What's wrong with a normal toothbrush?
Gum erosion. I finally succumbed to my dentist's badgering and got a Sonicare Extreme (Sonicare's teen version) two years ago. It's inexpensive and you use your own AA's, so no battery worries. (I use NiMH rechargeables.) I used one of those red tablets to verify that it removes all plaque. I freaked out after a few weeks when I saw that a band on my upper front teeth had changed color. I quickly realized that the Sonicare was removing tough stains, and that I needed to Sonicare the whole tooth, not just along the gumline. (I was using a manual brush too for non-gumline cleaning.) Those teeth became monochromatic soon thereafter.
Recently I've adopted a modified
Zellies regimen.
FlossClosys raises pH so that brushing won't damage teeth, is an antiseptic, and is a surfactant to remove debris.
Sonicare all but chewing surfaces with
old-school CrestManually brush chewing surfaces with
old-school CrestProxabrush the sides of rear molars which would touch wisdom teeth if I had them. (Flossing that surface did not satisfy my dentist.)
Now Xyliwhite (xylitol plus antiseptic essential oils): I use this instead of Listerine to avoid gum drying. My dentist sells some professional brand's equivalent because he doesn't like alcohol either and doesn't want patients getting mad at him for Crest Pro-Health side effects. (Crest Pro-Health didn't stain my teeth very badly, but the Wal Mart version stained them like chewing tobacco. I think they both impaired my sense of taste. I did enjoy the blue mouth-boogers, though.)
Old-school ACT2 pieces Spry xylitol gum after lunch. (Currently do one Spry and one Trident XtraCare.)
Once my stockpile of Trident XtraCare runs out, I'll replace it as my Recaldent source with MI Paste. I haven't decided what time of day. Bedtime seems to be a good idea.
My justification for old-school Crest is weak: it's cheap, tastes better than anything else, and must be good if Zellies goes out of their way to recommend it.
"Crest Regular Paste - or no paste at all!"