These stands can not only charge the toothbrush, but they can also hold them up when they’re not in use. It’s recommended to change the brush head every three months, so be sure you have extras. Whether you want to freshen your breath, whiten your smile, or get a pat on the back from your dentist the next time you go in for cleaning, these Oral-B electric toothbrushes will help you do all that and more.
There are very few cons – if I were to find one, and this really is nit-picking, it would be that the button is very sensitive and can inadvertently turn on, especially when travelling. It helpfully turns itself off after two minutes of brushing and its charge lasted well on test, with most testers planning to use it again. Thanks to its five cleaning modes and a guided brushing timer, testers felt this brush provided a customised clean, which everyone agreed visibly removed plaque.
The lithium-ion battery lasts for more than 14 days – in practice, after some use, I would say this is more like a week and a bit, but that’s still decent performance for such an affordable toothbrush. You can buy the Pro 3 in either black or pink with different Oral-B brush heads, but you can switch between them as you see fit. You can store them among your other shower and bath accessories if you like.
Generally speaking, electric toothbrushes have settled down into two basic types. The first, as manufactured by Oral-B, has a small, round head that oscillates at high speed, rotating quickly one way then the other many thousands of times a second to scrub your teeth and gums. These toothbrushes combine this with a pulsating action, designed to break up plaque along the gum line, making it easier to brush away. The most important feature in an electric toothbrush is, quite simply, the one that will make you use it most often. If you’re doing it right, you should spend at least 28 minutes a week brushing your teeth.
Its bristles are soft and flexible — great if you suffer from sensitivity — and its two-minute timer is broken into 30-second intervals to make sure all areas of your mouth get oral b genius toothbrush adequately brushed. It enhanced their brushing experience and left their teeth feeling cleaner. It also has a good pressure sensor and lasts for two weeks on one charge.
They can have past problems with gum disease, which could have caused it. But we have to take price into consideration and we’re not going to pretend that £800 – or even the £500 it’s usually sold for – is anywhere near reasonable. It’s possible that the iO10’s true purpose at the top of the Oral-B range is to make the others (like the iO4, below) look like a bargain by comparison. Philips offers alternative sonic options which can be kinder to your gums if the oscillating option is too abrasive. In all cases, it’s largely down to your budget and personal preference, but you’ll be guided through our shopping expert favourites below. In reviews for the Oral-B Pro 3, fans and dental professionals have praised theeffective toothbrush.
It was the across-the-board winner in my best electric toothbrushes review because it had the best combination of ease-of-use, effectiveness, and value. Other brushes offer multiple brushing modes and high-tech bells and whistles, but you may not need these extras if you’re just looking for a standard electric toothbrush. Zoe Malin has been covering dental hygiene products for over a year at Select and has published guides about toothpaste, floss, teeth whitening products and more. For this piece, Zoe interviewed three dentists, researched dozens of electric toothbrushes and familiarized herself with the ADA’s guidelines. We included electric toothbrushes recommended by dentists and Select staffers. We tested the Oral-B Smart Limited toothbrush on sensitive gums, and it made a major difference in the entire brushing experience.
Our panel rated its two-week battery life and USB travel case that doubles up as a charger. It’s just a shame that there isn’t a pressure sensor to keep us from brushing too rigorously. Its five cleaning modes cover all the most common brushing needs, leaving almost all testers with considerably cleaner teeth, and it comes in a choice of pink, white, black or rose gold. It also offers real-time brushing feedback and advice via a free Bluetooth phone app. If you don’t always use the app, it stores the data and syncs it when you next open it, meaning you don’t miss out on this innovative feature.
Philips Sonicare’s 9900 Prestige is the brand’s top-of-the-line smart toothbrush. It connects to your phone—to track your brushing habits—and has extraneous cleaning modes. The Philips Sonicare 2100, 5100, 5300, 6100, 6500, and 7500 all feature the same technology as the 4100 and 1100, with 31,000 bristle movements per minute. They differ in levels of intensity (for instance, the 2100 offers two levels while the 6100 offers three) and the number of cleaning modes (the 1100 and 2100 only offer one while the 6100 offers three). The pricier models also include accessories such as a travel case, which are nice but not necessary. Smart-toothbrush capabilities vary widely, but mainly these devices automate the process of tracking your brushing habits, typically by connecting to an app via Bluetooth.
We haven’t tested mouthguard-style automatic toothbrushes made specifically for adults, such as the Y-Brush and the AutoBrush Pro. But for our guide to the best electric toothbrush for kids, we tested the AutoBrush Kids, which was unimpressive. Not only did it leave behind specks of food, it also required using a special kind of toothpaste made by AutoBrush. However, most toothbrush heads are not recyclable as part of household waste, so they should be tossed in the trash when they’re no longer useful. There are no independent studies comparing sonic toothbrush models or brands to non-sonic brushes (and most industry-supported research includes the brands’ own products).