My front teeth are notoriously bad about having tartar and plaque build up between them. Whenever I would go to the dentist, the hygienist would spend an inordinate amount of time trying to scrape away all that plaque and tartar. It would become highly uncomfortable, and I would be so relieved when she would finally finish and then start on the polishing. After using an interdental brush to clean between those teeth, my cleanings have gone a lot better, and the hygienist has spent a lot less time trying to scrape between my front teeth. It’s been wonderful to find something finally that truly did make the scraping part of the cleaning a lot shorter and easier to endure.
For many years, I would get frustrated at the dentist. It seemed like no matter what I tried, I would have to suffer through a great amount of scraping between my front teeth. I floss most nights in addition to brushing twice a day with an electric toothbrush and using an anti-cavity mouthwash. I wear retainers at night that I brush every morning when I take them out. I felt like I was doing what I needed to do to keep my teeth clean. I changed different brands of toothpaste. I love toothpaste with baking soda. It helps my teeth feel a lot cleaner, and it did help with some buildup I would get between my front teeth, especially the two front-most ones on the top. However, it didn’t really seem to do anything about the incessant scraping the hygienist had to do. I basically just became discouraged and decided it was just the way things were for me.
I ended up with a new hygienist at the dentist a couple of years ago. She told me about something called an interdental brush. I had never heard of them. She seemed to be fine with the rest of my regimen but suggested I use an interdental brush to clean between my teeth. She gave me various ones to try. One was a pipe-cleaner style, like the ones in the picture at the top of this post, and the other was more like a pick. I only had one of the pipe-cleaner type, and I really liked it. The other type didn’t seem to work as well. I ended up spending the rest of the six-month period before my next appointment using the pick style, and my next cleaning was still a struggle. The hygienist gave me more of the pick-style brushes when I left that appointment.
Thankfully, I was able to find some of the pipe-cleaner style at the grocery store where I regularly shop. I decided just to try those and gave the additional pick-style ones the hygienist gave me to someone else. I used the pipe-cleaner style exclusively between this time and my next visit. I could tell this time that the plaque and tartar buildup wasn’t happening or at least not happening as much as it did last time. The cleaning after this point in time went a lot better. The hygienist was pleased with how my teeth looked. Even though I told her that I preferred the pipe-cleaner style of interdental brushes, she still gave me a sample pack of a couple of the pick-style brushes. When I tried those, they hardly lasted at all. The tips ended up getting bent, and they would not slide between my teeth. She did also give me a nice pipe-cleaner style one that I’m currently using. Once it’s done, I’ll go back to the ones I bought at the grocery store, the ones pictured above. I plan to stick with the pipe-cleaner ones and don’t ever plan on using the pick-style ones again.
Here are my tips for using interdental brushes.
- Get the pipe-cleaner style. Amazon has some like this. I would avoid these or anything similar. They just don’t work as well and get bent out of shape very quickly and easily.
- You don’t have to use them all over. Just use them where you have the most trouble with buildup. I just use my interdental brushes between my front teeth after I’m done brushing and flossing them. The rest I still brush and floss like normal.
- You can rinse off the brushes and reuse them until the tips break off or they become unusable in some other way. This makes a pack of brushes last a very long time.
I love using the interdental brushes and am so thankful they’ve lessened the buildup between my front teeth and have made my dental cleanings easier. If you’re struggling with dental buildup as well, then perhaps using an interdental brush would also help you. Give them a try!
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