Our Surrey dentists often recommend electric toothbrushes to patients to help them better clean their teeth. Here are a few reasons why electric toothbrushes have an edge over manual ones.
Manual toothbrushes can be effective for cleaning when used with the proper technique for the recommended two minutes twice daily.
If you are happy with your manual toothbrush and your dentist is satisfied with your oral hygiene routine and general oral health, good job! You can keep doing what you’re doing.
However, for those who feel their oral hygiene requires some improvement, an electric toothbrush can provide some added benefits that can help.
They do the brushing for you
The main benefit of electric toothbrushes is that they require very little effort to use.
We recommend electric toothbrushes with rotating, oscillating heads. They make ideal, circular brushing motions.
That means all you have to worry about is guiding the toothbrush lightly over the fronts, backs, and chewing surfaces of your teeth; the electric toothbrush will do the rest of the work for you!
Built in Timers
It can be tricky to tell exactly when two minutes are up without a watch or timer. It can be longer than you think!
Most electric toothbrushes (even many of the more basic models) come with built in timers that go off after two minutes, to let you know when you can stop brushing.
They make it easier to clean hard-to-reach places
Especially if you use the recommended round, rotating head, electric toothbrushes are small enough to reach those awkward angles at the back of your mouth easily. And because you don’t have to make the brushing motion yourself, you just have to move the brush gently around your back teeth for a good clean.
Brushing too hard? An electric toothbrush may actually help with that, too.
Since you're not making the brushing motion yourself with an electric toothbrush, it makes it much easier not to brush too hard. You guide the brush lightly and evenly around your teeth, not really pressing down, rather allowing it to make the scrubbing motion.