How to Choose a Toothbrush
The toothbrush you use every day only dates back about 70 years, when nylon bristles were first used. Earlier toothbrushes, dating back to about the 16th century in China used boar hairs as bristles attached to bamboo or a piece of bone. Before that, people cleaned their teeth in various ways, like using frayed twigs rubbed against the teeth to clean them. The electric toothbrush dates back about 50 years. And today’s best plaque remover, the sonic toothbrush, was introduced in the 1980s.
Is newest always better? Is a sonic toothbrush really better than a standard electric toothbrush? Or can you clean your teeth well enough with a regular manual toothbrush?
There are many choices in manual toothbrushes today, with a variety of handle grips, bristle patterns and degrees of softness and firmness. Though each company says its toothbrush is the best because of the angled bristles or the raised bristles on the edges, there’s no hard scientific data that shows an angled brush works better than one with flat bristles, or that any of the raised bristle patterns are any more effective at removing plaque.
Since it’s the movement of the bristles that actually removes the plaque, then just using any toothbrush at all is effective. Brushing steadily for at least 3 minutes is ideal. When choosing a manual toothbrush, make sure the head is small enough to fit comfortably into the mouth and that you can maneuver it throughout the mouth to reach the back teeth and all the side surfaces. If it’s too large or doesn’t get in the back easily, you won’t be able to use it effectively, and you might use it less often because it’s uncomfortable. Get a toothbrush with a handle that’s comfortable for you and long enough to reach all those back teeth areas.
Also, make sure the bristles don’t have pointy ends. The bristles should be rounded to protect your gums and make brushing more comfortable. Soft bristles are best. You might think that the stiffer the bristles, the more plaque can be scrubbed away. It’s true that stiffer bristles might plow through plaque a little more quickly. But they also wear away at the enamel of your teeth and can do damage over time. This slow wearing away can expose the dentin and make teeth sensitive to touch, hot and cold.
You should throw out your old toothbrush every three or four months and start with a new one. Also, if you start to get sick you should immediately throw the toothbrush away and use a new one during the illness. Once you start to feel better, throw that toothbrush away and use a new one to avoid reinfecting yourself or causing the illness to linger.
Using a manual toothbrush, you can create about 300 brushstrokes per minute. For plaque removal, electric toothbrushes work better at about 7,500 to 8,000 brush strokes per minute. A sonic-type electric toothbrush gives you over 40,000 strokes per minute for the fastest and most efficient plaque removal.
