There isn't great evidence to suggest that electric toothbrushes are much better at removing plaque than manual. E.g. this metaanalysis [1] found basically no difference.

There are also studies that show that electric is better, like this meta-analysis that found a small effect [2] and this Cochrane review. [3]

What I generally read in articles is that the single biggest thing that makes a difference is brushing for the full 2 minutes, and electric toothbrushes can help with that by having a built-in timer.

1. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38348549/

2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34877772/

3. https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD...

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prodigycorp 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Perhaps there's a selection effect where people who buy electric toothbrushes are pre-disposed to care more about dental health.

	▲	helsinkiandrew a day ago \| parent [-]
		No, I would think all trials are random with people assigned brushes > 5068 participants were randomised to receive either a powered toothbrush or a manual toothbrush. Majority of the studies included adults, and over 50% of the studies used a type of powered toothbrush https://www.cochrane.org/evidence/CD002281_poweredelectric-t...

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JohnFen a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Every time I get my teeth cleaned by someone new, they comment that I must be using an electric toothbrush because my teeth are in such good shape.

But I don't. I use the least expensive manual toothbrushes I can find. They're always surprised to hear that.

I suspect that how good a particular type of toothbrush is depends more on the person's brushing habits than anything about the toothbrush tech.

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aaron695 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

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