Titanium, the multitalented metal used in everything from jet engines to eyeglass frames, has taken on yet another role as the crucial component of two toothbrushes that aim to shake up the staid world of dental hygiene.

One of the brushes dispenses with toothpaste, instead employing a core of titanium dioxide that generates a plaque-removing electrochemical reaction. The other uses fine, flexible titanium bristles that can last for years. Both are getting favorable, if preliminary, reviews from scientists, dentists and consumer testers.

The tried-and-true manual toothbrush has remained largely unchanged for generations. In the dental field, where professionals rarely agree on anything, the new brushes take some getting used to.

“People think it’s hocus-pocus,” said Erik Powers, of Powers International in Henderson, Nev., who has recently started importing the $29.95 no-toothpaste Soladey brush to the United States. The brush was invented in Japan. “If you put this on the shelf next to a 99-cent toothbrush, which would you buy?”