Toothbrush

The big goal of choosing the right toothbrush is to be able to remove plaque with as little dental enamel erosion as possible. A simple medium hard toothbrush with a small head is already a great tool. Today there are many brush profiles, that want to support reaching specific areas (between the teeth or between gum and teeth), while often being less effective on other areas. To find the perfect toothbrush for yourself, you can use a 2 phase plaque indicator liquid. Brush (on different days) with each toothbrush with the same soft pressure and see which does leave the least plaque. Of course in everyday usage you can alternate between multiple toothbrushes that even out each others weaknesses, if you find no one perfect one.

Please note that no toothbrush can replace dental floss.

Electrical toothbrushes

Modern electrical toothbrushes like sonic or rotating brushes have advanced to a degree where they clean quite well. The need very little technique to do a good job, but create more erosion of the dental enamel. You can use an electrical toothbrush if a good technique like bass with a normal toothbrush does not deliver a clean result, e.g. for kids with problematic motor skills. As with different toothbrushes you can buy an electrical one to alternate between this and a manual one.

Dental floss

While the toothbrush cleans the inside, outside and chewing surface of the teeth, floss cleans between the teeth. Even though it's just as important, it was overlooked in many households and is only slowly catching up as integral part of dental hygiene. The main property of a good floss is, that it fits between your teeth, in addition some create a big, but thin surface by splitting up. A good pick is an unwaxed floss, that works for all your interdental spaces and is slightly flat while being used. If you have big trouble using dental floss you can use an oral irrigator, but bear in mind it's a compromise.

Interdental brushes

With age some gum is drawing back. In these cases and when teeth have been replaced, we recommend using an interdental brush, which is doing a similar job as dental floss, but needs more space while delivering a cleaner result. If you have particularly big spaces between your teeth you can generally use these instead of dental floss.

Toothpaste

A toothpaste strongly depends on needs and taste. The key factor to consider is that it has fluoride. Additionally you can use a fluoride gel once a week to strengthen your teeth. So called "repair" toothpaste mostly includes artificial dental enamel, no study has yet conclusively show that this can attach to your teeth. If you choose to use such a tooth paste, make absolutely sure not to let it mix with any products that include fluoride like a mouthwash or anything you used just before or after brushing. In such a case the artificial enamel hardened by the fluoride can harm your teeth.

Mouth wash

Some mouth washes are good to be used before toothbrushing or in situations when you cannot brush your teeth yet like after eating something acid. In these situations mouth wash or even chewing gum can help neutralize the ph-level so the acid does not erode dental enamel and the sugar is partially washed away. To lower the bacterial level in your oral flora some mouth washes include Chlorhexidine. Finally some people brush their teeth in the morning before the breakfast, which is more harmful then helpful. If you need to get rid of a bad taste in the morning mouth wash is the better choice, as it's not aggressive on the dental enamel.

Other tools

Of all the other dental tools from gum massage to tongue and cheek cleaning we want to highlight two: