alt Hacker NewsCame to post this. These things are frigging amazing and like $20. Absolutely everyone should have one. Really you can floss and brush and it still gets stuff. I wish they existed when I was younger! Buy one! Thank me later!
On the 'dentists don't really know what they're doing' front, my kid's orthodontist ($$$$) describes himself as a "fencing contractor". Conversely, I got the water flosser tip from an Indonesian dentist who I hired opportunistically on holiday for a clean; he turned up in flip-flops but decanted to bare feet during operating and gave the most sage advice I've ever had in 40+ years of dentists: BUY A WATER FLOSSER. Terimakasih, Doktor!
>I wish they existed when I was younger!
Me too, had to wait until the 1960's.
The marketing push was really effective, even on black & white TV.
The originals were so powerful that it would rarely leave anything more than floss would leave behind.
I can only imagine the water jet on new units over the decades got so much weaker maybe because somebody did some accidental eye damage or something.
What I like to do once a week is to use it with hot water, not too hot but about like hot coffee or tea which I do not drink.
I believe there are many types of germs that are highly adapted to thrive at your normal body temperature, and do not survive at temperatures too many degrees away from that.
This seems really good for the gums too not just between the teeth, and the modern offerings basically massage the gums when you pound them with the water jet, the old units would have been too painful for that.
Also on a deep minor toothache just getting started, which feels like it is way down between the root & bone, I have sprayed the tooth directly long enough to heat up the whole tooth which seems to work