In this video, we’ll answer some frequently asked questions about an electric toothbrush. So, the two common questions that I get asked is, does an electric toothbrush clean better than a manual toothbrush? And the second question’s will an electric toothbrush damage my gum? So, let’s get onto the first questions.

Now, is an electric toothbrush a better brush to use? Now, in my opinion, an electric toothbrush doesn’t necessarily clean better, but they’re easier to use. That’s how I would put it. What does that mean? Now, I would comparing this to say, for example, driving a car. If you’re driving an automatic car, doesn’t mean that you will drive better, but it’s certainly easier to drive because you don’t have to focus on a lot of things like changing gears and things like that, so that you can focus on the important things, which means, where the cars are going, what the traffics is like.

Now, you can be driving an automatic car and ram into someone else’s car. That’s because it doesn’t matter so much about which car you’re driving, but it’s the person who’s driving the car, or the person using the tools.

So with an electric toothbrush, just because you use an electric toothbrush doesn’t mean that you are going to clean better, but it’s easier to use. Because the head of the toothbrush will spin by itself, it’s doing a lot of that jiggling things for you already. The thing that you need to focus on then is to place the toothbrush where the plaque’s supposed to be. Now, because you don’t have to concentrate on wiggling your hands and just concentrating where you place the toothbrush, that’s going to make it easier for you to clean your teeth better.

Remember, if you go back to my previous videos about how to brush your teeth, the thing that I put a lot of emphasis on is to put the toothbrush where the bacterias are sitting. Otherwise, you’re not going to clean the bacteria.

Now, the reason why I frame my answer to this question this way is because a lot of people think that, “If I get an electric toothbrush, I’m automatically going to clean better.” It’s not the case. You still need to put a lot of effort in terms of how to improve where you’re brushing. But of course, if you’re using electric toothbrush, it’s going to be an easier tools to get you there.

Now, personally, I’ve been using electric toothbrush for a while, and I find that, naturally, once it’s something that’s quite convenient, you’ve been using for a while, it’s harder and harder for you to go back and use the manual toothbrush. So, give it a go regardless.

Now, the second questions is about… Will an electric toothbrush damage my gum?

Again, I would say that it’s exactly the same thing as what we comparing to a manual toothbrush before. You can damage your gum by scrubbing hard using a manual toothbrush. You can damage your gum by using an electric toothbrush. It’s not so much that an electric toothbrush going to damage your gum any more than a manual toothbrush. It’s just the way you use it.

So, the same principle still applies when you’re choosing a toothbrush. You would still want to use a soft-head toothbrush. In an example with electric toothbrush, that would be an Oral-B brands Sensitive. The brush tend to be super soft. And you want to avoid doing a scrubbing motion. That’s going to cause trauma to the gum.

Now, one things that I would like to caution a lot of patients about is that what’s the motivations behind you using an electric toothbrush? No one’s wake up one morning and decide, “Yep, I’m going to change, and I’m going to go with electric toothbrush.” There have to be a reason behind it. Usually, it’s because they find that they’re cleaning the teeth all the time using manual toothbrush like most people would, but because they’re cleaning not so well, you’re starting to get hard plaque building up around the teeth.

Now, these hard plaque, they can’t be removed by a manual toothbrush, or an electric toothbrush. So, when the person start using the manual toothbrush to cleans around this hard plaque, they realize that, “I can see where the hand plaques are sitting, but my toothbrush are not cleaning these things out.” So, they start asking questions like, what can I use to get rid of these things? So naturally, what they will do is that, “let’s start using an electric toothbrush.”

And of course, they’re trying to scrub these things off. They start using their electric toothbrush. They start pressing harder. They’re starting to scrub a little bit more around this area. And you can see where the gums are swollen. As you keep scrubbing and pressing hard with an electric toothbrush, you are going to damage the gum. The gum’s going to start bleeding and receding, and in that same time, the plaques, the hard plaques that’s sitting around your teeth, it’s still there because this thing needs to be professionally cleaned by a dentist.

So, just be careful that why people have a misconception that an electric toothbrush is going to do more damage than a manual toothbrush. It’s not always the case. You can damage your gums, or you can clean the teeth better or worse with manual toothbrush or an electric toothbrush. It just how you use it.

Hopefully, this information’s cleared different things up for you. In the next videos, we are going to discuss about the two different common brands of electric toothbrush and also the tip of how you should be using them to avoid a problem. See you next time.