Any dentists in the house - electric toothbrush?

Engram said:
On a serious note. I find my electric toothbrush very good for cleaning my back (and wisdom) teeth, whereas my manual toothbrush is best for my front teeth.

I tend to alternate which brush I use throughout the week.
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Thats why i get the small headed ones. Im sure the proper 3 minutes with any brush would give results though.
 
A. Wiegand, M. Begic, T. Attin (2006) In vitro Evaluation of Abrasion of Eroded Enamel by Different Manual, Power and Sonic Toothbrushes Caries Research Vol 40 No 1 2006


Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the susceptibility of eroded enamel to brushing abrasion performed by manual, power or sonic toothbrushes. Bovine enamel samples were subjected to 5 cycles, each consisting of 5 min demineralisation, 15 min remineralisation and 10 min brushing in a machine. Toothbrushing with the activated electric devices was supplemented with 20 linear strokes/min. Furthermore, enamel specimens were brushed with 20 linear strokes/min or 80 linear strokes/min with the electric toothbrushes without their individual operating action. A manual brush was applied at 100, 20 or 80 linear strokes/min. Specimens of the control group were not brushed after demineralisation. Loss of enamel was determined by profilometry. For all groups, substrate loss for linear brushing treatment applying 20 or 80 strokes/min did not differ significantly from the control (4.97 ± 1.49 µm). Three power toothbrushing treatments significantly increased abrasion compared to linear brushing treatment with 20 or 80 strokes/min in their inactivated condition. The results indicate that brushing treatment with power or sonic toothbrushes may lead to significantly higher loss of demineralised enamel compared to toothbrushing without power or sonic support.
 
maustin said:
The results indicate that brushing treatment with power or sonic toothbrushes may lead to significantly higher loss of demineralised enamel compared to toothbrushing without power or sonic support.
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It also results in cleaner teeth.
 
It 'may' lead to higher loss of enamel. I'll ask my wife later about it when she is out of surgery. Doesn't seem very scientific to me, anybody can say something ike that. Just like scrubbing anything hard for too long will wear something down. All I know is that she recommends electric brushes and she herself has been using them for over 10 years without issue.
 
Andy said:
Im sure the proper 3 minutes with any brush would give results though.
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That's a key point as although I think that electric makes it easier to get a good result, someone can be bad at brushing using either a manual or electric toothbrush.

I use a mix of manual and electic every time I brush for different areas so hopefully am getting the best both have to offer (and not the worst!). I also tend to use slower speed settings on electrics as think some manufacturers have a bit of a highest speed is best/sells more mentality.
 
philstanbridge said:
It 'may' lead to higher loss of enamel. I'll ask my wife later about it when she is out of surgery. Doesn't seem very scientific to me, anybody can say something ike that. Just like scrubbing anything hard for too long will wear something down.
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My point was to counter-balance the its fine get this one when the dentists I have seen at work run against this logic now. It's a trade off like you say between cleanliness and damage caused and you need to find the middle ground which most likely is person specific and maybe the person making the original post should see their dentist for their opinion on how it would be for them with their teeth profile and also checking whether said dentist is really up to date with the research. Are they basing their opinion on research or just what they were told in training 10 years ago. One would assume if you wanted nice clean teeth and had a good layer of enamel there would be no problem however if that is not the case then you could end up messing yourself up if you are not careful.
 
maustin said:
A. Wiegand, M. Begic, T. Attin (2006) In vitro Evaluation of Abrasion of Eroded Enamel by Different Manual, Power and Sonic Toothbrushes Caries Research Vol 40 No 1 2006


Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the susceptibility of eroded enamel to brushing abrasion performed by manual, power or sonic toothbrushes. Bovine enamel samples were subjected to 5 cycles, each consisting of 5 min demineralisation, 15 min remineralisation and 10 min brushing in a machine. Toothbrushing with the activated electric devices was supplemented with 20 linear strokes/min. Furthermore, enamel specimens were brushed with 20 linear strokes/min or 80 linear strokes/min with the electric toothbrushes without their individual operating action. A manual brush was applied at 100, 20 or 80 linear strokes/min. Specimens of the control group were not brushed after demineralisation. Loss of enamel was determined by profilometry. For all groups, substrate loss for linear brushing treatment applying 20 or 80 strokes/min did not differ significantly from the control (4.97 ± 1.49 µm). Three power toothbrushing treatments significantly increased abrasion compared to linear brushing treatment with 20 or 80 strokes/min in their inactivated condition. The results indicate that brushing treatment with power or sonic toothbrushes may lead to significantly higher loss of demineralised enamel compared to toothbrushing without power or sonic support.
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Since you quoted a study....
Are you aware of exactly what demineralised enamel is? The reasons why you would have significant quantiites of this present on your teeth, and as to why this paper was published in a journal relating to the reasearch of decay, rather than gum disease?
 
In essence, within that study, they took some extracted teeth, they weakened the enamel on those extracted teeth by acid exposure. Following that they took the weakened enamel and subjected it to power brushing, sonic brushing, and hand brushing. They then reviewed how much tooth they had managed to wear away from already weakened extracted teeth. They drew their conclusions.

Teeth are bathed in saliva normally, not acid. Saliva remineralises weakened enamel. People brushing in different styles and methods, some not at all, but generally the force provided by a manual brush will not be uniform throughout the mouth.
People present everyday with wear faceting due to over vigour manual brushing, and brushing using hard bristled brushes. Sonic brushes provide even load trhoughout the mouth, and generally have smaller heads allowing for access to regions of the mouth a manual brush cannot accurately go.

Don't quote a study whe the science doesn't reflect the point you were trying to make.
To the chap who has cleaner teeth when he manually scrubs and can see bits left between when he used an electirc brush, you should be using some form of interdental cleaning to get bits no toothbrush will get.
TePe brushes are excellent for this task, ask your dentist, they'll tell you the size you should use. It'll remove all the stuff inbetween even the stuff you can't see that your manual brush will miss everyday. Althernatives would be interdental sticks, floss, superfloss etc. Different things will suit different people.

Most electric brushes are very similar and the low end stuff sold by tescos sainsburys off the shlef for 7-8 pounds are reasonably good, very small head, good around upper wisdom teeth etc. The sonicare brushes are excellent however, right at the other end of the scale.
 
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