On this page we’ve condensed our main advice to help you improve your dental health.
If you're feeling motivated to make some change, this page will give you a very quick overview of what you need to do. See the products we recommend, and those we don't.
Our main advice
- Don’t spend too much on an electric toothbrush. The brush we recommend as the best overall is the Oral-B Pro 2 2000. This is far cheaper than some of the top end toothbrushes and has the features our dentists recommend as essential.
- Smart toothbrushes generally aren’t worth it.
- Flossing is important. Interdental brushes are the most effective, but find the tool that works best for you and turn flossing into a habit.
- Be careful with teeth whitening — it can permanently damage your teeth when professional advice is not followed.
- Brush your teeth twice a day for 2 minutes.
- Use toothpaste containing fluoride.
- After brushing spit the toothpaste out, but don’t rinse it off your teeth.
- Don’t brush immediately after eating, or if you've had a fizzy drink.
- Keep sugary drinks and foods to meal times only. Avoid sugar between meals.
- Looking after your dental health prevents dental treatment and is a good way to look after the planet.
Products we recommend
Below is a quick list of the products we recommend for a healthy dental routine.
Best electric toothbrush
The Pro 2 2000 is the brush we recommend as the best overall electric toothbrush. It's good value for money and has the main features dentists recommend. We go into more detail in our best electric toothbrush post.
Best manual toothbrush
If you're looking for a reliable and good value manual toothbrush, the Curaprox CS 5460 is a good place to start:
Best interdental brushes
Interdental brushes are the most effective tool for flossing. There is a wide variety to choose from, but as a good place to get started, Piksters does a mixed pack of different sizes. If you speak to your dental professional, they can help you to determine the optimum sizes for your teeth.
Best water flosser
A water flosser is another type of interdental cleaning tool that is popular. We include more recommendations and details in our best water flossers post, but the two we recommend the most are:
Corded (countertop)
Cordless (portable)
Products we don't recommend
Don’t waste your money on unproven products.
We have a video here that goes into more detail, but a few of the products we currently don’t recommend include:
- Mouthpiece toothbrushes
- Ultrasonic teeth cleaners
- Snap on veneers
- Online teeth straightening
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Learn how to look after your teeth
The video below also summarises all of the advice you need to have a healthy oral hygiene routine, but in brief the main things you can do are:
In brief, the main things you can do are:
- Learn how to brush your teeth properly
- Use plaque disclosing tablets to monitor your technique
- Brush your teeth twice per day
- Clean interdentally once per day
- Regularly visit the dentist
Stay up to date, impress your dentist
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No spam, just good advice (and the occasional bribe) every few months.