Toothbrushes, the thing we use daily to the point that it became our benchmark for rotating passwords. A lot of people bought toothbrushes based on promotions. Finding the cheapest one to buy. The bundles. I used to be that person until I decided to try new stuff. Now I can't go back.

Enjoy this weird ass article about my personal experience with exploring toothbrushes. Somehow I got the urge to write this article.

Living with my family

When I was in kindergarten, there was one time I deliberately decided not to brush my teeth for a week. Because I didn't see the importance of it. Obviously, I got like 5+ mouth ulcers spread out and my dentist got mad at me. After that, I tried to brush my teeth daily. Hey, I'm a kid back then.

Still, for years after, I... didn't really choose my toothbrush. Well, I only chose based on the colors of the available toothbrushes in our stock at home. My parents bought the bundle pack and I got to choose the colors that I wanted. It was the cheapest model of a notable brand available in the grocery store, so there weren't really any issues tho. It works.

The Start of Autonomy

Starting my university years, I too bought the cheapest toothbrushes available from a notable brand. Bought them in packs so they were cheaper. Didn't change the toothbrush until it was obviously unusable.

Sometimes, I too brought home tons of free toothbrushes from hotels and used them at home. Btw, the toothbrushes I meant were not the Japanese ones with a proper feel. They were the greyish recycled ones with flimsy handles. The feel wasn't as good as proper commercial toothbrushes, but hey, they're free and they work!

Until one time, one of the bristles fell out and got stuck in my throat. It was during a trip for one of the most prestigious Competitive Programming competition in Indonesia. And it was still day one of the trip. I tried to swallow a larger chunks of food, hoping that the bristle would fall. Nope. Oh f*ck.

I never told anyone about this during the trip since I don't want to bother anyone. I silently bought a new proper toothbrush from the nearest convenience store available, with the model just like the one I usually used.

The competition went well and we got home. But I felt the bristle was still in my throat. As someone who was uninsured in this case (my insurance policy does not cover outpatient care), I couldn't bother to spend my hard-earned money for this annoyance. I mean, I didn't have a proper income. I was still at uni.

Weeks and weeks, I tried to hold it. When my throat felt like it was burning so much and I had difficulty swallowing, I called a telemedicine service and got the bare minimum of medicine. It worked, for a week. Until it hurt so much that I couldn't even drink water. Until it hurt so much that I couldn't even talk without squinting my eyes.

That's when I went to a proper ENT doctor in a hospital, face to face, finally.

tl;dr, a bristle scratched my throat. I left it untreated. 💀💀💀

Traumatized by spending like a month's worth of my rent for this doctor visit, I tried to invest in my toothbrush. A bit.

Adult choices

In chronological order.

Micro-bristle toothbrush

This is the first toothbrush that I invested in. Tried for two days. I felt like I was wiping my teeth with a sponge. I didn't feel clean either. And I felt the bristles fall from the head of the toothbrush. Now this toothbrush has become my brush for cleaning figures.

Small-headed toothbrush

The one with the head size like 2/3 of the normal toothbrush. I tried this, and my toothbrushing time got longer than expected. And, maybe I chose the wrong toothbrush brand, but this got worn out quite quickly. And I felt like using a children's toothbrush.

A random Japanese normal-sized toothbrush

When I travel overseas, I want to try the culture there. Including the toothbrushes available. I want to try using the toothbrushes used by the locals.

So I bought the "best seller"-tagged toothbrush. I think it was okayish? I don't really remember it. I don't think it gave me a strong impression. Anyways, I lost the toothbrush and I forgot how it looked.

Bamboo toothbrush

The first time using it, my hand got splinters as the bamboo fibers pierced my thumb. Nah. I mean, it's eco-friendly. But the head felt average. I can cover the body or something, but I still wasn't justified in using it. Maybe I used the wrong brand, but idk. Tried two bamboo toothbrushes from two different places, got splinters both times.

3-Sided Toothbrush

I wasn't even looking for toothbrushes, but Shopee somehow slipped this toothbrush into my algorithm and, obviously, I wanted to try it. Hey, when do I get to see a 3D toothbrush! This would help me clean out the inner side of my teeth better! Immediately bought it.

Didn't last long. Maybe I used it wrong, but uhh. First of all, the middle part bristles are too long. If you look at the illustration image here, it looks like the middle part has a shorter bristle length than the sides. But in reality, all three sides have the same length. This made me feel like the edge of a prism-shaped brush scraping against my teeth. Hard no.

X-shaped Bristles Toothbrush

An X-shaped bristle! Would this clean my inner cavities better? Oh, this is new!

Oh, the bristles were now tangling with each other. Oh, this toothbrush became unusable after 1 month of usage. Oh. I need to change my password a lot more frequently now with this toothbrush.

Jordan Expert Clean Toothbrush

I bought this just because. But then this toothbrush became my favorite easily. The hardness of the bristle is just right. And it's durable too!

The thing is, I can't find any cons of using this toothbrush. It's just... right. Eh, the only con was that I was forced to buy the casing of the toothbrush. I don't have the option to buy the toothbrush only here.

Long-headed toothbrush

One day, I was strolling around Don Don Donki. As I got some time, I strolled around all aisles in Donki since there's no Donki in Indonesia. And, I saw this big-headed toothbrush. I had never seen this kind of toothbrush before. So, I obviously bought it. Especially since it was still within a reasonable price.

Oh wow. I now brush my teeth faster. And I don't have to move my hands as much as before. If I go to Donki again, I will be sure to buy a few more to stock up.

For the overall toothbrush quality and stuff, I still like Jordan Expert Clean more, but I think the changes are tolerable since this Donki one made me brush my teeth more efficiently.

Brushing Responsibly

Notice that I don't put in any electric toothbrushes. Because, they're expensiveeee and I'm not ready yet to spend that much for a toothbrush. And the eco-friendly changeable heads too, they are hella expensive here so I haven't tried it yet.

But, I really like to explore the things, including those people dismiss. Toothbrushes, for example! Oh, I keep good hygiene tho! It has been 10 years since I last went to a dentist and I finally went to a dentist again last week. The dentist said my teeth are quite clean.

Somehow exploring it felt fun(?) I mean it's cheap. Once I was super tempted to buy a Swissdent Profi Colours Toothbrush, a toothbrush that won a red dot design award. And, it has a curved head too! But, it's expensive, so I skipped. I'm not spending the price of 3 Jordan expert clean toothbrushes. Well, I might in the future, but not now.

I am settled on Jordan Expert Clean Toothbrush or Donki Passion Price Long Head Taper Toothbrush, for now.