My wife bought new toothbrush heads on her way home from work today.

They didn't fit. She bought the "Oral B IO" heads, but we have a "regular" Oral B toothbrush, not the Shiny Fancy IO design.

And this is after she bought replacement heads last week at another store -- which turned out to be "compatible for" a different brand :(

Ugh.

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[–] 3 points 4 months ago (37 children)

Never ever had a dentist recommend an electric toothbrush to me. Why is that? 🤷‍♂️

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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago (9 children)

    I genuinely don't know, because every dentist I've ever had has recommended electric. There are studies as well. I'm not trying to say your teeth aren't immaculate because I don't know you, but for the average person electric toothbrushes are better, sincerely.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    This is def the case for me. I used to bring the old fashioned toothbrushes for camping (well, for any travel). I noticed a HUGE difference when I'd get home again.

    Now I just bring the normal toothbrush. The battery lasts long enough for most trips that it's fine.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago

    For camping, as you have the iO heads already, get a iO series 2 body as they use the older motor but new heads and the battery lasts about 20 days. Way longer than other iO series bodies. It's not as good as those either but for camping, meh.

    Also, you can buy USB-plugged oral B chargers. Useful for travel

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (6 children)

    I believe you, but I'm also interested in the studies, how much worth it it actually is.

    Like, is it worth it because people in general have poor brushing technique and the electric brush "solves" this just by how it works, or is it better even with proper brushing technique with manual brush?

    Those are some of the questions I have. 😁

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (5 children)
  • [–] [S] 1 point 4 months ago (4 children)

    From that study:

    A randomized double-blind clinical trial was conducted

    LOL! I do not think that means what they thought it means. Kinda hard to keep the participants from knowing which study group they're in.

    Still, interesting setup. 60 dental students makes sure that the control group brushing manually is doing so with proper technique. They were getting the best-case scenario for manual brushing.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    Can it not still be double blind if the participants don't know precisely what is being measured or studied? For example, perhaps they know they are involved in a toothbrush study, but not that one group will have different brushes, or precisely what measurements are being taken.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 4 months ago (2 children)

    No. Double blind means that both the researchers and the participants don't know who is in which group (control group or experimental group). The idea is to avoid spoiling studies with the placebo effect.

    It's kind of hard to avoid knowing that you're in the control group when you're being asked to brush with an old-fashioned toothbrush instead of an electric one.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Decided to do some reading!

    CONSORT guidelines state that these terms should no longer be used because they are ambiguous. For instance, "double-blind" may mean that the data analysts and patients were blinded; the patients and outcome assessors were blinded; or the patients and those administering the intervention were blinded. The terms also fail to convey the information that was masked and the extent of unblinding. It is not sufficient to specify the number of parties that have been blinded. To describe an experiment's blinding, it is necessary to report who has been blinded to what information, and how well each blind succeeded.

    So double blind doesn't have to mean the researchers or even the participants were blinded, just that two parties were.

    In this specific study, I think it's that the data analysts were not aware of which groups the data came from.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 4 months ago

    Huh, that doesn't match my understanding (TBF I don't work in the field).

    Looking again at the study... Dr. Jain had a second person split the students into two groups. I'm not sure whether she conducted the followup exams or had yet another person do that. Assuming that the students were strict about not talking about which toothbrush they were using, I suppose you could call it a 'blinded' experiment. I don't really see how you could double it, though.

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago (5 children)

    Because you have a shit dentist. I've had them recommended to me by my dentist for at least 25 years.

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  • [–] -1 points 4 months ago (4 children)

    See my other comment. It's not just one.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (3 children)

    Maybe you have problems that a change of toothbrush ain't gonna fix.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

    Excuse me? Can you elaborate on this comment? Because it sounds to me like you are actually resorting to ad hominems right now, in a calm and non-polarized discussion about toothbrushes.

    Please tell me I've misunderstood.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Oh gosh no, not doing that at all. I was just suggesting that maybe you're not getting recommended to use an electric toothbrush because you might have other teeth issues that may not be fixed by an electric toothbrush (like weak enamel or damaged teeth), or won't benefit from it at least.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago

    😆👍 My bad, I thought it did sound weird that you'd do that, so I wanted to double-check. Sorry!

    Yeah, I don't know, I don't think so. I don't have any issues other than the one cavity I got as a teenager some twenty odd years ago. So my deduction from this alone is that the toothbrush itself isn't the biggest factor, but rather how you brush.

    Could be wrong though of course. I need to take a look at some studies to determine if they accounted for brushing technique and other factors.

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  • [–] 0 points 4 months ago (18 children)
  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (17 children)

    There's been plenty. Dentists, dental hygienists, it's been almost 4 decades and no-one has recommended it, so I don't think it's that. They have, however, shown me how I should use a normal, manual toothbrush most effectively, and I've followed that advice to success. Haven't had a cavity since my first cavity as a teenager, it's been over 20 years since then.

    Are y'all based in America? I bet dentists there are paid to endorse the electric toothbrush industry there. But maybe not.

    Maybe there are scientific studies that show that electric toothbrushes are objectively better for dental and oral health? If so, I'd love to see them and maybe I'll consider getting one.

    For now, I'm just sick of having yet another thing that has a damn battery that needs to be charged god-damnit.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (6 children)

    Probably an American thing, many of the dentists I've had tried to sell me an electric toothbrush. I claim I already have one (which I do, I just prefer not to use it).

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago* (1 child)

    they never sell, but they always reccommend it buying it online or in store, they arnt financially benfitting from it, at leas the most recent ones. dentist will know if your manual brushing isnt sufficient enough, despite you using a proper technique.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago

    The dentists my insurance will cover are the national chains, and they are always trying to tack on an extra $85 for whatever brand electric toothbrush they're peddling. They'll even say I'm doing fine with brushing, but still recommend it, and have the receptionist ask while I'm scheduling my next cleaning.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago

    Never had a dentist try to sell me a toothbrush. In fact, I get given a manual one every time I leave. Which I use for cleaning around the taps in the bathroom. But they are always glad I'm using an electric brush. My kids (both under 10) use them too, after they learnt how to do it manually properly (just in case).

    Not American btw.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (2 children)

    Could you share a bit about why you prefer not to use it? 🙏

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 4 months ago (2 children)

    Are y’all based in America? I bet dentists there are paid to endorse...

    It's a little frightening how plausible this is. And yes, I'm American.

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  • [–] -2 points 4 months ago (6 children)

    Very cool story about his you choose to code in PHP because it's totally as good as everything else if you know what your doing 🙄

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (4 children)
  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (3 children)

    He said that the toothbrush should be developed in C++, which it probably is already.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (2 children)

    I'm a programmer by trade and I still have no idea what this thread derailed into.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (1 child)

    I guess the other guy answered in a wrong thread. What is true is that most embedded systems I have worked on used C++. Could be the same for those electric toothbrushes.

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