There is quite some innovation, but consumers are slow to adopt IMO.
Last year, my dentist warned me I have quite severe receded gums. This was due to me pushing my toothbrush too hard.
So, after doing some research I bought an ultrasonic toothbrush. These have a static head (it does not oscillate/rotate) which emits ultrasonic waves to clean your teeth. Same principle of an ultrasonic parts cleaner. The head is still a traditional brush, though very soft. The brush is used to transfer the sound waves, you do not use it to 'scrub' your teeth. There is not friction involved.
From my experience, I can highly recommend an ultrasonic toothbrush. It takes some time to get used to, but personally, I will never go back to a traditional 'friction' type brush (manual or electric).
The model I have is the Silkin' ToothWave. Prices have come down significantly since I bought mine (I paid >€200 IIRC, now they are ~€90).
Note that some vendors sell traditional 'friction type' oscillating electronic toothbrushes with ultrasonic as a feature. In my opinion, these do not offer much benefit, it is better to go for a fully ultrasonic model.
Interesting. I've also had success using a Sonicare but always moving from the gums to the tooth (instead of along the gumline as the manual suggests).
Are these ultrasonic toothbrushes actually using ultrasonic waves? I have an expensive sonicare toothbrush and a cheap noname $10 "sonic" toothbrush from the supermarket and can't really tell the difference between both. Both feel like a standard toothbrush with a phone vibrating motor put inside.
Looks like that pricing has not been updated for a while. I paid something like 200 euros, that was about a year ago. Most online retailers in my country now list them for less than 100 euros.
I have used it for about a year now, and haven't need to change them yet. It comes with 2 brushes in the box, and I'm still using the first brush, it is not showing any signs of wear.
The main thing is that you do not need to brush with any friction. You just move the brush gently over your teeth, so they barely wear.
For me this is also why I like it. With traditional hand brushes, I'd wear them out in 3 months or so. In hindsight this was a clear indicator that I was pushing way to hard on them.
This isn't a totally crazy concern: focused ultrasound (fUS) can be used to modulate brain activity non-invasively (or even make therapeutic lesions).
However, a toothbrush is almost certainly not going to do that. The skull's impedance is way too high for the dinky transducer in your toothbrush and even if it weren't, you need to do all sorts of clever corrections to focus the ultrasound on a particular spot.
Last year, my dentist warned me I have quite severe receded gums. This was due to me pushing my toothbrush too hard.
So, after doing some research I bought an ultrasonic toothbrush. These have a static head (it does not oscillate/rotate) which emits ultrasonic waves to clean your teeth. Same principle of an ultrasonic parts cleaner. The head is still a traditional brush, though very soft. The brush is used to transfer the sound waves, you do not use it to 'scrub' your teeth. There is not friction involved.
From my experience, I can highly recommend an ultrasonic toothbrush. It takes some time to get used to, but personally, I will never go back to a traditional 'friction' type brush (manual or electric).
The model I have is the Silkin' ToothWave. Prices have come down significantly since I bought mine (I paid >€200 IIRC, now they are ~€90).
Note that some vendors sell traditional 'friction type' oscillating electronic toothbrushes with ultrasonic as a feature. In my opinion, these do not offer much benefit, it is better to go for a fully ultrasonic model.