This model reached into all testers’ nooks and crannies, leaving everyone feeling minty-fresh after brushing. The bristles felt soft for all, while many said it was easy to reach all areas of the mouth. The panel praised its high-quality design, with one tester saying it was gentler than their previous electric toothbrush. Although the brand is based in the US, they do ship internationally to the UK.
Good news is, the popular Oral-B Smartseries 5000 Electric Toothbrush is 40 percent off for Prime Day to help improve your oral health without hurting your wallet. The Genius 8000 can track the brush’s position in your mouth, thanks to on-board location sensors oral b genius toothbrush and access to your phone’s front-facing camera. Smart capabilities aside, the brush itself, like our pick, is a reliable tool. Like other models in the Oral-B line, it has superfluous cleaning modes and is compatible with any of the company’s replacement heads.
Powered brushes typically cost about 10 times as much as manual toothbrushes, and you have to replace the brush heads at the same frequency (every three months), each for about the same cost as a manual brush. During testing, our testers unboxed the toothbrushes and added toothpaste. After setting a timer for two minutes, they began brushing all surfaces of their teeth, paying particular attention to areas that are typically difficult to reach. They took note of how comfortable the bristles were, how easy the toothbrush was to maneuver, and whether they felt like their teeth were adequately clean afterward.
Experts told us that the RotaDent electric toothbrush has a 360-degree rotating head for efficient cleaning that gets under the gumline. It’s a very basic toothbrush in its design — there are no smart features, brushing modes, pressure sensors or timers, for example. You can purchase multiple different types of replacement brush heads for this electric toothbrush, which will typically cost you about $21 per brush head. The Colgate Smart Electronic Toothbrush E1 (currently unavailable) also uses onboard sensors to track the brush head’s location as you move it around your mouth. The E1 vibrates but does not oscillate, and does so more quietly than most electric toothbrushes we’ve tested.
Not only do soft bristles clean just as well as more rigid bristles, but they also help prevent complications to the teeth and gums. “This is particularly important for people with sensitive gums as well as patients with worn teeth and thin and or missing enamel.” The Dr. Collins Perio Toothbrush stood out during testing for its no-frills design and solid cleaning capabilities. This toothbrush helps fight bad breath at its source with infused tea tree oil and magnolia bark, which minimizes bacteria growth on the bristles and in your mouth. Our tester found the toothbrush to be gentle on her gums while still delivering a deep clean, and she appreciated the slim, tapered bristles that were able to get into all the nooks and crannies of her mouth. Our tester recommends the Oral-B Pro Health All In One Soft Toothbrush for gentle cleaning action that still gets the job done.
When activated, the ultrasensitive pressure sensor alerts you with a beep that we found overly loud compared with alerts from the competition (fortunately, you can turn the pressure-sensing beeps off). The most expensive electric toothbrushes can cost 20 times as much as inexpensive ones. Over years of testing we’ve concluded that the most expensive models offer no meaningful health benefits over much more moderately priced ones. Manufacturers have blown up the high end with scientific-sounding “features” like cleaning modes and UV lights; nothing proves these extras work, let alone that they are necessary. All an electric toothbrush can really offer is automation of the brushing process by adding a timer and easing some of the physical labor, according to the researchers and dentists we spoke to. Some toothbrush heads are angled, which can help you reach the insides of your teeth better, especially those located in the insides of your lower and upper front teeth.
The built-in sensor offers real-time reminders so you’re applying the perfect amount of pressure in the right areas at all times. The best value brush will be the one that motivates you to establish and keep up with a consistent brushing routine. If that means the luxurious extras offered by a $200 brush do that job for you, then that brush has the best value. But in general, if you just want to get started with better dental hygiene, a great electric toothbrush doesn’t have to cost more than $40 or $50. Consider which features are most important to you, and weigh those when you consider which brush will offer you the best value.
I then used each brush twice on the dentures and recorded how much it lightened the visible build-up on the dentures. In addition, I used Fresh Knight Plaque Disclosing Tablets on my teeth to track how well a brush removed plaque. (These tablets are a chewable dental tool that turns plaque purple to help kids learn about brushing techniques). From a quality point of view, these are made to exacting oral b braun toothbrush standards to be precisely physically compatible with the mounting on the toothbrush handle and to be mechanically durable. From a dentistry viewpoint the bristles will be the correct stiffness and texture to meet the ‘dentist recommended’ standards that the toothbrush manufacturers claim. From a safety aspect, the plastics and other materials will be non-toxic and safe to put in your mouth.
Alternatively, you can opt for the second type, a “sonic” or “ultrasonic” brush. These have heads that vibrate very quickly, at frequencies that buff the tooth surface, break up plaque and force toothpaste through the gaps between your teeth and around the gum line. This makes them more effective at cleaning around and in between your teeth where plaque and tartar tend to build up. Ultrasonic toothbrushes are even faster, creating millions of sound waves per minute to push a special “nano bubble” of toothpaste into your teeth and gums, helping to clean and protect them with even greater efficiency. 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.