I’m the type of person that just loves to know everything I can about a topic that interests me, and that often involves doing a lot of research, no matter how painstaking that may be. You might say it’s kind of like a bulldog mentality; once I get my teeth into something I just don’t want to let it go. As you might have guessed, my curious nature really kicks in when I’m buying a new product like an electric toothbrush, so I wanted to make sure I really did my homework before deciding between a sonic and an oscillating toothbrush.
The difference between these two types of brushes is fairly straightforward – the sonic brush uses a vibration technology to vibrate the plaque loose from your teeth, and an oscillating brush rotates rapidly back and forth to accomplish the same thing. They both do a great job of removing plaque from your teeth and either one is a better choice than the manual toothbrush.
The Traditional Electric or Oscillating Brush
The traditional electric or oscillating brush works by using a constant back-and-forth rotating motion that replaces manual brushstrokes. Not only does this technology do the job of brushing for you, it can perform a lot more brushes in a minute than you could do with your own hand and a manual brush. With a manual toothbrush you can expect to achieve at best 300 to 400 brush strokes per minute, but with an oscillating electric toothbrush you can achieve up to 8000 brushstrokes per minute. It’s simple math – the electric toothbrush offers a far superior cleaning experience than your traditional manual brush.
Studies may vary, but most suggest that an oscillating toothbrush can remove as much as 100% more plaque from your teeth than your old manual brush. That in itself is a great reason to upgrade, but it’s not the only reason. An electric toothbrush is also great if you’re suffering from afflictions such as arthritis or carpal tunnel syndrome. The electric brush does most of the work for you so you don’t have to worry about the extra wear and tear on your hands. It’s an added benefit that might not immediately come to mind, but it’s definitely another good reason to switch to an electric oscillating toothbrush.
Common Issues with Electric Brushes
As effective as they are at improving your dental hygiene, electric toothbrushes are not without issues. For one thing, before buying one you want to make sure that replacement heads are easy to find. It’s all right to find a great deal on an electric brush, but if you can’t replace the heads once they wear out it’s not much better than any other manual toothbrush you’ve ever used. It’s always best to choose one of the more popular models, no matter what price range you are looking at, as their popularity tends to make it easier to find replacement heads.
The other problem you may run into with an electric toothbrush is that they’re not as travel-friendly as a manual toothbrush. With manual toothbrushes it doesn’t matter which country you’re traveling to, they’ll all work the same since you don’t need an electrical outlet to recharge them. When choosing an electric brush, on the other hand, you’ll want to be careful to choose one that holds its charge for more than two or three weeks, or one that has USB recharging capability. Different parts of the world use different electrical voltage standards, which means you may not be able to charge your electric toothbrush when traveling out of country.