Soft, medium, and hard bristle toothbrushes are available. I have always heard that dentists recommend using a soft bristle toothbrush. I can understand how someone might want to use a medium. But why would someone use a hard bristle toothbrush when there is a consensus amongst dentists that they should not be used? Why do the toothbrush manufacturers even make them? Aren’t they setting themselves up for lawsuits?
Denture cleaning?
Some people like them, probably. They sell what moves, and I guess some people probably don’t feel they’re getting “clean” unless they use a sandblaster.
Some people just like to BLEED.
The hard ones might be good for non-dental applications, like scrubbing the floor in a Marine barracks.
They’re actually really useful for housework. Note to houseguests: the toothbrush with the black bristles is for scrubbing grout, not teeth.
I like hard bristley toothbrushes and haven’t been able to find them for a long time. ( Not that I look too hard, but yeah, the whole bleeding gums thing is appealing and I really can’t get the deck washer wand in my mouth much to my husband’s disappointment.
My partner is one of those people that just don’t feel like a soft or medium brush is doing any good - they want to feel some scrubbing going on.
My wife absolutely refuses to use anything but a hard bristle brush. Her dentist complains about it every time he sees her, but she won’t budge.
I think you have to “Factor In” the commercial sytem to a large extent too. They want to sell more toothbrushes, and regardless of what a dentist says, he gets all his info from above - where the money changes hands - and if you think this is far fetched, do some research - the medical profession is unfortunatelly tailored more toward “Business policy” and “Profit” than most people realize (or want to realize). Kickbacks for putting slants on certain things which, (apart from them making massive extra profits), are neither here nor there healthwise for us, happen all the time - It’s just business!
For me, soft and medium brushes had become a weekly expense that only ever did a partial job. The result over time was that I was spending extra time brushing, yet areas of my gums were becoming softer. After 6 or so months, I started getting signs of gingevitis in those places, and it seemed to be spreading farther out ino healthy tissue. My teeth felt as though they were becoming loosish coupled with a sensation in the areas of gum around them which I can only put down to an inflamation sensation. They started to bleed - Quite badly. …No matter how much I brushed, I felt as though I must constantly have bad breath due to bleeds throughout the day, and I probably did! - All it took for my gums to start bleeding (in the end) was to create a slight suction in my mouth equivelant to sucking a chocolate thickshake through a blocked straw, or even just eating harder type fruits - such as apples!
I didn’t really “Zone In” on the “soft brush” cause, until I went into my bosses office one day whilst he was opening a parcel he’d received from ebay with 10 tooth brushes in it.
I asked him why he was buying tooth brushes (of all things) from eBay and he said it’s because it’s the fastest way he can actually get hold of “Hard” brushes these days because less places are stocking them as they’re “Not Recommended”. …He then proceeded to explain his “Oral Health” issues with the softer brushes, and that’s when the cause of my own issues finally hit home and made sense! Because inadvertantly he’d just described my own exact situation!!
Once you understand that using hard or soft brushes on teeth and gums is no different to having hands wih calases vs hands without calases, you start to realize that soft gums will initially bleed until they adapt, in the same way as softer hands will blister until they adapt (to the type of working environment, such using a pen vs using a pick axe)
Everyone’s situation is different. Just as everyones work environment is different. So to, everyones teeth and gum needs are different. Some people can easily get between teeth for a good cleanse with soft or medium brushes, others (like myself) end up getting only a partial cleans, because certain teeth are tighter together and the brush bristles fold over before getting where they need to get!
It all makes perfect sense really - IF you think about it. …It’s just the way the human body works, it’s brilliant, it adapts to whatever it needs to adapt to for the specific circumstances at hand. …Heavy lifting = larger muscle mass for example. The brain is also geared the same way when it comes to thought processing. Focusing on specific types of things will eventually strengthen that type of thinking ability, weather it be math, problem solving puzzles, reading - developing different skills - whatever.
Basically - Since I’ve been getting hold of harder brushesagain, my gingervitus has gone, teeth feel tight and strong (not loosish) gum bleeds are minimal (slight red in spit about once in every 3 or 4 brushings on average and NO BLEEDS AT ALL during the course of the day. 
I prefer hard bristle, but haven’t been able to find one here anywhere in maybe 15 years.
I only recently started going to the dentist after decades and the dentist was not fond of hard bristles at all; medium was his preference.
You buy a new toothbrush every week?
Hard brushes are excellent for cleaning parts and whatnot.
Recognize that a hard bristle toothbrush of today is a lot softer than one bought in, say, the 1960s. So the answer might be that so-called hard bristle toothbrushes are actually fairly soft.
You have house guests that use your toothbrush?
This is me. Soft brushes feel like I’m brushing with a cotton swab.
I’ve used a hard toothbrush all my life. No bleeding gums or other problems. My dentists have never asked me what firmness of brush I use, so I assume it’s not causing any problems that they can see. What problem is it supposed to cause, gum calluses?
I also can’t find them in stores, so I order them from amazon.
Seconded. Never any bleeding gums or issues like that, and generally pretty good teeth for my age.
Where I’m living right now, you can only buy soft-bristled toothbrushes. Even the toothbrushes labelled medium are soft compared to the country I’m from.
And they’re hopeless. I’m still using a firm toothbrush I bought more than a year ago and it leaves my teeth feeling noticeably cleaner than a brand new soft brush.
IME, they’re useful if you’re detail cleaning an M-16A1.
At 15 bucks each for “extra hard” pig bristles you had better love them
3M makes a hard bristle brush
My understanding is that bleeding gums are not the problem hard bristles cause, but rather receding gums and enamel damage.