A water flosser is a tool that helps you clean your teeth at home.
It squirts pulses of water to remove plaque and food from in between your teeth,
under dental bridges, and around dental implants. This particular water flosser is the Binicare
cordless water flosser that Binicare sent me and asked me to review. It’s available for
sale on amazon for about thirty bucks, I’ll leave a link to it down in the description.
Hi I’m Dr. Rich, a general dentist in Elmsford, NY with over twenty years of
experience. I’m helping you learn about dentistry and teeth so that you can have a very nice smile.
The Binicare water flosser is a cordless, lithium ion battery powered water flosser. It comes with
a USB charging cord and takes about three to five hours to fully charge. Being cordless is a great
feature since you can easily take it with you when you travel. You also don’t have to leave
the water flosser out on your bathroom counter like you would a traditional corded water flosser.
It is also watertight so that you can use it in the shower or tub. The down side to it
being cordless is that the unit is a bit bigger and heavier than the handpiece of a corded
water flosser. It has to be since it needs to hold the water tank and the pump mechanism.
With a tank full of water, the Binicare water flosser weighs one pound and six point two ounces,
that’s six hundred twenty nine grams for my viewers outside of the US. That might be an
issue for you if you have small hands. It may be more difficult for you to move the flosser around
your mouth as you use it. I have medium size hands for a guy and I find it comfortable to hold,
but it is easier to use it with the water tank one third to half full of water.
The water flosser comes with five different tips that are easy to change.
Just press the tip eject button to remove a tip. To insert a new tip just press it in
until you hear a click. Which tip you should use depends on your particular situation.
If you are someone without any dental bridges or dental implants, you’ll most likely use the
standard jet tip. It’s small and easy to move around your entire mouth, although I
do like the periodontal tip since it has a soft rubber tip which is a bit gentler on my gums.
If you have periodontal disease then I recommend you use the periodontal tip since it will get
down into any periodontal pockets you have as well as in between your teeth.
If you or anyone in your family has dental braces, the orthodontic tip is great for
cleaning around brackets and wires. The tip has a little brush at the end of it
so you can brush your teeth while the water from the flosser flushes away food debris
and plaque. You can also use the brush tip to clean teeth without braces
but it does take a bit more time than using a regular toothbrush since the brush head is
much smaller compared to a toothbrush head. I wish they made a toothbrush sized head.
It also comes with a tongue cleaner tip that is used for cleaning your tongue. It’s a tongue
scraper which also squirts water. I personally prefer to just brush my tongue with my toothbrush.
When you first start using any type of water flosser, there is a bit of a learning curve.
The technique is fairly simple, you want to direct the water stream
in between your teeth and slightly under your gums, but the challenge is to do that while
water is falling out of your mouth, and you’re trying to see what you are doing in a mirror.
After a while, don't worry you’ll get the hang of moving the water flosser around your mouth and you won’t need
to watch what you’re doing in the mirror anymore. Then you can use the water flosser in the shower.
You can also add mouthwash to the water tank for some extra benefits.
Talk to your dentist about which mouthwash would be the best for you.
I usually recommend a fluoride mouthwash like ACT or the purple listerine. Years ago periodontists
would recommend adding a drop of bleach to the water so that it tasted like chlorinated swimming
pool water. Don’t use a saline rinse or an iodine rinse since they can damage the water flosser.
Once you are finished using the water flosser, make sure to clean it well
if you use mouthwash in it. Rinse out the tank with plain water a few times, and run
plain water through the water flosser for 30 seconds to make sure there is no
mouthwash residue inside it. Then empty the tank and run the flosser for a few seconds
to get the remaining water out of it. Then leave it out to dry before putting it away.
One downside is that the lithium ion battery is not replaceable,
so when it finally dies, you’ll have to buy a new water flosser.
Another downside is that a water flosser does not replace traditional
flossing with dental floss. I explain why in my “what is a water flosser and should
I get one” video. I’ll leave a link down in the description.
Overall the Binicare Water flosser is an
inexpensive water flosser that you can buy to see if water flossing is right for you.