There is a misconception that needs to be dispelled upfront as to whether Electric Toothbrushes Can Damage Your Teeth or not. Brushing and flossing on a regular basis will keep the pearls healthy but only when you do it right. Using a wrong brushing technique of hard/medium bristles can actually be counter-productive for your precious teeth. You should, therefore, choose a preferred brush wisely.
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Nylon bristles are used across most toothbrushes, but using hard bristles on the teeth can damage your gums because the bristles will not only agitate soft tissues on your gums but also disrupt the enamel as well. When choosing, you should shoot for soft bristles. These wear out more often but will provide you with more value and give you radiant healthy teeth.
Whether electric toothbrushes can damage your teeth or not; It all depends on the technique employed when brushing. There is a technique involved in brushing adequately. You need to tilt the brush at an angle of 45 degrees when brushing. This will ensure that you cover all the quadrants of your mouth. A good brushing session should last for at least 2 minutes for the best results. However, if you are brushing manually, you will soon get bored of brushing your teeth before you hit the two minutes mark.
The good thing with an electric brush is that they are configured to brush for at least two minutes. However, no matter how good quality your electric toothbrush is, if you are pressing it too hard on your teeth and consuming a lot of time while brushing your teeth, you are seriously damaging your teeth.
Soft Bristles
To avoid such damage, dentists advise people to use soft-bristled electric toothbrushes. This makes it less likely for the brush to damage the gums and the enamel. Moreover, the size of the head of a toothbrush has to be appropriate enough to fit in the mouth without any difficulties while cleaning in tight corners.
The Best Technique
After the selection of the right tool, your next phase is to practice a capable technique. Scrubbing the teeth vigorously will only make it worse. You will have to use your hand lightly and let the electric toothbrush do its work. Moreover, the duration of cleaning has to be kept around 2 minutes. If you still have a firm grip over your brush and find it hard to lighten up your grip, then try holding it with your fingertips rather than gripping it in your hand. This way you will be able to you clean your teeth more efficiently.
There are different brands of electric brushes that offer different capabilities. Choose one that fits your needs but most importantly follows the right brushing techniques to avoid damaging your teeth.
Does Electric Toothbrush Damage your Teeth?
The answer depends on the techniques you use to brush and the type of bristles in your toothbrush. Remember if you damage your gums the effect is irreversible, so it is crucial to try and brush correctly without harming your gum tissues.
This is a question that you might have considered. The straight answer is no if you use your brush as recommended. However brushing too hard can affect your gums. The good thing is that there are a top notch brushes like the Oral B 5000 that will warn you with a beep sound whenever you are brushing too hard so that you can make adjustments.
Problems such as gingivitis and plaque are hard to come over when using a manual toothbrush – which is why clinical experts advise the preference of an electric toothbrush over a manual one.
Does A More Expensive Toothbrush Translate To A Better Brushing Experience?
Well, electric toothbrushes are priced based on the number of features they possess. But if you look closely, a toothbrush costing $80 might have the same brush strokes per minutes as a toothbrush that costs $150 or so. It’s only that the latter might be having additional features like a timer, smartphone connectivity and/or UV sterilizer. These extra features might be cool but also unnecessary as they add no real value to the teeth cleaning experience.
However, when considering which brand or model to buy, there are some that can do great when cleaning teeth with braces
and sensitive or receding gums. So the idea is not really looking at the price. Rather you should consider what the brush can do in terms of cleaning plaque or debris, leaving your teeth sparkling clean and healthy.
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Dr. Tom Bell has a PhD in Medical Anthropology. He has a keen interest in oral health topics and is the founder of dentalrave. He has been an oral health researcher and electric toothbrush enthusiast for over 10 years. When not talking about dental hygiene and gadgets, Tom likes spending time outdoors hiking.
