Electric Toothbrush — Can It Cause or Worsen Tinnitus?

It's a perfectly valid question.

It's not natural to have that vibration going through your head. You don't find that in nature.

I had the same question last Summer. I ended up buying an electric toothbrush and using it a few times but instinct and common sense told me it was wrong so I stopped. Something did make my Tinnitus worse in the Summer last year but I cant say for certain it was the toothbrush.

As far as noise and vibration goes I think we should look at what is natural and base our decisions on that.

 

I just used my electric toothbrush and my tinnitus screached from it! Have never had that happen before. Just tried to breathe and relax though it was frightening.

 

I have been using my sonicare for 4 years now and never thought I'd have a problem with it.. until three days ago when, by coincidence, I was wearing ear plugs while brushing my teeth. All of a sudden I noticed how incredibly loud the toothbrush is. The vibrations travel through my skull directly into my ear. I tested if it depends on the angle or pressure i use and found that it's the loudest when i brush my lower teeth. counter-intuitively the sound gets even louder when i put less pressure on the toothbrush. i think the vibrations get transferred even better with low pressure. Anyway, I find it fascinating that i did not notice the loudness when i wasn't wearing my ear plugs. There must be some cognitive filter in action. More importantly though: it's scary and i also decided to go back to normal toothbrushes even though they don't clean as well as the electric ones.

 

Not really a cognitive filter: you're experiencing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occlusion_effect

 

wow that makes so much sense! Thanks for bringing up the term!

 

Mine gets irritated when using a sonic.

 

Sorry if this is a silly question but I wanted to get it out of the way. My electric toothbrush generates sounds at the 60-65 dB range while brushing my teeth. I worry that the sound is too close and too loud to my ears and I brush them daily for 1-2 minutes.

Should I consider wear earplugs while I'm brushing?

 

No.

65 dB is not worrying at all and also earplugs aren't going to protect you from vibrations going through your bone which is what (some other) people seem to be concerned about here.

 

No. I use an electric toothbrush for two minutes in the morning and at night. I use an Oral-B electric toothbrush on the lower less aggressive setting at the recommendation of my hygeniest. Has never caused any issues. Plus, cleaner teeth means less worry about needing dreaded dental work.