OK, I was going to post this one later, but then thought it would follow-up the 3G pretty well.

Toothbrushes.

Electric/Manual. Hard/Soft. Blue/Purple with sarkles

So what’s the right choice when having to decide between so many different types of toothbrushes?

When I graduated Dental school in 1989 I had to pass boards to become a licensed dentist. On the boards there was a question about toothbrushes.

The gist was that the contemporary wisdom was that hard bristled toothbrushes would abrade the teeth and gums causing receding gums and grooves in the teeth.

I knew the response I would get when I would tell this to my father, who was a firm believer in hard bristled toothbrushes. He was pretty sure the soft bristled movement was a conspiracy between the manufactures, periodontists and the ADA to drum up business.

He brushed his teeth and gums like a fiend with the hardest brushes available his whole life without any recession or gum disease.

Things got kinda tricky when I got into the office and I had to decide what to tell my (our) patients.

Mostly, I just prayed they didn’t ask anything about it.

I would just tell the two sides of the story and let them choose for themselves and tell them that I used a soft brush if they pressed me.

What was my conclusion?

Well, we had certain low percentage of our patients that had gum problems, but over 90% that brushed properly with the soft bristled toothbrushes were great. Surprisingly, over 90% of those ’scrubbing the hell out of their gumlines’ with the hard brushes had no tooth wear or gum disease either.

Basically. they were OK as long as they used them at the gum line aggressively.

Huh!

So what about electric toothbrushes vs. manual?

Well, CRA (which is basically like consumer’s reports for dentists) found that there was NO difference in double-blind, properly conducted scientific studies!

Zounds! Shocking!

Let me relate my own personal experience to further emphasize this.

We get rep.s from all of the companies coming in trying to get us to hawk their Next Great Thing.

They give me samples of their brushes that they sell to us for $60. and recommend we sell them for $100. Not a big mark-up and barely worth the effort.

Anyway, I started using one of these because it seemed really easy. Just put the magic thing in my mouth and it would do all of the work.Then, I started noticing that my gums were bleeding a little for the first time.

So, I tried using the brush as if it were a manual toothbrush and scrubbed my gums with it aggressively.

Things got good again very quickly.

Bottom line. I don’t think it really matters what you use as long as you take it to the gum line and drive the bristles between your teeth and between your teeth and the gum line.

Yeah, Oral B and Sonicare hate me. But, I’m pretty and healthy in the meantime.

P.S. I prefer purple with sparkles.

Dillon Family Dentistry, 1084 East Lancaster Ave Rosemont PA 19010, Phone Number: 610-228-0329