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How can an electric toothbrush help me?
Home » Gadgets » Electric Toothbrushes » How can an electric toothbrush help me?Brushing with a manual toothbrush removes plaque bacteria from your teeth and gums. Unfortunately, most people apply far too much pressure when brushing. This excessive brushing force damages teeth in several ways:
1. Brushing too hard ruins gum tissue, thereby causing the gums to recede. This unsightly gum recession can ruin an otherwise perfect smile. Unfortunately, gum tissue never grows back.
2. Brushing too hard strips tooth enamel from the tooth making the tooth sensitive to heat, cold, and other stimuli. Stripped enamel reveals the underlying tooth layer called the dentin. Because dentin is yellowish in color, the result is an ever increasing yellowish smile. As with gum tissue, enamel can never grow back.
Some studies indicate the percentage of people who apply too much brushing pressure to be as high as 66%. Usually we brush too hard for one of two reasons:
We don't realize how much brushing pressure is too much pressure: No one ever taught us how to brush with the right amount of pressure. Consequently, even if we think that we are brushing softly, we are often, in fact applying far too much pressure, damaging teeth and gums in the process.
We feel that the harder we brush, the cleaner our teeth will become: This is a common misperception. The goal of brushing is to remove plaque bacteria. Plaque bacteria is very easily removed with the slightest of brushing pressure. When we brush harder we do not remove more plaque, just damage teeth and gums. What's more important than how hard we brush is that we brush all of our tooth surfaces. It takes nearly 3 minutes to do this; most people spend less than 30 seconds brushing their teeth.
It is incredibly hard to stop applying too mush brushing pressure. We may be able to stop for a day or two but quickly return to our old habits. Think of it as driving a car with no speedometer: It is nearly impossible to know how fast you are going and very easy to exceed the speed limit.
Most people benefit dramatically from an electric toothbrush (plaque remover). Many of these like the Braun Oral-B 3D and the Sonicare Plaque Remover contain pressure sensors which automatically stop the brush when you exert too much pressure, thereby protecting your precious smile.
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