How often to change toothbrush?

ripplyuk

I have a Phillips sonicare and an oral b, but yesterday I ordered the newer oral b io. The toothbrush heads for this are more expensive and I don’t feel comfortable using any cheap fake versions. I use the sonicare in the mornings and the oral b at night. I know the usual advice is to replace toothbrush heads every 2 or 3 months but since mine are only getting half the normal use, is it ok to replace them every 5 or 6 months instead? Or would this be a bad idea? 

They are sterilised weekly so there hopefully shouldn’t be any hygiene issues with them but I’m not sure if there are other important reasons to replace them regularly. Teeth are more expensive than toothbrushes so I don’t want it to end up being false economy in the long-term. 

Brie

How do you sterilise them?  I ask because in a case of being ecological as well as frugal and also not being able to find the right heads for my brush I have been using the same one much longer than 3 months.  Probably closer to 3 years frankly.  I do give it a good rinse and scrub and extract anything I notice in the convoluted bits with an old dental tool.  The bristles themselves seem to be fine.

In my defence (should any be needed) there is nothing on my toothbrush that tells me what it is other than oral b.  And new ones are packaged up so tightly I can't see if any one is likely to fit mine.  I do know that my OH has a different brush and his has a slightly different fit.  I did notice that Tesco seems to have the heads on a half price currently but there were about 6 different types so I got confused by it all and simply came home.  

Emmia

Brie said:

How do you sterilise them?  I ask because in a case of being ecological as well as frugal and also not being able to find the right heads for my brush I have been using the same one much longer than 3 months.  Probably closer to 3 years frankly.  I do give it a good rinse and scrub and extract anything I notice in the convoluted bits with an old dental tool.  The bristles themselves seem to be fine.

In my defence (should any be needed) there is nothing on my toothbrush that tells me what it is other than oral b.  And new ones are packaged up so tightly I can't see if any one is likely to fit mine.  I do know that my OH has a different brush and his has a slightly different fit.  I did notice that Tesco seems to have the heads on a half price currently but there were about 6 different types so I got confused by it all and simply came home.  

Which type of head are you using? Oral B as far as I'm aware has two types of head fitment, the standard and the newer IO. -

Do you have a cross action head which is shaped more like a manual toothbrush head or is it round?

ripplyuk

@Brie I just soak them in Milton sterilising fluid. I previously used one designed for mouth guards but it was basically the same as Milton. 

It sounds like you have a regular Oral b toothbrush like mine. I have 6 toothbrush heads leftover (still packaged, purchased from Boots) and I’m happy to send them to you if you’re struggling to find any. My new IO is arriving today and uses different heads. 

Brie

@Emmia - they are the round ones.  I think I'll take my ripply on the freebie offer and see if they work!