A doctor at the 37 Military Hospital has expressed support for the growing trend of electric toothbrush usage her only caution being proper usage.

Dr Nathacia Nana Ama Agyemang spoke in an exclusive interview with Class News’ Prince Benjamin.

“Honestly, it is a healthy trend because the professionals have programmed the electric toothbrush in a way that it naturally moves in a circular motion,” she said. “Well, you could see during our presentation that that’s how to brush your teeth. The electric toothbrush has been programmed in a way that it will do that for you so most of the time, you will be instructed to just have it there [against your teeth].”

According to the 37 Military Hospital house officer, were it not for the cost, electric toothbrushes would have been the best to recommend.

“So to be honest, if everybody could afford it we’d have advised it but since it’s not possible, that’s why it’s good that we can also go for the manual one,” she said. “And it’s fine as long as [you’ve learned] the right way to brush your teeth and how to use it.”

Though the electric toothbrush “is in a way superior” to the manual toothbrush because of its programming, she noted that, it does not neatly follow that “that anybody using the electric [toothbrush] has better oral hygiene.”

It is a matter of preference, “most of the time,” she said.

On the duration for brushing the teeth, she offered: “Normally, it should take about two to three minutes.”

With the said circular motion, and the recommended twice-a-day routine, “you’ll be fine,” she assured.

Her colleague Dr Abdul Mushin Rashid also spoke on how long one must use a toothbrush for.

Usually, “every three months you just change it,” he said.

But “even before the three months, if you realise that the bristles are not in their correct shape, and they are bending or in a certain [unusual] direction you can always change it.”

He noted that the three-months-rule is “in literature” but if one notices changes in their tooth brush “after maybe a month – you see that the bristles are a bending, please change it. You don’t need to wait for three months.”

In conclusion, he urged that members of the public see a dentist twice in a year.