Electric Toothbrushes and Water Flossers are Excellent Tools for Better Oral Hygiene
When you think about how technology makes your life better, chances are you won’t think about the electric toothbrush and/or water flosser — the most well-known of these is the Waterpik — that (we hope) is in your bathroom. But you’d be missing one of the better uses for technology when it comes to the impact it has on our lives.
We’ve talked many times about how good oral hygiene is a benefit on many levels and for everyone. What these tools do is help you do an even better job of keeping your mouth in great shape.
No doubt the advent of these tools has made choosing a toothbrush a bit more difficult. It forces you from simply deciding among soft, medium and hard bristles to having to choose one product from among many that may have different features.
But we highly recommend adopting this technology as soon as you can.
Here’s why.
Electric toothbrushes are a plus for every age group. Kids like to use them because of the novelty at first and for the ease of use later on. One less obvious plus is that kids get used to having a cleaner mouth, and for we dental nerds at Downtown Dental Associates of Portland, that’s always a plus.
Older folks and others — those who may suffer from conditions that make fine movements difficult or painful — benefit as well.
Electric toothbrushes:
· Encourage you to brush longer by incorporating timers into the device. On a side note, we recommend brushing for at least two minutes, and it often surprises patients who’ve switched to electric toothbrushes with timers how long that really is.
· Do the work for you.
· Do a better job of cleaning
Water flossers:
· Force bits of food from between your teeth.
· Rinse bacteria from places your toothbrush can’t reach.
· Are gentle on your gums.
Knowing the benefits of thorough plaque removal from between teeth and at the gum line, we also continue to recommend flossing. But we think the addition of a water flosser is a plus, and every little bit helps when it comes to oral hygiene.
Talk to us today about any questions you may have regarding this or any other topic on dental care. We’re here to help, and we love it when our patients are interested in what we do.