How often should I change my Toothbrush?

Hello everyone! Thank you for tuning back in for another post where this time we’ll be discussing everything you need to know about brushing your teeth with the right toothbrush and toothpaste, and how often you should be changing your toothbrush. At True Smiles Dental, we believe that caring for your teeth starts with preventative care and patient education – what you do at home matters. Which is why when coming in for your regular check ups and cleans, we take our time learning

So, let’s start with a few questions, when was the last time you changed your toothbrush? Have a good look at it, do your bristles fan out? Is there a thin layer of debris from where the bristles start? And have you been sick recently? If you answered yes to any of those questions, it’s probably time for you to change your toothbrush.

If you think about how often you brush your teeth and all the germs and bacteria that sit in your mouth after a whole day of eating, imagine how well your toothbrush is cleaning everything! But, just like a sponge when you wash the dishes, it gets dirty over time. Bacteria builds up, and your toothbrush wears down over time, meaning it doesn’t do a good job of brushing your teeth as it should – which could lead to more plaque buildup, higher chances of gum disease and more chances of holes to form in your teeth. If you’ve had a tooth filling or deep clean for your gums before, it probably wasn’t the best experience, so to reduce the chances of this happening again, let’s start with the basics.

Cleaning in-between your teeth

Before brushing our teeth, we should start with cleaning in-between first. Reason being, food tends to get stuck between our teeth that our toothbrush and toothpaste can’t reach. Holes commonly form in between our teeth too, so it’s important to floss or use pixster brushes before brushing to get the food out, and let our toothpaste get in. If you tend to have tighter teeth and no implants, we’d recommend flossing your teeth. If you have a history of gum disease, have a wire to hold your teeth, an implant, bridge or wider gaps in your teeth, an appropriately sized pixster brush (recommended by your dentist or Oral Health Therapist) would be best.

How often should you brush your teeth?

Twice daily – after waking up and before going to bed

• Why brush in the morning?
  • During the night, we have bacteria that builds up in our mouths. If you ever notice that your breath stinks in the morning AKA “morning breath” – that’s plaque! And a simple brush in the morning before breakfast can help to reduce that bad breath and plaque build up
  • Additionally, our toothpaste contains a variety of ingredients that help protect our tooth enamel from stains and plaque. So, if you often have coffee in the morning, it’s best to brush your teeth before having breakfast.
• Why brush at night?
  • After a whole day of eating and drinking, there’s plaque that builds up along your teeth that attracts bacteria to the tooth, which could potentially lead to decay.
  • Plaque over long periods of time can also lead to calculus, or tartar buildup (the hard yellow bits that usually forms in your lower front teeth), which can’t be removed at home and requires a professional clean to be removed. Calculus can lead to eventual gum recession and loose teeth if left untreated for years.

What toothpaste should I use?

You can’t go wrong when you choose a normal toothpaste from Oral B, Colgate or Sensodyne. For adults, if you tend to have sensitivity, we’d recommend a toothpaste labelled for sensitive teeth, but otherwise, make sure that the concentration of fluoride listed on the packaging is anywhere from 1000-1500ppmF.

Toothpaste that we recommend staying away from is anything that contains charcoal. It tends to dry our teeth out and cause more abrasiveness, which could harm our gums and cause recession. Whitening toothpaste too, tends not to whiten our teeth but remove micro layers of stain while potentially causing sensitivity and gum abrasion.

For kids, we recommend following the guidelines listed on the box unless a higher concentration is recommended by your dental practitioner.

So, when should you change your toothbrush?

To put it simply, you should be changing your toothbrush:

1. Once every 3-4 months
2. After getting sick from a virus, disease or infection
3. And, when you start noticing that your bristles flare out

As we mentioned earlier, we generally recommend changing your toothbrush every 3-4 months as your toothbrush wears down and bacteria starts to visibly build and form on the base of the brush. If you notice the bristles flare out before and during the time you need to change your toothbrush, you might also be brushing too hard. Flared bristles tend to do a poorer job of brushing your teeth and may additionally irritate your gums and cause inflammation. It’s important to change within the 3-4 month time period as your toothbrush gradually becomes less effective at removing plaque on your teeth. This increases your risk of potential gum disease and decay, meaning more unpleasant visits to the dentist.

So now that you’re changing your toothbrush, what should you change it to? There’s a few things to consider but our golden rule is: always stick with a soft toothbrush. Soft toothbrushes are the best for removing plaque without traumatizing and damaging your gums. While a medium and hard toothbrush can be better at removing plaque, the damage done to your gums is irreversible and, unfortunately, that gum recession doesn’t grow back. Over time, gum recession can lead to increased sensitivity and discomfort from cold drinks and food – so try and go with the softest toothbrush available, either a manual or an electric toothbrush is fine, they both perform well when used properly. When changing the head for your electric toothbrush, make sure to look out for the sensitive or gum focused range. For our regular toothbrushes, try stick to the normal ones with no plastic in the head, the more bristles there are, the more likely it can reach in-between your teeth for a proper clean.

If you would like more information regarding whether you should use a normal or electric toothbrush, please check out or other blog, “Are Electric toothbrushes or manual toothbrushes better?” for further insight.

Otherwise, if you’re uncertain about the best toothbrush or oral hygiene tools for your needs, your Marrickville Dentist or Oral health therapist at True Smiles Dental can help provide the best advice. During our hygiene appointments, we adopt a Guided Biofilm Therapy (GBT) protocol which means we plaque disclose your teeth to identify missed areas of plaque and biofilm in your mouth prior to a professional clean with our EMS airflow. This helps to tailor our oral hygiene advice specifically to each individual as needed.

Contact the team at True Smiles Dental, Marrickville today for an appointment on (02) 7228 7272 or book online today at https://truesmilesdental.com.au/appointment to make an appointment.