What matters when choosing a brush?

Generally you should look for:

1. Soft (or extra) soft bristles: This is priority number one. Medium and hard bristles can cause gingival abrasion or create microabrasions in enamel, which can leave the teeth more susceptible to cavities, gum recession, & sensitivity.
2. Quality bristles: This is a must-have because of the potential for bristles to do major damage. When a manufacturer takes shortcuts, the result is low quality bristles with sharp or jagged edges which can damage teeth.

* Best Toothbrush for People Who Brush Too Hard

Radius Source

• The wide massaging head helps prevent doing enamel and gum damage, since the forces are spread over a big surface area.
• The Radius Source reduces toothbrush waste by 93%. You keep the same handle and change the replacement heads.
• The super-soft vegetable nylon bristles are great for bleeding, receding, or sensitive gums.
• Great grip on this one. The Radius Travel model is great for use on the road, which has the exact same head as the regular model.

* Best Budget-friendly Manual Toothbrush

Oral-B Cross Action Manual Toothbrush

• I gave these out in my private practice for over 30 years, so I’ve seen the long term effects of this brush, so I trust it implicitly. This is the old standby, you can’t go wrong.
• This brush works out to be just under $2.50 per brush.
• The value pack size is something I hope will encourage you to replace your toothbrush often (every 4-6 weeks to prevent bristles from wearing out and doing damage).
• I like to keep these on hand for guests who forgot their toothbrush.

* Best Toothbrush for Bleeding or Receding Gums

Nimbus Extra Soft Toothbrushes

• This brush does NOT have the ADA Seal of Acceptance, simply because they are a small business that hasn’t paid for it. But it certainly meets the requirements. This is a great example of why the ADA Seal of Acceptance is a good shortcut, but it certainly misses a lot of great brushes.
• Invented by a periodontist, designed to get in between spaces, which is especially great for people with gingivitis or gum recession.
• The first time you use this brush, you might notice your teeth don’t feel as clean. Give it time to adjust—your teeth are getting clean without the harsh scrubbing, I promise.
• The beauty of the Nimbus is that it alerts you to areas in your mouth where you have recession or gingivitis. You’ll notice tenderness whenever the Nimbus bristles come to an area of the gums that inflamed—alerting you to focus a bit more on that area. I noticed this the first time I tried the Nimbus on myself—it caused tenderness in all of my usual areas of inflammation. By knowing the areas I needed to work on, over time, those areas got better! What wonderful feedback to be getting from a toothbrush, and a manual one at that!

So, there you have it. Great manual toothbrush recommendations, but certainly not the only manual brushes to choose from.

To recap, bristles should be…

1. Soft
2. Quality (Use ADA Seal of Acceptance guidelines to determine this)
3. Replaced often (every 4-6 weeks)