Why It’s Important to Change Your Brush Head

Brushing your teeth is one of the most important parts of your self care routine. Even when you’re tired and want to go straight to bed, it’s a good idea to make a pit stop in the bathroom to take care of your pearly whites. However, brushing your teeth doesn’t have the same benefits if your brush head is old and worn out. 

Dentists recommend swapping out your toothbrush every two or three months, but we know how easy it is to forget. Next thing you know, it’s been six months and you’re trying to remember the last time you got a new one. Here are three reasons you should keep track of when you get a new toothbrush and replace it regularly.

Old brush heads aren’t effective

Toothbrushes are designed to cover every surface of your teeth. And after months of brushing, the bristles fray and get bent out of shape. They can even fall out, leaving holes in your brush and gaps in your clean.  

Once the bristles on your brush head start splaying out from your toothbrush, they are much less effective at cleaning your teeth.1 Like split ends, they veer off in different directions and lose their ability to remove plaque. You won’t be able to clean evenly, and you’ll be missing the point of the bristles— literally and metaphorically — altogether. Get a replacement toothbrush head every two to four months to help keep your teeth in tip top shape! 

You can damage your teeth and gums

Ineffective cleaning isn’t the only problem with worn out bristles. It’s just the beginning of a long line of issues you may experience as a result. In some cases, the bristles become rough and uncomfortable which can discourage you from brushing as well as you should. 

A lot of the issues stem from the fact that worn out bristles can’t remove plaque anywhere near as well as bristles in good condition. That means more plaque on your teeth, which is one of the worst things for your oral health.  Plaque buildup is associated with gingivitis and more advanced gum disease.2 Gum diseases caused by ineffective brushing can be painful and serious, leading to bleeding, swelling, and even tooth loss if it goes undiagnosed and untreated. With the health of your teeth and gums in mind, it’s a great idea to replace your brush head regularly to keep your smile bright and healthy!

Old toothbrushes can make you sick

Did you know that germs can grow on your toothbrush? We’re talking millions. And sorry to say this, but just rinsing your brush under water doesn’t do much to get rid of them. Research shows that your toothbrush is a perfect breeding ground for staph, E. coli, pseudomonas, and other bacteria and viruses that can make you really sick.3 These kinds of germs can get on your toothbrush even if you haven’t been sick recently, so it’s important to switch out your brush head regularly to stay healthy.

izzo makes it easy to keep your Oscillating Brush Head clean in between new brush heads. Store it in the UVC Sanitizing Case when you aren’t using it to keep it germ-free. The UVC rays inside the case turn on automatically when you close it. After three minutes, the Sanitizing Case kills 99.9% of bacteria on your electric toothbrush head. What makes it even better is that it does the same for your Polishing Cup Head, too!

Smile on with izzo

Need a reminder to get a new electric toothbrush head regularly? izzo has your back! Sign up for our Subscribe & Save program for regular deliveries of our Oscillating Brush Head, Polishing Cup Head, and Enamel Polishing Paste. So you can have perfectly timed electric toothbrush heads without having to keep track, or really do anything. Simply choose whether you want them every two, three, or four months and we’ll take care of the rest. If that isn’t something to smile about, we don’t know what is!

Sources

1. Van Leeuwen, M.P.C., Van der Weijden, F.A., Slot, D.E. and Rosema, M.A.M. (2019). Toothbrush wear in relation to toothbrushing effectiveness. International Journal of Dental Hygiene, [online] 17(1), pp.77–84. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30326176/. 
2. ‌Sreenivasan, P.K. and Prasad, K.V.V. (2017). Distribution of dental plaque and gingivitis within the dental arches. Journal of International Medical Research, 45(5), pp.1585–1596. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28795618/.