely need to cut out a lot of things
Maybe it’s time for a food journal. I used to keep one, but instead of logging everything, I’d log when I had symptoms and what I’d eaten most recently. I don’t know if that method would work super well for reflux but it’s an idea if logging absolutely everything becomes a chore.
I wish in countries like mine things like electric toothbruses weren’t like luxury items but things everyone could have. Got mine too late for my teeh but ever since I got it I no longer worry about dental plaque. Cavities and such things are hell on earth. Or, well, in your mouth.
I used one for a bit due to this reason but I just don’t like them. I should try a water pick. I think if the electric would be setup to do both sides at once it would be useful.
I trust approximately zero science about dental care, given the industry’s track record.
You mean the elusive 5th dentist?
You found the fifth? I keep having trouble with my #10s. Sneaky little buggers.
Check the source before you make such statements
A systematic review by Cochrane is probably the most trustworthy source in medicine.
Yep, they (almost) literally wrote the book. I found their manual super useful when trying to deal with jerk articles that only post portions of their results. I don’t care that it’s “bad practice” to post raw data, it needs to become the standard.
Ah okay
I mean, as they kind of point out in the article, this doesn’t actually say terribly much. I’ve always had the impression that electric toothbrushes are great for scrubbing off the plaque on the big surfaces of your teeth, while they’re probably worse at reaching all the weird little angles of your teeth. This could result in 20% less plaque in total, while not removing it from where it lingers around and causes cavities. At the same time, if you also floss regularly, maybe you’ve got your weird little angles covered differently already. It depends on quite a few factors, for which a meta study like this can hardly do justice…
I mean it also shows a 6–11% reduction in gingivitis, so it’s at least getting some of those weird little angles better. Gingivitis most commonly occurs because plaque stays too long around the lining of the gums, and thus electric brushes should at least be more effectively getting this off the bases of the crown – which to me were always way more difficult and awkward to effectively treat with a manual brush.
Meanwhile, there’s really no such thing as using your toothbrush as a substitute for proper interdental cleaning, and that’s why your dentist really will notice if you haven’t been flossing properly. A water flosser is best for something like that.
I was surprise it was this low. The wording of the study result is a bit different, it’s not % of effectiveness, it’s a % reduction in plaque.
The evidence produced shows benefits in using a powered toothbrush when compared with a manual toothbrush. There was an 11% reduction in plaque at one to three months of use, and a 21% reduction in plaque when assessed after three months of use. For gingivitis, there was a 6% reduction at one to three months of use and an 11% reduction when assessed after three months of use. The benefits of this for long-term dental health are unclear.
That’s what effectiveness means, since removing dental plaque isn’t a binary thing. If you’re trying to remove plaque, then a percentage reduction is a corresponding increase in effectiveness. If a vaccine has a 20% reduction in disease compared to another vaccine, it’s 20% more effective at preventing the incidence of disease. I’m pretty sure this comment isn’t just splitting hairs; it’s actually wrong in its pedantry.
