The Bonkers, Bristly Story of How Big Toothbrush Took Over the World (wired.co.uk) 117
In a few decades, two warring toothbrush giants have carved out a market worth billions, with the help of a little science and some clever marketing. But where does it go next? From a report: Not so long ago a toothbrush was a humble thing. A stick, in essence, with some bristles on the end. But with the rise of the electric toothbrush, they've become high-tech accessories. You can buy toothbrushes with associated apps, toothbrushes that automatically access the internet and order you new accessories when they divine that you need them and, for some reason, toothbrushes that are artificially intelligent. They can cost as much as a flatscreen TV or an engagement ring. An estimated 23 million people in Britain now use electric toothbrushes. Their rise is partly driven by our -- somewhat belated -- national realization that oral health is important, and by the fact that we have more disposable income than we did a generation ago. But it is also a story about the rise of an industry; about a struggle between market pressures and medical requirements; about the blurry line between research and public relations. And, in the end, about whether spending the cost of a weekend away on an ergonomically designed, ultrasonic, matte-black thing which looks like a defunct lightsaber will actually do more good than a $2 manual toothbrush from the supermarket. Is the electric toothbrush just a marvel of modern marketing or does it deserve plaudits for achieving what frustrated dentists (and parents) have struggled to do: getting us to spend a little more time brushing our teeth?
Much ado about nothing (Score:4)
There hasn't been any scandal, nor recent fraudulent advertising. It's not even junk science: electric toothbrushes HAVE been studied, and they are better! What hasn't been studied, according to the article, is the variation among different models and especially different price brackets. From feeling alone, my perception was that a rotating head electric toothbrush was not a noticeable improvement over manual, but a vibrating head toothbrush was far better. This is based on the way my teeth feel after brushing, which is not a guarantee of better health outcomes.
while studies of effectiveness have been carried out, there have been none that he is aware of into cost-effectiveness. If you spend £50 on an electric toothbrush instead of £1.50 on a manual, that is £48.50 that you can’t spend on food for your family, and even from an oral health point of view it may be that the £48.50 will do more good there.
I have read reviews that say some of the newer iterations of the Philips electronic toothbrush die after a year (and this doesn't surprise me, having experienced planned obsolescence with a Philips bluetooth speaker). However, my older model has lasted 4-5 years, and if money is tight, there is no reason family members can't have their own toothbrush heads but share one more costly toothbrush body.
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To add the obvious to my above comment, of course a family that can't afford an expensive electronic toothbrush shouldn't buy one. But if they aren't skipping a more important bill, the toothbrush shouldn't end up costing that much. But do look for one that doesn't have a reputation of dying after a year.
Re:Much ado about nothing (Score:5, Insightful)
But do look for one that doesn't have a reputation of dying after a year.
Just as importantly, try to find a model whose source of replacement heads doesn't mysteriously dry up as soon as a newer model comes out.
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Absolutely this. I had to ditch three electric toothbrushes because of that reason (stupid early adopter here).
I am using manual now and all's good.
Re: Much ado about nothing (Score:1)
Re: Much ado about nothing (Score:2)
Well, Philips had the same flexcare heads for the past 10 years or so.
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This study concludes that oscillating brushes are more effective than sonic ones.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p... [nih.gov]
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That's funny, this study says the opposite.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p... [nih.gov]
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And another ... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p... [nih.gov]
Starting to wonder how reliable these kinds of tests really are.
Re:Much ado about nothing (Score:4, Insightful)
Dentists recommendation (Score:3)
Buy floss instead.
The current trend among dentists is to recommend using interdental microbrushes insteadof floss.
But otherwise: yes, cleaning between teeth is also important.
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I use flossers and the most basic oral-b electric. Also, a metal scraper pick, on occasion. Last time I went in for a cleaning I was complimented on my dental hygiene. The only place that they really had anything much to do was behind/between the two bottom teeth, so I've stepped up working on that with the pick. I flaked out on flossing in my twenties and regret it. I hate to throw all those plastic flossers away, but I buy them at grocery outlet, which is the last stop before the landfill anyway.
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The only place that they really had anything much to do was behind/between the two bottom teeth, ...
If it's the front two bottom teeth, that's really common as everyone has a salivary gland under the tongue right behind those teeth. Shouldn't be a problem if you get your teeth professionally cleaned once or twice a year ...
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The only place that they really had anything much to do was behind/between the two bottom teeth, ...
If it's the front two bottom teeth, that's really common as everyone has a salivary gland under the tongue right behind those teeth. Shouldn't be a problem if you get your teeth professionally cleaned once or twice a year ...
When I was working and had a good dental plan I used to get a cleaning twice a year. Now that I am retired and paying out of pocket, I'm down to once a year. I'm happy with my Oral B electric toothbrush, but also snagged a pick, scaler, and mirror and learned to remove any obvious buildup on my own. My teeth are actually cleaner now than when I got them cleaned twice as often.
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Best comment here.
Gingivitis (inflation of the gums) is the single biggest cause of dental problems, and it mostly caused by rotting food between your teeth. So is bad breath. If you see your dentist every few years a quick scrub around the mouth once a day is all you need - provided you also get rid of the food in all the places your brush and more importantly your tongue can't reach. That of course requires flossing, an interdental brush, or if you are i
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Technically, rotting food between your teeth isn't causing gum disease. It's the gingivitis bacteria that does that. No doubt, the bacteria needs something to eat... aka your sugary food, but it is the act of flossing which dislodges the film of bacteria ... more so than the old food, which is what you are doing to protect your teeth.
Think of it this way. If you ate pure meat, like a wild cat, then you would have zero cavities and zero problems with your gums. Rotting meat probably protects your mouth from
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Skip the expensive toothbrush. Buy floss instead. Any toothbrush is going to do a fine job. None are going to do what floss does.
There's no conclusive evidence floss works. [apnews.com]
Not to say, "floss doesn't work." It probably does. No one ever conducted a controlled study to prove it.
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Toothbrush holesmanship (Score:2)
From the spoof travel documentary: "Balham, Gateway to the south":
https://youtu.be/6ewUOSlRDkk?t... [youtu.be]
There a spoken Peter Sellers version, too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Electric toothbrushes are objectively better (Score:5, Funny)
They've been recommended by dentists for years now, and with good reason. The only debate is the effectiveness between a $20 brush and a $200 one with built-in wifi, touchscreen and blockchain technology. But we know the answer to that..
But not subjectively better (Score:4, Informative)
I've tried both and the electric ones are generally no better than a normal one or totallty useless. I've been using a manual toothbrush for the last 20 years and I've
had 1 filling in that time which given how much sugar I consume (not proud of it but we all have our addictions) is pretty good going. A manual tooth brush and spending more than 20 seconds brushing twice a day and your teeth will be fine.
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>"I've tried both and the electric ones are generally no better than a normal one or totallty useless.[...]A manual tooth brush and spending more than 20 seconds brushing twice a day and your teeth will be fine."
I disagree. I think the Sonicare is much, much more effective and better than a manual toothbrush. I am on the third model, DIamondclean (5+ years now, 15 years total). Prior to using Sonicare, I had always used manual. And yes, I still floss every day, but Sonicare cleans better and is able
You sound like an iKoolaid person. (Score:2, Troll)
No offense, but dropping so many brand names and marketing terms of expensive products, bundled with a strong emotional opinion, is a huge red flag and sign of somebody who must justify paying so much money and wasting so much effort for something so disappointing to himself. So in lack of arguments, the emotions come out. And words meant to terminate tought and switch to belief. Words like "objectively", "much(, much)", "fact", "(un)biased", "truth"... recognizable because they sound confident without any
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>"No offense, but dropping so many brand names and marketing terms of expensive products"
?? You can buy a 2 pack at Costco right now for $110, that is $60 for a device that will last at least 5 years each (10 years). I don't think that is all that expensive.
>"bundled with a strong emotional opinion, is a huge red flag and sign of somebody who must justify paying so much money and wasting so much effort for something so disappointing to himself."
I am very happy with the product, which is why I spread
Re:But not subjectively better (Score:4, Interesting)
My wife won a basic Sonicare in a work raffle, and it sat in our closet for 6 months before I decided to give it a go. It is shocking how much better than a manual toothbrush that thing is. After 2 years of using that I had a chance at a heavily discounted Diamondclean and snapped that up. Again, it's yet another very noticeable step up in how clean my mouth is.
I've always had shitty morning breath, but now I wake up 8 hrs later with a fairly fresh mouth. I just realized that I'm sitting here after breakfast and coffee without having brushed this morning yet and my mouth still feels pretty clean from last night. I think once a day with this brush is better than twice a day with a manual.
And I'm considering dropping down to annual dental checkups instead of every 6 months because they aren't finding anything to really do in my mouth. This last one they complained that I wasn't wrapping my floss far enough around my teeth, and there was slight tarter buildup to either side of the closest point where my teeth come together, because I was only flossing that narrow point well.
FFS, if that's your single concern about my dental health and my checkup takes all of 15-20 minutes, what exactly are we doing this 2x a year for? Prior to the stupid Sonicare, with good brushing and flossing they always had plenty to scrape and pick at. These brushes shake the shit right off your teeth. Plus the slight gum recession from brushing a little too hard I was getting has entirely stopped.
I'm a cheap bastard who absolutely does not go for shiny new things. Had I not gotten one of these for free I'd never have tried one due to the pricetag. Now I'm considering if it's weird or not to give them as christmas gifts to some of the family. I feel like when my dad finally got a snowblower. Yes, it was expensive. But it was so much massively better than shoveling that it was entirely worth it. Sometimes new tech is more than just a shiny status symbol.
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>"My wife won a basic Sonicare in a work raffle, and it sat in our closet for 6 months before I decided to give it a go."
I would never have bought one. My Mom raved over it and bought me one for Christmas a zillion years ago. I was very skeptical, but tried it. At first I hated it- the noise, the strong sensations, etc. But after a week, I was used to it and I was blown away by how well and quickly it cleaned. So I was sold on the technology and have used one every day since.
>"And I'm considering
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I get 2 for $0 co-pay a year on my current plan, so it doesn't cost me anything other than a bit of my time. If it cost me any amount of out-of-pocket money? I'd have canceled one already. There's no plan where I save more money going less often, so it's down to how much I value my time.
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I floss once a day. And I only go annually to the dentist for cleanings. Before I was using the Sonicare, they had to spend a considerably more time removing scale. But I can also feel my teeth are cleaner with the Sonicare (much smoother). I believe it does a much better job at breaking up and removing plaque at the gumline and partially between teeth.
You are correct that flossing is very important- nothing replaces that (but it also is generally quick and easy to do once a day).
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I'd not recommend the latest Sonicare toothbrushes. My first one, a decade or two ago, was fantastic. The last one I bought a few years ago was hot garbage. The charger base was too small to hold steady, and the toothbrush head didn't even fit tight to the main assembly, and rattled horribly. It's clear to me they redesigned everything to be as cheap as possible, and it definitely showed. Maybe the super-expensive ones are better, as I bought their base model, but that experience really put me off the
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If your heads/toothbrushes are lasting about 6 months, I'd have to question just how well you were brushing before you got the Sonicare. I have to replace my manual toothbrushes about every 2 months because the bristles on the head get so worn and distorted. I tried electric toothbrushes, but the rate I went through heads
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>"If your heads/toothbrushes are lasting about 6 months, I'd have to question just how well you were brushing before you got the Sonicare. I have to replace my manual toothbrushes about every 2 months"
I'm sorry, I made an error in my original posting. They are designed to last 3 months. They also have a visual indicator (blue dye that wears off). I use the Sonicare at night only, and a manual toothbrush in the morning, since cleaning needs in the morning are much less (I hadn't eaten anything, and it
Get one with the pacer feature (Score:2)
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I use both. In late 2013, My dentist specialist told me to get an electronic toothbrush. So, I got Sonicare (still use it today). It seems to help. I still use manual toothbrush in case I missed any spots.
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You are obviously not an average case. Some people are lucky and their teeth and gums do not degrade, no matter how little care they take. But for most people things are different.
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Still lots of morons on /. who think personal experience trumps data. Nobody is saying a manual toothbrush can't be "fine" for many people. But electric toothbrushes are better, on the whole. Different people are more prone to dental problems based on multitude of factors, like genetics and diet. All things being equal, electric toothbrushes are more effective.
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"till lots of morons on /. who think personal experience trumps data."
Which part of the word "subjective" didn't you understand buttercup?
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The idea seems to be that electric toothbrushes are no better than regular ones when the proper technique is used. But most people don't use the proper technique, which makes electric toothbrushes better for most people.
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20 seconds is WAY too little time. In fact dentists recommend something like 2 minutes per session. But then, you know, there are also a few people other who make to old age with most of their teeth and who never brush their teeth. This of course, does not prove anything. Electric brushes were proved to be objectively better, and pretty much every dentist recommends them based on evidence. For me, they did marvelous things. I have been suffering from gingivitis or similar gum condition for YEARS and nothing
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I will admit that for people like you who are clearly too stupid to be able to do the small amount of hand co-ordination required to use a manual brush properly then electric is probably the way to go.
No. And "recommended by" is not research! (Score:3)
"Recommended by" is what people claim when they can NOT claim "According to research".
The closest thing to research that I saw, used completely stupid brushing movements to make it look bad. The usual equating of the "average user" with "complete retard", while implying clueless people are entitled to staying clueless, to be able to argue everyone non-stupid is the exception, to force them all into the same padded cell.
Also, always double-check, because it is pretty much guaranteed that that "research" ulti
Re:Electric toothbrushes are objectively better (Score:4, Insightful)
I never believed that, until I tried it out about 10 years back. The difference is staggering, and I can only recommend to anybody to try it. Sure, if you have no problems with a conventional one, then stay with that. But many people have problems and for them, this tech does do wonders.
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I am surprised, if that is so. However, something is telling me that having a KFC chicken drumstick stuck in between two teeth for a long amount of time is not good thing.
I personally have a couple of mollars with a biggish gap in between. Even my dentist noticed and asked does anything get stuck there? Hell yeah. In fact, if something is there and I don't floss before going to sleep, then next day my gum in that area could be inflamed, sensitive, and possibly bleeding when brushing teeth.
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They've been recommended by dentists for years now, and with good reason. The only debate is the effectiveness between a $20 brush and a $200 one with built-in wifi, touchscreen and blockchain technology. But we know the answer to that..
Pfft - blockchain on a toothbrush is worthless. But I do like having wifi so I can start it remotely....
efficient (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:efficient (Score:4, Informative)
From what dentists, dental hygienist and most (but not all) people that have switched tell you, they do clean better, but most importantly they do much less damage to the gums. Does no work for everybody, but for most people it does. I found the difference striking when looking back after a few months. And I do agree, the simpler models are quite enough.
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Dont you actually want to rough up your gums to toughen them?
Hence the reason dentists recommend firm bristles rather than soft.
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I actually brush my gums with my electric toothbrush, where I didn't do that so much with manual ones. And my gums are quite healthy, so I guess it's a win. But is there really anything stopping one from brushing one's gums with the manual type, or am I just lazy?
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Dont you actually want to rough up your gums to toughen them?
Hence the reason dentists recommend firm bristles rather than soft.
My dentist recommends soft bristles... rather loudly! 8-}
But yes, "massage your gums" with the toothbrush.
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Hence the reason dentists recommend firm bristles rather than soft.
I never had one that did this. I have had several that rather emphatically advised against it and also against using more than minimal force.
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Huh. My gums are never bloody nowadays but they would certainly get as such if I didnt a scrub with firm bristles. I don't know what to make of your contrary experience. I've only heard "firm, not soft bristles" from ever dentist I've been to.
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My research is that my teeth feel noticeably cleaner when using an electric toothbrush. That's good enough.
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Same here. Plus, when I rinse and spit after brushing with something like a Sonicare I see a *lot* more bits and pieces of stuff than when using a simple manual brush.
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Same here. Plus, when I rinse and spit after brushing with something like a Sonicare I see a *lot* more bits and pieces of stuff than when using a simple manual brush.
This can actually be a valid test. Assuming what you ate was about the same...
Re: Go ahead. Find some research on that. (Score:2)
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Perhaps you're just wearing down the enamel.
Perhaps, yes.
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Lol, brings Windows into comment. Priceless. You truly are an independent thinker, haha.
Too big (Score:2)
I thought they meant the heads were too big when I read the headline. Most brushes have large heads, but you want a smaller one for the best cleaning.
I but the Japanese ones because they are half the size of Western heads for the same electric toothbrush.
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>"I thought they meant the heads were too big when I read the headline. Most brushes have large heads, but you want a smaller one for the best cleaning."
My first Sonicare had a rather large head. But they changed the design [at least 6 years ago] to be MUCH smaller. At first I didn't like it, but then realized it really does help to make cleaning all areas more effective.
>"I but the Japanese ones because they are half the size of Western heads for the same electric toothbrush."
I can't imagine it bei
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I tried the small ones, but I stayed with the larger ones. Apparently a matter of individual preference.
Absolute non-story. (Score:1)
Like in any industry, there is a gray market for selling overpriced crap to retards.
As long as it doesn't leave enyone no choice, it's not a problem, and I just call it ... natural selection.
If they use the money to do good, you could even call them modern Robin Hoods. Unfortunately, they rarely do.
It only becomes a problem, once shops start stocking nothing else because the sane options aren't worth she shelf space anymore... and then sane manufacturers get into financial trouble.
Which is sadly, often the
Correction: s/enyone/anyone/ (Score:2)
Interesting ... a typo based on *acoustic* similarity ... that I missed while proof-reading ... Is there any research on that?
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Interesting ... a typo based on *acoustic* similarity ... that I missed while proof-reading ... Is there any research on that?
Yes, I have heard of that. But not idea where it was. Sorry...
A highly profitable non-problem (Score:4, Interesting)
In a world which faces so many serious problems, dental caries - like most other "diseases of civilization" - is almost entirely self-imposed through appalling nutrition. Inhabitants of modern cities and towns, although neck-deep in tens of thousands of food and drink choices, are mostly suffering from severe malnutrition with deficiencies of vitamins, minerals and even macro-nutrients such as saturated fat.
In his canonical book "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration" (1939), Dr Weston A. Price gave detailed descriptions of his travels and research among 14 different "primitive" peoples, from the Inuit and North-western Native Americans to the Masai and the natives of New Guinea and the high Andes.
According to the Prologue (written by the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation), "Price's research proved conclusively that dental decay is caused primarily by nutritional deficiencies, and that those conditions that promote decay also promote disease. Price found fourteen tribal diets that, although radically different, provided almost complete immunity to tooth decay and resistance to illness. Contact with civilization, followed by adoption of what Dr Price termed "the displacing foods of modern commerce" was disastrous for all groups studied. Rampant dental caries was followed by progressive facial deformities in children born to parents consuming refined and devitalized foods. These changes consisted of narrowed facial structure and dental arches, along with crowded teeth, birth defects and increased susceptibility to infectious and chronic disease. Significantly, when some natives returned to their traditional diets, open cavities ceased progressing and children now conceived and born, once again had perfect dental arches and no tooth decay".
Dr Price found that peoples like the Inuit and Masai, while eating their traditional diets, never got any dental caries or gum disease. (Perhaps at most one or two teeth in a hundred would be mildly flawed, compared to half or more seriously damaged in civilized people).
None of those people ever cleaned their teeth in any way - not with toothbrushes or toothpaste, not even with twigs or leaves - yet their teeth were perfect. In contrast, Dr Price found that his patients in Illinois continued to get caries no matter how much or how often they cleaned their teeth.
For most of my life I suffered from moderate dental caries, with many fillings and a few extractions and crowns. About ten years ago I began eating more along the lines indicated by Dr Price's research, and my dentist began giving my teeth a clean bill of health at every checkup. Then he told me it was not worth my visiting the hygienist, and for the past few years I have not gone to the dentist at all.
The key seems to be avoid all grains, in any form. Sugar, though much criticized and certainly not good, seems to be less critical. Baked goods and other cereal products appear the main cause of tartar, which hosts the bacteria that do the damage.
So we have a situation where the highly profitable "food-like substance" industry causes huge amounts of disease, which in turn supports the equally huge and profitable medical, surgical, dental and insurance industries.
If you fijnd any of this plausible, I urge you to buy Dr Price's book - still available from all good bookstores. You will find it one of the best investments of time and money you ever make.
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Huh. So eating natural whole foods is good for you? Thanks for the tip. Why do you need a book to know that? Doctors have been saying that for many decades.
Re:A highly profitable non-problem (Score:4, Insightful)
The devil is in the details. What do you understand by "natural whole foods", for instance? If your understanding of the term includes grains, you will not get good results.
And if doctors have been saying that for many decades, why hasn't anyone paid attention to them? because people keep getting sick.
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And down here in the real world, an electric toothbrush is just a better choice for most people.
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...down here in the real world...
You wouldn't be trying to suggest that my comment was airy-fairy ivory tower theory, would you? It's not - it's intensely practical.
...an electric toothbrush is just a better choice for most people.
Says who? Are you really saying that it's better to let your mouth fill up with the bacteria that cause tooth decay and then frantically - and vainly - try to remove them, rather than slightly modifying your diet to keep them out of your mouth in the first place?
It's hard to get reliable figures, but the total "dental care" industry in the USA is estimated to be about $138 bill
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As I said, "down here in the real world"....
A solution has to be implementable with reasonable effort to have any value. Theoreticians like you tend to forget that.
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A solution has to be implementable with reasonable effort to have any value. Theoreticians like you tend to forget that.
Did you even read my comments? I am emphatically NOT a "theoretician" - I am an ordinary person who struggled for decades with excessive weight and ill health, including dental problems, and tried many potential solutions.
Then I came across Dr Price's book and tried following his advice. My health improved, I lost some weight, and for the first time in my life I don't need the dentist, the dental hygienist, or toothbrush and toothpaste. (I still brush once a day with toothpaste to avoid bad breath).
Dr Price
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A solution has to be implementable with reasonable effort to have any value. Theoreticians like you tend to forget that.
Did you even read my comments? I am emphatically NOT a "theoretician" -
You wish. These people are not only found in ivory towers. Main characteristic is disconnectedness from what can realistically be implemented in the real world. Just because there is some possibility to do something does not mean it is realistic to get people to do it.
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So we have a situation where the highly profitable "food-like substance" industry causes huge amounts of disease, which in turn supports the equally huge and profitable medical, surgical, dental and insurance industries.
I don't think most people would make the sacrifices you made for your dental health. The vast majority of people see improvement in dental health with more brushing. I suspect you are an outlier.
Dental health, for example, gets worse s people move from Level 1 to Level 2, then improves again on Level 4. This is because people start to eat sweets as soon as they can afford them, but their governments cannot afford to prioritize preventative public education about tooth decay until Level 3. So poor teeth are an indicator of relative poverty on Level 4, but on Level 1 they may indicate the opposite
-Hans Rosling, Factfulness, p96.
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Good lord.
Slashdot. "Party of science". And this stuff gets +5.
It's non-scientific. It's not peer reviewed, or reproduced. It's nonsense.
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The book is in print and available from Amazon and, no doubt, many other sources. Or the Foundation itself.
amazon.co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nutri... [amazon.co.uk]
amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Nutriti... [amazon.com]
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Just curious: did Dr. Price address dying from infection due to lack of antibiotics?
No. Antibiotics are rarely necessary when few infections arise. A healthy population eating a good natural diet gets very few infections (except after a fall or violence). And it is gradually coming to be understood that antibiotics, when overused, cause a huge amount of sickness by destroying or damaging natural microbiota. There is a terrible vicious circle in play: people eat grains and too much sugar, which fill them up so they don't eat healthy foods. They thus get intestinal problems, so doctors give
Wisdom (Score:2)
talk to each other and the Internet.
They order beer while you chill on the couch.
Your toothbrush tells the time. It purrs at your approach
but in a stranger's hand, it bristles and glows red.
It says, Goodnight, thanks for brushing before you go to bed.
It has a data habit, it sniffs out stuff you miss:
the PH of your mouth, the chroma of your piss.
It monitors for caries, if you used the floss.
It says, Dave, why don't you try to drink a little le
ss? It kno
Sugar and timing (Score:2)
My understanding is that:
1) 90% of teeth issues are caused by sugars and similar substances that are not naturally found in most plants and most animals.
2 The main advantage of electric toothbrushes is the timing. They make it much more likely that we brush for a full 2 minutes rather than 30 seconds.
3) Flouride is the main modern aid for tooth health, and most of us get that from the water.
4) Our toothbrushes really don't do much to fix the issue. Even perfect use doesn't do much more than reduce issue
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Whether we have "bad teeth" depends a lot upon the microbiome in our mouth (ignoring heavy smokers, etc.) and that's mostly out of our control, it was most likely established when we were very young. That's why some people can eat lots of crap, brush half-heartedly once day and still have great teeth and others can't. It can be partly mitigated by brushing but as you also say - not completely. Most of us seem to be the second type here.
Fluoride in water? I've lived in many western countries and that differ
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The microbiome reacts to your diet. Fix your diet, and the bacteria will follow.
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Although "refined sugar" is by far the most popular boogeyman for teeth, it's not the worst offender. The root problem is of course certain strains of bacteria, whose waste products dissolve out enamel. Sugar provides them energy but not nutrition, and it doesn't stick around. Meat and other single-source natural foods provide a small amount of nutrition, little energy, and don't usually stay around very long. Breads on the other hand provide good energy, excellent nutrition, and are very good at waddin
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Sugar is not acidic. Bacterial waste sure is.
Great. Now tell us what sugar does to the bacteria that cause tooth decay.
So? (Score:1)
I got my oral-b at the flea (Score:3)
I got an oral-b electric with no extraneous functions at the flea market for $25. I don't know what truck it fell off of, but it was in sealed packaging. About five years on, it's still running strong, so I guess it must be authentic. NiMH batteries FTW, I guess. This one doesn't have a screen or anything, which may be why it's still working. It also doesn't have AI, so I don't have skynet up in my mouth or whatever.
I swear by my Sonicare (Score:3)
This is just my personal experience, but I swear by my Sonicare. It works.
After I started using one, my dentist noticed the difference right away. Better gums, less plaque, and better overall oral health.
He's said repeatedly he wished everyone would use one. They can make a hell of a difference with virtually no effort.
Solution looking for a problem (Score:2)
How many of use don't use some meme electric toothbrush, wi
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Honestly, who the hell needs a gods-be-damned toothbrush that has bluetooth and an internet connection? It's so utterly ridiculous that I'd think I'd heard about it on The Onion.
Don't press to hard (Score:2)
Pressing an ultrasonic toothbrush too hard against the teeth and gums can physically erode the teeth at their base.
My dentist figured it out, and said to just use a manual toothbrush.
um (Score:2)
Electric toothbrushes are objectively better.
I'm sure they do create some cognitive dissonance and discomfort for the organic vegan crowd, but if it makes you feel any better, plastic bristles embedded in plastic handles aren't all that natural either ...
No-one forces you to buy them. (Score:2)
Odd, I'd not noticed an absence of manual toothbrushes on the supermarket shelves. Every couple of years when I get a new one, they're still there. It must be five years since I even looked for my electric toothbrush. Or it's charger.
I prefer (Score:2)
Electric Toothbrushes Kill Your Gums (Score:2)
At least two different dentists told two different people I know that part of their gum receding problem was from brushing too hard with electric toothbrushes.
Re: (Score:2)
Then don't press too hard. I had a completely different experience. After suffering from gum problems for many YEARs, everyone at my dentist's office recommended an electric brush. I got a basic sonicare, and my gums became healthy (very slowly). It was amazing. Previously I didn't know what else to do, cleaning visits every four months, flossing, mouthwashes, you naming, none of that helped.
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I bought one, started using it, and my dental health was noticeably worse fairly quickly.
That's weird- I had the exact opposite results. My gums and palate got noticeably better and the amount of plaque they found at my checkups went down.
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I use those for cleaning carburetors.
Re: What? (Score:2)