How did the toothbrush "transform" from a tree branch into the current smart black technology?

A good set of teeth affects not only your appearance, but also your health. However, it is not easy to maintain healthy teeth. Just look at the dental clinics that are blooming everywhere to know how serious people's dental problems are... Of course, if you want good teeth, brushing your teeth is the first step. Today, let's talk about the evolution of toothbrushes...

01. Did ancient people have dental problems?

Everyone should have discovered that there is a special character for "tooth" in Chinese characters, and we have separate characters for many dental problems, such as "caries", "buck", "龃", etc. This shows that people had dental problems at that time. But whether it is recorded in ancient books or archaeological discoveries of Emperor Wanli's serious dental problems, it can be seen that dental problems cannot be stopped.

Did the ancients not work hard enough to maintain their teeth? Did they not brush their teeth? Of course they did, but it was too difficult because the toothbrush was the first limiting factor.

In fact, as early as the pre-Qin period, the ancient book "Book of Rites: Inner Chapter" recorded the saying "When the cock first crows, rinse your mouth with salty water". In the Sui and Tang dynasties, the method of brushing teeth with willow branches appeared, and in the Liao Dynasty, there even appeared toothbrushes that were very similar to our modern cognition. It was not until the development of modern industry that we had inexpensive and high-quality modern toothbrushes, and brushing teeth has entered thousands of households and has become a necessary step in everyone's daily life.

02. Can dental problems be solved by just brushing your teeth?

To be honest, toothbrushes can indeed clean teeth, but the cleaning efficiency of brushing has always been a problem. Whether it is the control of brushing strength or the understanding of brushing method, these are factors that trouble brushing. In particular, brushing depends on our limbs, and limbs have physiological limitations. It is impossible for our arms to swing beyond the physiological limit.

What to do? Modern technology has brought a new toothbrush, the electric toothbrush. Physiology has limitations, but machinery can break through this. Driven by an electric motor, the frequency of toothbrushing will increase rapidly, so the efficiency of brushing teeth has been greatly improved.

Today, many people already know about electric toothbrushes, and many even consider them a must-have. Of course, for everyone who uses or plans to try an electric toothbrush, there is a basic question: are electric toothbrushes really useful?

03. Are electric toothbrushes really useful?

Regarding electric toothbrushes, in addition to the fact that electric toothbrushes have a faster brushing frequency than manual toothbrushes, the cleaning effect is also very significant. Many people know that teeth are prone to complex bacterial communities, which is dental plaque, which can cause a series of oral problems, such as our breath and our dental health. Experiments have shown that the cleaning efficiency of electric toothbrushes is significantly higher than manual brushing.

Therefore, choosing an electric toothbrush not only saves effort, but also has a much better brushing effect.

However, when you really choose an electric toothbrush, you will find that there are many types of electric toothbrushes. Traditional electric toothbrushes are of two types: sonic and rotary.

04. How to choose an electric toothbrush?

A rotary electric toothbrush uses a toothbrush motor to rotate the round brush head to achieve brushing. To put it in a more popular way, it is similar to the action of our most common prototype mop when cleaning or drying. The shaft drives the toothbrush to rotate quickly to brush away the stains on the teeth. Therefore, a rotary electric toothbrush is also closer to our daily ordinary toothbrush.

Sonic toothbrushes are different, but they are not "sound waves" as we understand them, but vibrations. Driven by a machine, the brush head swings at high speed, which drives the bristles to produce small high-frequency vibrations to achieve cleaning. Because the vibration frequency is close to sound waves, it is called a sonic toothbrush.

If you find it difficult to understand, the picture below can show you the difference between the two intuitively.

So which one is better? In fact, if used correctly, both can meet the cleaning needs. If you have to distinguish.

In terms of cleaning ability, rotary toothbrush > sonic toothbrush.

In terms of comfort, sonic toothbrush > rotary toothbrush.

So when you use an electric toothbrush for the first time, it is a good idea to try one of the two.

05. Is there a better choice?

However, if you have higher requirements for your toothbrush, you may need to learn more about the problems with rotating toothbrushes and sonic toothbrushes.

The high-speed brushing of a rotating toothbrush can easily cause wedge-shaped defects over time, and it is difficult to avoid the gum area when using it, which may cause damage to the gums. Although sonic toothbrushes do not have this brushing problem, the discomfort caused by the sonic vibration is difficult for many people to accept.

However, a new electric toothbrush mode has emerged, that is: sweeping vibration. Sweeping vibration first has the function of brushing, and it uses a left-right swinging method to brush the teeth clean, which is basically similar to our traditional brushing, and can be said to have returned to the most widely accepted way of brushing teeth. This is different from a rotating brush, so it is more easily accepted by the public. Secondly, sweeping vibration also has the gentle characteristics of a sonic toothbrush, because the brush head of the sweeping vibration vibrates at high speed, which is consistent with a sonic toothbrush. Combining the advantages of rotation and sonic toothbrushes, the emergence of sweeping vibration has brought a qualitative improvement to electric toothbrushes and opened up a new track.

However, there are still some problems to be solved in the sweeping vibration. For example, although the sweeping vibration does not have the coverage like the rotation, in order to expand the coverage of the brush head, many sweeping vibrations choose a large-scale method. For example, the sweeping vibration amplitude can reach 60 degrees. Although it ensures the cleaning range of the toothbrush, it also causes large-scale sweeping vibration to cause bleeding gums, not to mention the problem of electric toothbrushes knocking teeth, which affects the experience. After all, this is a fundamental problem of electric toothbrushes. Both rotation and sound waves rely on the high-speed movement of the brush head.

Is this problem really unsolvable? You know what, many manufacturers are already researching this problem, and some have even started to market it. Those who need it can pay attention to it.

Finally, when it comes to brushing methods, the Bass method most recommended by dentists is this method, which can better remove oral plaque and prevent tooth decay and periodontal disease.

Dental health is very important, and brushing teeth is undoubtedly the most important step in protecting teeth. Choosing the right toothbrush is crucial. Therefore, toothbrushes have been improved all the time, from rough willow branches to manual toothbrushes to electric toothbrushes. Now there is sweeping vibration technology, which makes electric toothbrushes not only clean better, but also improves the experience.