Preserve toothbrush

You might guess that my approach to toothpaste carries over to toothbrushes. (I almost made a pun and said "caries over," but I thought most readers would assume it was just a typo, failing to appreciate my brilliance.) If so, you would be correct. As long as they're labeled "soft," and they're cheap, I'll buy them. Right now I'm still working my way through a ten-pack of some drugstore brand that I bought back in Nevada.

So, again, buying the above-pictured item--one of the handful of non-TJ-branded things sold there--was a departure for me. I rolled my eyes at the "made with recycled yogurt cups" thing, a blatant appeal to the hippie-dippie crowd. The things I do for my readers!

I fully expected my reaction to be, "It's a toothbrush, like every other toothbrush." I have to admit that I'm happily surprised. I've never had one classified as "ultra soft" before, and I like that. It's a pleasant physical sensation on the teeth and gums.

I also thought the extreme backwards bend in the handle would be either unnoticeable or a hindrance, but in actual practice it's really nicely shaped to bring the full head of bristles into contact with those pesky back molars.

The handle is more rigid than most. It seems that the fashion these days is for highly flexible handles. I think I prefer this opposite approach, with a rigid handle, and any excess pressure being absorbed by the ultra-soft bristles.

There is another hidden dumb gimmick: the container it comes in can be reused, if you're careful, to ship the toothbrush back to the manufacturer when you're done with it, for further recycling. Oh, brother. As if people don't have better things to do with their time than save a toothbrush wrapper somewhere they'll remember it weeks later, then figure out how to close it, print out a mailing label, blah, blah, blah. Life is too short. Besides, can the energy expenditure of the return shipping really be less than that used to make a new toothbrush? The whole enterprise strikes me as exceedingly silly, aimed to appeal to a particular stereotype of customer that does not include me.

But I'm willing to overlook that folderol and just focus on how the thing works. And that I am liking, more than I had any reason to anticipate.

Will I buy it again? 

I think I probably will.


Update, January 1, 2016 

I've bought many more of these since writing the above. In fact, I rarely buy any other kinds of toothbrushes anymore. Definitely elevated to "staple" status. Just be sure to get the "ultra soft" one--reject the others.