One of the most popular ways of cleaning your teeth that has become increasingly popular in recent years is the electric toothbrush.
Recently, its position seems to be threatened by the emergence of the sonic toothbrush. One or the other, these innovative types of toothbrushes are bringing improvements in dental hygiene.
The electric toothbrush first appeared in the United States in the early 1930s.
Every year since then, the major manufacturers come up with innovations. In recent years, they have focused on producing toothbrushes that, in addition to the quality of brushing teeth in a professional way, are equipped with means to make them as interactive as possible.
Nowadays, toothbrushes can be connected to various devices in the home and can analyze the quality of the strokes made and indicate areas where brushing needs to be done more carefully.
The reasons why electric toothbrushes are gaining more and more ground may be the following:
They perform efficient brushing – an electric toothbrush can develop 10,000-30,000 revolutions per minute. Therefore, cleaning is superior to manual toothbrushes. Also, the patient does not need to be particularly skilled.
For the manual toothbrush, for each sector of the arches the toothbrush must be held in the correct way for effective brushing.
Electric toothbrushes remove food debris even if the operator is clumsy or tends to lose patience and is not meticulous.
Effective plaque removal– studies show that food debris and plaque removal is superior when brushing with an electric toothbrush. Effective brushing reduces the risk of gingivitis.
Pressure control –using a manual toothbrush, the pressure applied is unevenly distributed. Studies show that right-handed people tend to use slightly increased pressure when brushing their left hemiarch. In the case of left-handed people, higher pressure is applied to the opposite hemiarcada, i.e. the right. By using an electric toothbrush, the applied pressure is evenly distributed, which means there is less risk of localized wear of certain dental units.
Brushing time– manual toothbrushes take about 5 minutes to polish tooth surfaces. In contrast, an electric toothbrush takes only 2 minutes for an effective cleaning. In the first case, there is a risk that the patient will get bored and not take an interest in removing plaque from all tooth surfaces.
The principles of using toothbrushes do not change regardless of their type.
It should always be performed from the gum towards the tooth, to favor intimate contact between them. Otherwise, the gum will migrate towards the root and the dental crown will be increasingly exposed. Manual toothbrushes or electric or sonic toothbrush heads should be replaced every 3 months.
Toothbrushes of any type are only effective if the brushing rules are followed.
