I think Waterpiks are better for dental health than toothbrushes and floss combined (although I use ‘em all). They’re basically small-scale pressure washers that obliterate bacterial biofilms, which are the real cause of tooth decay and gum disease and bad breath. Your mouth feels a different kind of clean after 2 minutes with one of these things.

Didn't know about biofilms (bacterial or other) earlier. The basic idea is intuitive (which is why I gargle with salt water regularly), but googled biofilm now and found a lot of info - it is complex. Thanks for mentioning it!

Saw this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofilm#Biofilms_and_infectiou...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofilm#Dental_plaque

The article says:

"Biofilms have been found to be involved in a wide variety of microbial infections in the body, by one estimate 80% of all infections"

Cheaper and better: http://oralbreeze.com/

I own one and love it.

I like mine. My dentist claims it's good to flush out what's loose after flossing and that waterpik is one of the few companies with enough pressure to actually clean too

Thanks for all the replies; useful.

I'm late to this thread, but I will chime in. I started using a waterpik about 2 years ago. My dental hygienist suggested I try it, because the gaps between my gums and teeth were starting to get deeper, about 2-3 mm. When I came back to the hygienist after 6 months, she told me the gaps were mostly 1-2 mm. I can't recall if I told her before she did the measurements that I'd used the waterpik, so I'm not sure if I biased her. In any case, I'm pretty sure I can also see the improvement in the mirror - at least my gums used to look a little inflamed at the gumline, here and there, and they don't anymore. Also it seemed I was bleeding less at my last cleaning (they usually tell me that I bleed more than average).

One more thing: my hygienist said I didn't have to use the waterpik every day, that it's fine to use it just a few times a week. So I'm trying to use it every other day now. I don't know the pros and cons of using it every day. Are there any long term studies which show that the waterpik is in no way harmful? I don't think so.

PS I didn't floss as a kid, so unfortunately I have tons of dental fillings. I started flossing as an adult, and I'm sure it helped a lot. I still floss once a day.

Thanks for chiming in. Good info. Not sure about those studies. I guess every other day is fine.