The term "professional toothbrush" is used rather loosely to market and sell toothbrushes. It is meant to indicate that a toothbrush offers the user a tooth cleaning experience that is on par with the kind of experience that one would have in a dentist's office. While some toothbrushes that are labeled as "professional" do use new technology, others are similar to the old manual bristle toothbrushes that most people have been using for decades. A professional toothbrush that does use relatively new technology may be battery-operated or electric and may use a bristle alternative to clean the teeth. Some of these toothbrushes use high-speed vibrations that help to clean the teeth in a way that is either impossible or quite difficult to replicate using a manual toothbrush.
For those who are looking for a professional toothbrush, the best place to start is the dentist's office. Ask for recommendations about the best products on the market. Also, ask the dentist what professional toothbrush really incorporates important new technology. This is a good way to identify a product that really will offer a professional-grade cleaning at home.
A professional toothbrush that does use new technology to offer superior dental cleaning may have a number of features that allow the user to enjoy different kinds of teeth cleaning experiences. Some of these toothbrushes have multiple settings such as daily cleaning, deep cleaning, and whitening. The user can choose the daily cleaning setting on a regular basis just to keep the teeth in good shape. The deep cleaning setting can be used on a semi-regular basis in order to remove plaque build up, even in areas that are difficult to access. A whitening setting is a setting that is used entirely for cosmetic purposes but is nonetheless quite important to some users.
Sometimes a professional toothbrush will also come equipped with a timer. This timer helps to ensure that the professional toothbrush user is spending adequate time cleaning each tooth or each area of the mouth. Some of these toothbrushes claim to have capabilities that replace dental flossing. These claims should be met with suspicion as most dentists assert that, no matter what kind of toothbrush one uses, flossing is an important part of daily dental hygiene. This sort of feature may help to get the areas between the teeth as clean as possible, but might not be able to clean between the teeth as well as floss can.