OUR THREE STEP METHODOLOGY

3-Step System for Healthier Teeth and Gums

Sunstar has developed a unique three step approach to oral healthcare to make it clearer to understand the best way possible to take care of your mouth at home and to help you navigate your way through the 80 products in their GUM range.

To help keep teeth and gums free from bacterial plaque, the main cause of periodontal disease and tooth decay, it is important to brush and floss daily, as well as to take other customized steps for personal oral care including regular visits to the dentist.

The GUM trademark system is based on the complementary action of three essential components of a complete oral hygiene program: the toothbrush, dental floss, and specific products for personalized and advanced oral hygiene.

GUM is the first truly complete line of synergistic products specially researched and designed to effectively remove bacterial plaque.



Your dentist or pharmacist can advise you which GUM products from each stage of the three-step routine would best suit your needs and you can also click your way around this site to find out more about products in each of the steps.

Click here to see how it works.

Dr. Butler Innovations

The founder of the company, Dr. John O. Butler, was committed to designing products that would conform to the highest professional standards and oral hygiene requirements. Dr. Butler’s original concept of product innovation and total dedication to the dental profession have prevailed at Sunstar ever since. This is why the company has provided the dental profession with innovations that help their patients. Here’s just a partial list:

Original 2-row toothbrush: Dr. Butler designed the original brush using a bone handle and natural bristles that had a straight trim. Later, he designed the same brush with black natural bristles promoting the idea that the white bristled brush should be used in the morning and the black one at night so each brush could dry completely before use.

Velvet-tip, satinized nylon: The term "velvet-tip" was introduced by Dr. Butler many years ago when he realized the damage that could be done by an untreated, cut nylon bristle. We believe he was the first to treat bristle ends, using a rounding and tapering process that allowed each bristle to better fit in the narrow sulcus. Butler’s satinizing process created texture on the bristle surface so it picked up and removed plaque. This was a crude process that has been refined by the company and quality controlled with today’s modern equipment.

Round rubber tip stimulator: Rather than triangular rubber tips found on most toothbrushes of that time, Dr. Butler placed a round tip on the brush because it scientifically gave better and more gentle contact to the interdental area.

Disclosing tablets: Butler invented a disclosant in tablet form which eliminated the mess formerly associated with liquid disclosants that had been used for 50 years. By popular demand, Butler later introduced a water soluble liquid disclosant in a dropper bottle.

Metal handle for stimulator: This product was designed by Dr. Butler so patients could have a portable product which could be used to perform gum therapy at any time or in any location.

Colored handles: Dr. Butler switched from bone to plastic handles, originating the idea of colored handles so each member of the family could identify his or her own toothbrush.

Dental Health kits: Butler was the first to have a kit that included all items necessary for good home dental care.

Dome Trim® bristle design: After careful research, it was discovered that toothbrush bristles with a typical flat trim, when placed at a 45 degree angle against the tooth (Bass brushing technique), bunch together and interfere with the penetration of the bristle under the gumline and between the teeth. Butler minimized this bunching by trimming the bristles in a dome shape which varies the length of the bristles. This benefit has been clinically proven to reduce pathogenic bacteria below the gum line.

The Proxabrush® System of interdental cleaners: The Proxabrush System was invented by a dentist at the University of Alabama who licensed it to the John O. Butler Company to improve and promote. The original handle was metal. Butler has expanded the use of interdental cleaners by introducing the first double-ended plastic handle and the no-load Proxabrush® Trav-Ler™ with a built in handle. It also added the popular #612 small cylindrical brush refill, and coated the wire core with nylon to reduce galvanic sensitivity. Recently, the company also introduced the first Ultra Fine wire core for cleaning very small interdental spaces.

The Proxabrush® handle: Butler was the first to present a loading design that held a brush refill to the handle of an interdental cleaner.

End-tuft toothbrush: Dentists told Butler that twisted teeth and bridges were difficult to clean with a standard toothbrush so an end-tuft brush was designed with the requested small brush head specifications.

Sulcus brush:The sulcus brush was developed at the suggestion of Dr. Robert Barkley, an Illinois dentist who was the foremost preventive dentist of his time. He worked with Butler to determine the length and spacing of the bristles so they would most effectively contact the sulcus area for patients who needed extra therapy.