Any Pediatric Dentists? electric toothbrush/flossing options

[gap55u]

We are upgrading from regular toothbrushes to electrics the adults have sonicares and we've been happy with that. For kids, any brand or model recommendation? Sonicare and Quip are the two I'm considering.

For flossing, I'm personally a bad flosser so not a good role model for the kids. Is a waterpik worthless? Just use real floss or the flossers?
Thanks in advance. Silly question but important -- even with dental insurance, one of ours needed a crown and an extraction, another needed fillings.

[jfoxcpacfp]

Bump.

[Hank]

A Waterpik is better than not flossing at all and a decent adjunct to brushing and flossing. However, flossing is significantly more effective that a Waterpik and not flossing. Consider using Lysterine instead of water with your Waterpik.

(My wife is a periodontist. She says that getting a portable Waterpik that can go in the shower and using it in the shower makes it more likely that you’ll use it every day and not make a giant mess. (This presumes daily showering, which is a good idea on its own merits.))

Sonicare and Oral-B electric toothbrushes are pretty good for older kids (and adults). May not be as effective for younger kids, but then again most little kids aren’t that effective at brushing their teeth anyway.

It’s my personal contention that you can’t spend enough in a lifetime on dental floss, toothpaste, unpowered tooth brushes and Lysterine as the cost of a single dental implant and crown. Come at me with your math to make the counter argument.

Finally, you don’t need to floss all of your teeth, just the ones you want to keep.

[VentAlarm]

My kids still have baby teeth so I let them floss with nerds rope and rinse with mountain dew. When the first baby tooth falls out we may consider buying them a toothbrush.

[SpacemanSpiff12]

I always find Wirecutter’s reviews to be direct and helpful: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/r...ic-toothbrush/

Ultimately, though, I’ve been told that the toothbrush can make brushing more accessible or easier, but at the end of the day it’s just how much time you spend brushing that matters. The electric toothbrushes just help because they have a 2 minute timer that tells you you’ve spent enough time brushing.

[pierre]

Last time I was at the dentist they asked if I use an electric toothbrush, to which I responded most of the time. The hygienist told me that brushing with an electric toothbrush for 2 minutes is like brushing with a manual toothbrush for 2 days, and basically that the standard of care has changed.

Who has time to brush their teeth for two days every day? The food inputs matter more than the minutes spent brushing. And I’ll bet their are some mineral/vitamin or other deficiencies associated with dental caries, but fluoride is at the bottom of the list. Weston A Price was on to something.

[Shant]

I bought a sonicare after that other discussion thread and it gets my teeth a level of clean that I have never felt outside the dentist.