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I will have to admit that my last visit to the dentist didn’t go all that well. Cavities and faulty 3rd molars. What else is new?
I need to drastically improve my tooth brushing techniques once and for all. And the solution is (of course) by the use of oscillating electrical toothbrushes. Nothing new really, people have been using them for ages so the question is really - why haven’t I?
Well, it could be because I never saw a valid reason to get one. No clear numbers to indicate if and by how much an electrical toothbrush would do the job better than a traditional toothbrush. Well, according to a recent test report in a Swedish newspaper (source: Dagens Nyheter), a carefully selected model can make a lot of difference. As could be expected, most of the cheap models did no better than a manual toothbrush and the efficiency increased along with the price. There was only one exception to this rule - the Philips Sensiflex. It was without any doubt the most efficient toothbrush in the test and at half the price of the next best brush this can be considered a real bargain. Philips really did everything right with this one. The battery time is longer, the oscillation speed is twice that of the Braun models and it has got a built-in pressure sensitive sensor that prevents damage to the tissue surrounding the teeth. All in all the Sensiflex removed about 86% of the bacterial plaque in the test, compared to the 41% of the manual toothbrush. What you should also bear in mind is that those 41% is a figure that applies someone who is skilled with a toothbrush and takes the task seriously. Superficial use of an ordinary toothbrush would probably increase the gap even more.
So, today I did the only logical thing. I purchased a Philips Sensiflex 1511. This isn’t a review or anything, just a reminder that electrical toothbrushes these days aren’t just toys for geeks. They actually improve dental hygiene. And also a note on the overvalued Braun brushes. Dentists everywhere most likely will recommend Braun because they have been bought and don’t have a clue. Don’t accept the myth about the wonderful Braun toothbrushes, because that is all it is - a myth.
