It’s a hot summer day, and all you want is an ice cream cone with your kids, but your sensitive teeth stop you.
You want to go out for a walk, but the cool winter wind makes your teeth ache.
You have just whitened your teeth, and they are extremely sensitive.
Sensitive teeth can take over your life and stop you from enjoying everyday things.
Below you can find the products that I have used myself and recommend to my patients who suffer from sensitive teeth.
Manual toothbrush
Any extra soft toothbrush will do here. However, I do have a couple of favourites!
My all-time favourite is made by GUM, and it is the Deep Clean toothbrush. The handle is perfectly designed to help you get a 45-degree angle on the gum line.
By angling the toothbrush at a 45-degree angle, it can get under the gumline up to 2-3 mm. That’s a lot more surface area that is being cleaned free of yucky bacteria that can lead to gum disease and bad breath!
These toothbrushes have micro-bristles extending past the regular bristles’ normal length. They do such an amazing job at getting into those tough-to-reach areas.
Electric toothbrush
An electric toothbrush prevents wear on the gums and teeth that can lead to sensitivity. It does the job for you and moves in the proper direction to prevent gum wear.
You can buy Oral-B Sensitive electric toothbrush replacement heads as well!
Replacement heads
Having a soft or extra-soft toothbrush is important to protect your teeth and gums. If you have a medium or hard toothbrush, it can cause more gum recession and wear on your teeth.
Also, the harder bristles can’t bend as well as the soft ones. When you brush your teeth at a 45-degree angle at the gumline, the bristles actually flex and contour under the gums. Harder bristles will not bend this way, resulting in a less satisfactory clean!
Another reason that I love Oral-B electric toothbrushes is because they come with a toothbrush head specifically designed for sensitive teeth and gums.
And please, please, PLEASE buy the name-brand Oral-B replacement toothbrush heads. The no-name generic brands just do not work as well.
I had a patient who came in and said they didn’t like their electric toothbrush anymore because it seemed like it was not cleaning properly. It came down to them using a generic brand replacement toothbrush head.
I asked them to bring it in, and on further investigation, the generic toothbrush head stopped moving as soon as any pressure was applied to the tooth. But you could still feel the vibration of the Oral-B toothbrush. This can be VERY detrimental to your oral health because it’s not actually removing much of the bacteria and food debris.
How are you supposed to know that the brush head isn’t spinning as soon as it hits the tooth? You can’t!
Toothpaste
My go-to sensitivity toothpaste is Sensodyne. They have solid evidence to support their products, and every time I consult with them, their first priority is patient care.
Did you know that they have many different types of toothpaste that each work differently? If one doesn’t work for you, you may need to switch.
The original Sensodyne Clean Mint is the best at treating the sensitivity at the root cause (pun intended). It has potassium nitrate that desensitizes your tooth by blocking the stimulus in the nerve endings that fire the “pain” signal to your brain.
It can take a couple of days to a couple of weeks for it to really start working. This is because it’s like medication. It needs to be applied daily to build up the effective amount and maintain the lack of sensitivity.
For the toothpaste to be the most effective, don’t rinse your mouth with water after brushing your teeth. Below is why.
When you rinse your mouth out after brushing, you rinse away most of the active ingredients in the toothpaste. The longer it sits on your teeth, the more effective it will be. I know it can seem unpleasant, but it really is effective. Spit out as much as you can! I got used to it pretty quickly, especially when I noticed it was really making a difference in my sensitivity.
This is why you want to floss your teeth first before brushing. It allows the active ingredients in the toothpaste to reach in between your teeth!
Don’t forget to only use a pea-sized amount of toothpaste on your brush!
Mouthwash
If you want to add another defence for your sensitivity, you might want to try Sensodyne’s mouthwash. There is no alcohol in it, and it uses potassium nitrate to desensitize the nerves of the teeth.
