It cleans below the gum line

There was nothing worthy of my rebuttal last week. I'm glad, because I've been waiting to present the following:

There are a lot of things I have negative feelings about, but here are two things I’m really positive about: water flossers and electric toothbrushes, based on my more than 20 years’ experience with them. While my dentist recommended the electric toothbrush to me, I discovered the water flosser on my own.

I don’t know why people aren’t shouting it from the rooftops: water flossers do what no toothbrush or piece of string can do, and that’s clean below the gum line! Below the gum line are pockets, repositories for the plaque a brush can’t reach and are the breeding ground for bacteria that infect gums and teeth. Who wouldn’t want an easy way to clean that mess up, if they knew one was available?

Besides the health benefits, the water flosser is more versatile and easier to use than dental floss. Like many, I didn’t get dental braces, so I have some misaligned teeth that are so close together that it’s virtually impossible to get dental floss through. That’s a non-problem for a water flosser. And for persons of any age with braces, a water flosser makes flossing a snap.

I’m not going to mention brand names here. I will say this; for the water flosser, or any other dental product, be sure it’s ADA approved. I highly recommend the combo – flosser and electric toothbrush – but if you have to make a choice, by all means, get the flosser first.

If you’ve mastered the art of the manual toothbrush, you might not see a big improvement with an electric toothbrush, but the statistics show that most people experience a noticeable improvement in dental health when they go electric. There are two basic types – rotary and sonic. There are proponents – and detractors – for both types, so decide for yourself: either way, you can’t lose.

John H. Terrell