Oral Accessories

Oral accessories

This section goes beyond toothbrushes and toothpaste to bring you the next level in oral healthcare. Our Oral Accessories department includes a wide variety of tools and products to address your specific oral health needs, all at Every Day Low Prices.

When to use a water flosser rather than traditional floss

Dental floss strings are useful for cleaning between your teeth, but for some people, this isn’t enough. Dentists may recommend water flossers to you if you have particularly tough tartar buildup or if you wear hard-to-clean dental devices, such as braces. Water flossers are able to shoot powerful but safe streams of water into the same spaces that floss goes, but with more cleaning power and velocity than flossing alone can achieve. If you want to achieve a high degree of dental cleanliness, you can use a water flosser as an alternative to floss even if your dentist hasn’t recommended it, though it may be a good idea to consult your dentist first.

Do dental floss picks perform differently from traditional dental floss?

Dental floss picks use a string of floss attached to a plastic frame in order to make the act of flossing your teeth easier and faster, particularly if you have manual dexterity or mobility issues. Traditional floss is easier to control, and you can generally do a better job reaching difficult or tight spots with a string wrapped around your two index fingers. However, it isn't always easy to do this. Children especially may benefit from using floss picks rather than traditional floss — the fun colors and compact shape of the pick can make flossing more appealing and easier. Ultimately, the two floss types serve the same purpose and fill the important role of between-the-teeth cleaning. Your personal preference can play a part in determining which format is best.

Tongue-brushing tools

Tongue brushing is an important but often overlooked part of a healthy at-home dental care routine. Your tongue is exposed to the same food particles and bacteria as your teeth, so simply brushing your teeth isn’t enough to rid your mouth of potentially damaging food detritus and harmful bacteria that can cause bad breath. There are two primary tools available for tongue cleaning: brushes and scrapers. Tongue brushes are generally stiffer and flatter than toothbrushes so they can penetrate into the grooves between your tastebuds and avoid triggering a gag reflex as you brush toward the back of your tongue. Scrapers come in different shapes but all work the same basic way to scrape detritus from the surface of your tongue. Using a scraper means starting at the back of your tongue and gently scraping forward in a fluid motion, while brushing allows for more of a freeform cleaning pattern. Both can be effective, though using a tongue brush means you can also use a specially designed tongue cleanser that may include odor-neutralizing ingredients such as zinc.

Denture-cleaning product options

Dentures need cleaning at least once a day and must soak overnight to avoid drying out, but cleaning and soaking are actually two different steps. The effervescent denture soaks in this section are a good accompaniment to your routine of brushing dentures to remove food particles and bacteria. These soaks can help remove denture stains and maintain a fresh scent, but they aren’t a complete substitute for brushing. Brushing helps to remove adhesive and other built-up material on the dentures, which effervescent cleaners alone may not be able to achieve. This section includes special denture brushes to help you get into the various crevices and between-tooth spaces in your dentures for a thorough clean. As you shop for effervescent cleaning tablets, be sure to look out for the amount of soaking time that the manufacturer recommends. Some denture tablets are designed for overnight use, while others are intended for short soaks of fewer than 10 minutes.

Choosing a dental guard

The dental guards in this section are generally intended for you to use at night as a guard against wear that grinding your teeth can cause. Also known as bruxism, grinding your teeth is an unconscious habit that can cause your teeth to wear down or crack over time, which may lead to expensive dental work. Though you can’t necessarily prevent this behavior from occurring, you can guard against damage with a night guard. Dentists offer custom-fit mouth guards, but these are often expensive and time-consuming to obtain. Most of the dental guards in this section are moldable through the use of hot water so you can achieve a similar custom fit and get the protection you need for your teeth while you sleep. As you shop, look for dental guards that offer clear instructions for how to create a custom fit so you can get the right results.