Every time you need to replace your toothbrush, you face two crucial questions: which one should you decide between soft, medium, and hard, and what's right for you?
It could be hard to decide what toothbrush to get due to the wide variety available. The market offers many options and brands with different styles, handles, and sizes. However, the most essential aspect to consider is the bristles.
Whether you have a manual toothbrush or an electric toothbrush head, they come with either soft, medium, or hard bristles. Although they might look similar, the variation in the texture can have highly different effects on your oral health and your teeth and gums.
Therefore, it is essential to understand their differences, benefits, and disadvantages to know which one is right for you.
If you are looking for a high-quality electric toothbrush, Oclean's catalog contains the best toothbrushes for any case. The models are compatible with all of their different types of heads, making them highly customizable to fit your individual needs.
In this article, we'll talk about the different types of toothbrush bristles and discuss which one is right for you.
Different Types of Toothbrush Bristles
All the toothbrushes are designed to clean your teeth and keep your mouth healthy. However, the toothbrushes' bristles come with different textures. The most common ones are soft, medium, and hard. Nonetheless, some toothbrushes come with extra-soft bristles, which are gentler with your teeth.
Every mouth is different and possesses unique characteristics. Therefore, certain types of bristles could be more suitable for you, depending on your needs. However, dentists always recommend that their patients brush with a soft bristle toothbrush.
This is because they act gently on your teeth and gums and are usually not associated with abrasion and deciding gums. Nonetheless, each bristle option has its own set of benefits.
Hard Bristles
This type of toothbrush bristles can remove plaque more easily than other alternatives. Furthermore, they can be valuable in removing stains from the enamel surface. However, they are also highly abrasive, which is their biggest flaw.
As a result, brushing your teeth constantly with them could lead to tooth wear, particularly above the gum line. This could even cause tooth sensitivity. It is essential to know that the worn enamel can't grow back and requires a composite restoration to be fixed.
Furthermore, hard bristles can also cause receding gums. When this happens, the tooth root can get exposed to the oral cavity.
The enamel does not protect the roots. Therefore, they are more susceptible to external stimuli, resulting in tooth sensitivity.
For this reason, they are often not recommended by dentists.
Although removing plaque is the most vital function of any toothbrush, and hard bristles excel at it, their disadvantages surpass the benefits.
Soft Bristles
Soft bristles are the opposite of hard bristles and are recommended by the American Dental Association. They are safer for the teeth and gums while still being capable of removing plaque efficiently.
They can keep your mouth healthy if your brushing technique is done correctly. Furthermore, brushing for the recommended time of 2 minutes is essential to ensure good results. Therefore, combining these two aspects allows you to remove plaque efficiently.
Finally, these bristles are less likely to cause tooth abrasion and receding gums since they act more gently. However, it is still possible to harm your teeth and gums if you use an incorrect technique and brush too hard.
Medium Bristles
As the name suggests, medium bristle toothbrushes are the intermediate variant between soft and hard toothbrushes.
They are less abrasive than hard bristles, which makes them less likely to cause receding gums and tooth wear. However, they are not as gentle as soft bristles. This can cause some discomfort while brushing.
Although this alternative is safer and better than hard bristles, it is still not as good as a soft bristle toothbrush.
Why Is a Soft Bristle Toothbrush the Best Option?
These toothbrushes offer the best balance between effective plaque removal and minimal risk of damaging the teeth. Furthermore, while brushing, their soft texture causes little to no discomfort to your gums. This unique feature is essential for people with sensitive gums as it allows them to brush better without pain or discomfort. This results in better plaque removal and improved oral health and hygiene.
Furthermore, they allow you to clean the gum line properly without causing any type of injury. However, a good brushing technique is fundamental to prevent damage.
While you brush, you should place the toothbrush bristles at a 45-degree angle against the teeth and the gums. Afterwards, make gentle and short back-and-forth movements to remove plaque within the gum line. Repeat the process over each tooth until all of them are completely clean. Lastly, don't forget to brush the occlusal or biting surfaces and your tongue, as it also harvests bacteria.
The Best Type of Bristles for an Electric Toothbrush
Electric toothbrushes also come with the same types of bristles. Moreover, the same principles apply to both manual and electric toothbrushes.
However, electric toothbrushes rotate or vibrate at high speed. This makes them remove plaque more efficiently than a regular toothbrush. But also makes them more abrasive. Therefore, choosing an electric toothbrush head that comes with soft or medium bristles is crucial.
Oclean offers toothbrushes with different interchangeable heads that guarantee to provide deep cleaning while preventing oral injuries. Their smart electric toothbrush head's bristles are soft enough to keep your gums and teeth safe while brushing.
Although they have a wide variety of options, the heads are divided into 3 categories according to their function: professional cleaning, gum care, and delicate care.
Professional Clean
Professional Clean is the most common toothbrush head we offer. It covers models:
· P1C1
· P1C5
· P1C8
· P1C9
· P1C10
· P1C13
These toothbrush heads are softer than their counterparts. Notable for the DuPont™ diamond bristles, this head is far more effective at removing plaque from your teeth’s surface and other hard-to-reach locations. In fact, we’ve found that these heads remove 30% more stains compared to a manual toothbrush.
In addition to the diamond bristles, the W-shaped brush head design achieves better teeth cleaning. At the same time, the delicate tongue cleaner removes any bacteria lurking on your tongue – delivering fresher breath.
Gum Care
Gum Care brush heads, as the name suggests, were primarily developed to care for sensitive oral needs. These heads protect your gums while brushing. They possess extra-soft bristles to ensure your comfort, especially if you suffer from gum disease and receding gums.
Oclean's gum care heads are highly recommended for people who have sensitive gums. Although you might feel discomfort with a medium or soft toothbrush, the extra-soft bristles of this head are designed to prevent any discomfort.
What makes them so special? Well, the extra-soft bristles gently remove plaque without damaging your softer, sensitive gums. They also possess high-density bristle planting, which allows for a more comfortable fit and thorough cleaning. However, each bristle is less than 0.01mm in diameter, making them extremely thin and soft.
Lastly, the bristles have diamond-cut tips to ensure the safety of your gums and teeth while efficiently cleaning.
Ddelicate Care
Delicate Care is the final brush head option available with Oclean. Like the Professional Clean brush heads, this option uses the same DuPont™ diamond-shaped bristles that have proven so effective at removing staining and plaque. It’s the gold standard for cleaning.
However, the difference between these brush heads is in the size and softness of the brush. These brush heads are 15% smaller and 20% softer – perfect for reaching deep into your mouth. If you’ve got a smaller mouth or struggle to clean the molars at the back, this is the brush for you. Plus, the silicone brush head back is gentle on gums and teeth.
There’s also the Delicate Care Kids option. It’s essentially the same as the adult version – except the bristles are fluoride-infused to help remineralize tooth enamel, resist acid, and inhibit bacterial metabolism. It’s just another protection against childhood tooth decay.
Other Brush Head Options
Ultra Series
We weren’t happy to settle for our standard toothbrush heads. That’s why we’ve gone one step further, developing a specialized range for our impressive sonic electric toothbrushes. These brushes use a maglev motor to reach over 70,000 movements per minute. Given this high-end performance, we wanted to create a series of toothbrush heads that complement this quality of cleaning.
The result was the Ultra Series.
You only need to glance at these optimal brush heads to see the difference. While regular Oclean brush heads thoroughly clean the surface and into some gaps, the Ultra Series brush heads provide a deeper, more comprehensive clean, removing built-up plaque and food debris.
The secret is down to the brush head’s shape. Unlike the standard flat bristles, the Ultra Series bristles are shaped into a gentle arc. This helps the bristles to hug each tooth, wrapping around the rounded edges to give a better clean. In fact, we found that it delivers exceptional plaque removal – reducing plaque by 40% more and staining by 38% compared to the Oclean Professional Clean brush head. So, it doesn’t just clean your teeth – it whitens them.
Other notable features include:
· Soft Bristles. The Ultra Series is perfect for sensitive gums and teeth. The bristles are soft as they come, able to gently glide over your teeth while still delivering the same perfect clean.
· Polishing Rubber Ring. In the center of the brush head is a ring of rubber teeth that removes stains and whitens your teeth. It’s how you get that stellar smile.
· Higher Density of Bristles. The bristles aren’t just 20% softer; they’re 20% denser. That allows the brush to have more surface contact. Plus, the ends of the bristles are rounded, so even if you brush a little harder, you’re unlikely to cause much damage to your gums.
Easy Clean Series
Another brush head option we’ve developed is the Easy Clean Series. This FDA-compliant model is designed to remove more plaque without damaging your gums. The bristles are slightly firmer than the Ultra Series – rating 2 out of 4 on a firmness scale. However, the unique bristle design means you can use a gentle technique and still achieve the same amazing results.
Here’s what makes it special:
· Diamond-Shaped Bristles. Like most of our brushes, this series uses diamond-shaped bristles to optimize its cleaning potential. However, the special bristle design means it gets between your teeth, providing a more targeted cleaning.
· Soft Rubber Coating. If you have difficulty with hard plastic toothbrushes, this is the option for you. The soft rubber coating improves comfort and prevents tooth damage.
· Silicone Texture Tongue Cleaner. On the reverse side of the rubber head is a tongue cleaner. People often underestimate the build-up of bacteria on their tongues. This allows you to perfect your oral care and achieve much fresher breath.
The Takeaway
Although many toothbrush options are available with different types of bristles, dentists and the American Dental Association recommend using a soft-bristle toothbrush.
They efficiently remove plaque while gently affecting your gums and teeth. Therefore, they won't cause gum recession or wear down your enamel unless you brush too hard with an incorrect technique.
On the contrary, hard toothbrushes can remove plaque more easily. However, their highly abrasive properties can also damage your gums and teeth. For this reason, they are not recommended, as the risks don't outweigh the benefits.
Conclusively, if you want to achieve the best results possible while brushing your teeth, Oclean offers a high-quality smart sonic toothbrush with a wide head variety. These heads possess medium, soft, and extra-soft bristles to ensure your gums and teeth' safety. Once you use an Oclean toothbrush, you will achieve the oral health you deserve.
