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Published: January 31, 2024

Kickstart your dental health

Author: Dr Gemma Wheeler, BDS (2 Comments)
Jon showing smile

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 Smart 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 Oral-B Smart 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.

Oral-B Smart 2000
Oral-B Smart 2000
Kickstart your dental health 1 Kickstart your dental health 1 Kickstart your dental health 1 Kickstart your dental health 1 Kickstart your dental health 1

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.

Curaprox CS 5460 (3 pack)
Curaprox CS 5460 (3 pack)

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, TePe 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.

TePe Interdental Brush Mixed Pack (ISO size 0-7)
TePe Interdental Brush Mixed Pack (ISO size 0-7)

Best water flosser

A water flosser is another type of interdental cleaning tool that is popular. Our best water flosser post looks at these in more detail, but the two we recommend the most are:

Corded (countertop)

Cordless (portable)

Waterpik Cordless Advanced 2.0
Waterpik Cordless Advanced 2.0
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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

Sign up below to stay up to date with other products we advise against.

Jon testing mouthpiece toothbrush
Mouthpiece toothbrushes aren't yet effective enough to completely replace a regular electric toothbrush

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: 

  • 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
Montage of teeth being brushed and checked

Stay up to date, impress your dentist

We send our a quarterly email newsletter with dental health tips and news about new products.

Impress your dentist by staying up to date.

No spam, just good advice (and the occasional bribe) every few months.

Kickstart your dental health 16 Find out which products are worth buying (and which aren't)
Kickstart your dental health 16 Quarterly updates
Kickstart your dental health 16 No spam
Author: Dr Gemma Wheeler, BDS

Leave a comment

AP
Andre Paris
March 9, 2024

Would you be able to do a video on how to properly clean your water flosser?

JL
Jon Love - Chief tester
March 11, 2024

Hi Andre. Thanks for the comment. We may do one in the future but have no immediate plans to do so. In the meantime I recommend you watch this good altrnative video that explains what you need to do.

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