I've been rethinking my dental setup since starting Invisalign. Brushing 4-5 times a day made me realize that frugal isn't just about the lowest upfront price, it's about long term prevention and recurring costs.
I recently switched to a high frequency oscillating model, and it's been a surprise win for my budget. Unlike the major legacy brands that overcharge for $10+ replacement heads, this one's refills are a fraction of that price.
To me, spending a bit more on a solid tool now to avoid a $500 filling later feels like a smart move. Do you guys consider high performance personal care an investment in prevention, or is sticking to the basics still the most frugal way to go?
Is a high end electric toothbrush actually a frugal investment in the long run?
byu/yxl_90 inFrugal
Posted by yxl_90
21 Comments
FWIW my mom’s a retiree dentist and uses a regular manual toothbrush. switches every month or two
If you brush 4-5 times a day you’re going to wear down your enamel, which will give you the opposite of what you want.
You should not be brushing 4-5 times per day.
Yes. According to my dentist, the electric toothbrush has brought about amazing results.
Why on earth are you brushing 4-5 times a day? Thats definitely going to fuck up your enamel and is for sure going to cost you a crap ton of money in the future.
Personally Ive found my electric toothbrush to be worth it, but mine was only like $80.
It’s not a frugal option when you can get manual toothbrushes for incredibly cheap that do the same job – but you’re also allowed to buy something simply because it gives you a better user experience & you like it.
Frugal Invisalign tip: make sure to wear the retainer. Your teeth will shift without it and then you can live with less satisfying results or pay to do it over. Cheaper to wear the retainer. 🙂
Edit: I meant when the treatment is done for maintenance.
Absolutely.
Get the Phillips Sonicare as it has ultrasonic capabilities, and it brushes far better than you can manually.
You simply hold the brush still and it does the brushing for you.
You then change the top brush every 3 months just like changing manual toothbrushes.
Everyone in the household uses their own brush top.
If you press too hard, it stops, so you can’t brush the enamel off by brushing frequently, like some of the other answers are saying.
Relevant post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/hygiene/comments/1sh20f1/i_brushed_my_teeth_correctly_for_28_years_and_a/
Youll have no gums left if you do that
I went 7 years without dental insurance, and I’m fairly certain my electric toothbrush saved my teeth.
Not if you’re using it 4-5 times a day! Gosh, that will ruin your teeth! But yes, if used properly it is an extremely frugal purchase. Along with floss! Flossing is also necessary!
I am a dentist. I recommend electric tooth brushes. They do work well, but an entry level sonicare/oral-b is just as good as a top of the line one imo. I wouldn’t spend more than $50.
I do think using name brand heads is worth it, or at least somehow verify the heads are soft/extra soft. Using stiff bristles can damage your gums.
Flossing is an even better add on and you can buy a years worth of floss for $5 at the dollar store. Just plain old waxed floss is the best value.
Finally use toothpaste that contains sodium fluoride. It really does make your teeth more resistant to developing cavities/has the potential to stop cavities from growing larger. any brand is fine. I do not recommend whitening toothpaste for routine use.
I think nearly everyone can control their cavities by brushing 2x/day and flossing 1x/day.
I had $300+ diamond care. It had like half a dozen different modes which I never used, travel hardcase which was nice an cool charger. Served me well for years. After it died I switched to 4100 series sonicare which was $30 on sale. It has two modes which is twice I need. YMMV tho
For me it is. I brush once, very rarely twice, a day using an oral B iO toothbrush. It times me and I can’t not do the full 2 minutes because it frowns at me if I don’t.
Also I drink oolong tea throughout the day and I think that also helps.
After I got my toothbrush, I went 4 years without going to the dentist for a checkup because life got busy and I forgot.
My dentist and dental hygienist lectured me before looking at my teeth and X rays. I had ZERO cavities.
They had to eat crow and couldn’t believe I didn’t have one single cavity. 🤣
Yes, it really is.
Finding evidence in long-term cavity based studies is very difficult. Too many confounding factors.
But….powered toothbrush users had 17.7% less Decayed, Missing, Filled Surfaces progression and significantly less periodontal attachment loss compared to manual toothbrush users
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31115952/
High fluoride (5,000 ppm that you can buy cheaply from your dentist) actually has better and more studies supporting it .
“The application of a high-fluoride containing dentifrice (5000 ppm F) in adults, twice daily, significantly improves the surface hardness of otherwise untreated root caries lesions when compared with the use of regular fluoride containing (1350 ppm F) toothpastes.”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24354454/
“93.5% of patients in the control developed new RCLs compared to 35.2% in the 5000ppm group”
https://www.nationalelfservice.net/dentistry/caries/high-fluoride-toothpaste-arresting-preventing-root-caries/
Water piks are also essential.40% of our teeth are interproximal….out of reach of brush
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9965011/
Versus dental floss:
“The WF group showed a statistically significant greater reduction in whole mouth BOP (0.41) compared to MBWF (0.32) and DF (0.19). ”
https://jdh.adha.org/content/97/5/166
You should also read up on Stephan’s Curve, think about your coffee habit, and then read up on why it’s important to wait an hour before you brush your teeth.
The last electric toothbrush I bought was under $10. What on earth does yours do?
The Phillips Sonicare with the gum setting and heads turned my hygienist’s frown upside-down. I’m not kidding, she went from scolding and lecturing to boasting about my excellent hygiene.
As all my teeth are crowned I’m just brushing around and around my gumline for two minutes.
Absolutely, but 4-5x a day is excessive.
I was not blessed with good dental genetics (cavities loooove me) unfortunately, so I have to maintain a stupidly rigorous dental routine to keep dental work to a minimum.
Getting an electric toothbrush (and a Waterpik) was a huge part of reducing issues & improving my dental health. Got an $80 Oral-B electric toothbrush probably 7 years ago & it’s still going strong. The small spin brush head in comparison to a manual or Sonicare is actually able to reach ALL surfaces of my molars, where my mouth is pretty narrow.
Here’s the question for OP. Can you not brush as well as or better than an electric? Is your motivation an improved experience or convenience?
My baseline for that is that convenience is not frugal. Now evaluate the value of the purchase. Are electrics measurably better? Or are perhaps people trying to sell them? My knee jerk is usually that spending money to save money is often a rationale that people tell themselves.
I use a manual toothbrush that cost me less than $10. I do however use hydroxyapatite toothpaste that costs about $16 when I buy a 3 pack. And my mouthwash I buy once a month costs the most it’s called Stella life vegan mouthwash and it’s almost $50. But at my last cleaning the dental hygienist said this routine was much better than the previous method I’d been doing which used to consist of a manual toothbrush + a Colgate spin brush + sensodyne toothpaste + alcohol free mouthwash listerene. I think spending more on dental products to avoid filling and crowns does make a lot of sense and that’s why I spend more now to save in the long run. It’s actually way more affordable come to find out