At my dental practice, I get a common question from my patients: should I buy an electric toothbrush, and are they better than my old standard toothbrush?
While a lot of my fellow dentists believs that the electric toothbrush is far superior to a regular toothbrush, is this really the case? A lot of my patients seem to think this is well.
The fact is that it’s not always the case that an electric toothbrush is better than a regular toothbrush. As long as you properly use your manual toothbrush, you will get just as good as clean as you would with the best electric toothbrush. However, not many people will actually brush properly within manual toothbrush, and that’s when an electric toothbrush is better. They often have built-in features and functionality that make sure you properly brush teeth, such as pressure sensors, brushing timers, and specialty brush heads that clean in between the teeth and around the gumline.
Electric toothbrushes can also be good for those with limited motor skills, such as people that have been in an accident or of suffered an injury, or have suffered a stroke. Since an electric toothbrush will vibration pulse by itself without the need of moving your arm, this is a big help for people that have trouble with mobility and movement. Even if you don’t have limited mobility in your arms, the rapid rate at which of many electric toothbrush pulses is hard to match with the regular toothbrush. You have to brush for a long time with a regular toothbrush to get this kind of clean. What’s worse is that many people will simply not brush long enough for the regular toothbrush. Dentists like myself recommend brushing for 2 min. per session, and for many people it’s hard to brush this long. Many electric toothbrushes come with a built-in brushing timer that make sure you brush long enough, which can be a big help.
Of course, you’ll want to consider the fact that most electric toothbrushes cost substantially more than a regular toothbrush. Expect to pay upwards of $100 for a good electric tooth brush, while a regular toothbrush will probably only cost you little five dollars. If budget is an issue for you, you might want to just consider going with a regular toothbrush and saving up for an electric toothbrush. Even though electric toothbrushes may seem expensive, it will last for a long time and they are really not a big investment. Good oral hygiene is important, and in the end and electric toothbrush will probably only cost you a few dollars a month.
In my opinion, electric toothbrushes are much better than regular toothbrushes in many ways. Of course, depending on your needs and budget, you might end up using a regular toothbrush in the end. As long as you learn proper technique and brush for long enough time, you’ll get just as good of clean with your regular toothbrush as you would with a good electric toothbrush.
