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. You can get a good brush for around £50. Spending more doesn't mean cleaner or whiter teeth. See our 3 main recommendations below.
- 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.
- Learn about ways in which you can reduce the environmental impact of your dental health.
Products we recommend
Below is a quick list of the products we recommend for a healthy dental routine.
Best electric toothbrush
SURI 2.0, the Oral-B iO3 and the Sonicare Series 5300 are the 3 main brushes we recommend. They are good value for money and have the main features dentists recommend. We go into more detail in our best electric toothbrush post.
Best manual toothbrush
We recommend brushes in a few different categories in our best manual toothbrush post, but if you're looking for a reliable and good value brush, 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 TePe do a pack with mixed sizes that is good to get started with. 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. Check out our post on the best water flossers for a deep dive into our testing. See our two favourites below.
Corded (countertop)
Cordless (portable)
Products we don't recommend
Don’t waste your money on unproven products.
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.
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.
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
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.
Find out which products are worth buying (and which aren't)
Quarterly updates
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I love your website! Am so happy to find it again having previously mined it a few years ago when choosing a water flosser. I’ve come now because I trust you to demystify choosing toothpastes etc that may help with my thinning enamel. However, you have streamlined your content greatly. Can you point me to an unbiased source of advice about this? Thanks very much.
Hi Jo.
Glad to read you have found our content helpful and you have returned to our site.
You are correct in that we have refined our content offering. There are a number of reasons behind this, but ultimately it's geared to allowing us to focus on what we do best.
I can't say I know of 1 ultimate unbiased source that will necessarily answer all the questions you have.
Whilst we have limited content on toothpaste, we can provide some insights and tips, so happy to help if we can.
Presumably your thinning enamel is not at the stage that your dentist has presccribed a toothpaste with a higher concentration of fluoride?
No, my dentist hasn’t mentioned using a toothpaste with my fluoride though I think they may ever have applied fluoride at appointments in the past. The enamel has gone from several teeth near the gumline causing sensitivity so they apply a composite filling over these. But I noticed the other day that my teeth generally look more yellow than they used to and are somewhat translucent. This I assume is due to dentine showing through a thinner enamel layer but my dentist has not commented on it.
Thanks for the clarification Jo.
I think under the circumstances it's best to riase your concerns with your dentist and discuss with them the best options.
As a general rule with toothpaste you don't need expensive pastes. Cheap and cheerful will do providing it has fluoride in it. Avoid whitening pastes.
If you can find a paste with a low abraisivity then that helps further, but they are a bit harder to come by as most brands don't publicise how abrasive their pastes are.
Hi
I noticed the site has had a revamp, though I cannot find an article on the best toothpaste for whitening teeth, if that's not achievable, then; on removing stains.
Kind regards
Mohammed
Hi Mohammed.
Thanks for the comment. Yes, you are correct the site has had a redesign and as such some content that previously existed has been removed for a variety of reasons.
There is no 1 best toothpaste for removing stains.
WHitening pastes tend to be more abrasive and therefore more effective at removing stains, but we don't recommend them long term.
A cleaning of the teeth from a dental hygienist will remove stains and be the quickest, albeit most expensive approach.
If you opt for a paste use if for a few weeks and then switch back to a normal paste. Regular toothbrushing should keep the stains off.
Hi Jon
Thank you for your response.
As there a number of pastes out there, it is somewhat tricky finding one that will do the job.
Is there any you would recommend, I've noticed Colgate do a number of 'Max White'.
Kind regards
Mohammed
The reality is they will all do the job. It's very difficult to say one is better than the other because there are so many variable.
Colgate Max White are a popular and typically cost effective range of whitening pastes. I'd suggest that these are a good option. There are premium brands like Opalesence who offer whitening, but I can't say the 2x price will result in 2x results.
Oral-B's whitening pastes are good too.
Thanks for your response.
I've just had a look online and seen that Morrisons are offering Colgate Max White Ultimate Radiance Whitening toothpaste 75ml for £10, reduced from £20.
How long would you use a product like this for, in place of your normal toothpaste; 28days, before going back to normal brushing?
Kindest regards
Mohammed
Hi Mohammed.
Around a month to 6 weeks is fine to use it. By all means you can use for longer/until the tube is empty.
I am not sure exactly how abrasive this particualr paste is, but typically whitening pastes are harsher on the teeth than others. Therefore the less time you use it the better it typically is for your teeth. But less usage time potentially reduces the whitening effect.
As a very rough rule, I would expect a months use to have achieved the best whitenin effect it could in that time.