If you have a small mouth, opt for a compact head. Tracy Vence is a supervising editor overseeing Wirecutters health, fitness, personal care, and adult coverage. Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. Like the Pro 1000, the ProtectiveClean 4100 is not trumped up with unproven features, and it includes everything you need in an electric toothbrush. Whitening Brush Heads: Several Oral-B brush heads are designed to help you whiten your teeth by removing surface stains without damaging your enamel. The features you dont need (what you get if you spend more), Runner-up: Philips Sonicare ProtectiveClean 4100, still dont offer enough features for the added cost, Why We Dont Recommend Smart Toothbrushes, Philips Sonicare FlexCare Platinum Connected, this capability and the accompanying app unnecessary, Greater Goodss Sonic Electric Toothbrush, Waterpik Sonic Toothbrush Sensonic Professional Plus (SR-3000), Oral-B Healthy Clean + Pro White Precision 4000, Colgate 360 Total Advanced Floss-Tip Sonic, blog post on these battery-powered toothbrushes. Respondents also said it was the most comfortable frequency. There are plenty of free appsincluding Oral-Bs for Android and iOSthat can be used with non-smart brushes, powered or manual, to help you time and track your toothbrushing, remind you to clean your tongue and floss, and so on. It also otherwise did not outshine our picks in terms of user experience. We can't wait to share upcoming news and special offers for Oral-B. Other brands have toothbrushes that move faster, slower, and at roughly the same speed as this. We found only one small, old, imperfect study that compared brushes with 2,100, 2,500, and 3,500 brushstrokes per minute and found that the middle frequency was the most effective at removing plaque (at most 1.5 times better than the other frequencies and yielded about 50 percent fewer plaque sites than the highest frequency). One thing worth pointing out about electric toothbrushes is that they are not cheaper in the long run. And the brush head location tracking was, in our limited experience with the device, accurate. We also recently tested the revamped version of the Goby, and found that it became especially hot during charging. The Waterpik Sonic Toothbrush Sensonic Professional Plus (SR-3000) has a bulky base with grippy rubber panels, a single button, and smaller range of heads than Oral-B or Philips. gentler clean for teeth and gums. Although the stylish design (of the more expensive metal model) and the quiet operation are both impressive, we found the Quip toothbrushs vibrations to be weak. The Oral-B Genius X, like the Genius 8000, has extraneous cleaning modes and can connect to your phone. learn about different types of brush heads. And though heads are about half the price of those that accompany our top pick, I found myself needing to replace them in about half the time (the bristles got smashed down), virtually negating the long-term savings for this brush. If you find reviewing your basic brushing performance motivational, and would rather not need an app or pen and paper handy each time you brush, consider the Pro 3000 Smart Series. The Sonic Fusion SF-01s water-flosser nozzle is built into the toothbrush head. Previously she was a news editor for science magazines. We found the tracking spotty; the app counted some unbrushed teeth as clean.. It connects wirelessly to an app that tracks your brushing duration and brush head location within your mouth, among other things. However, the replacement heads come in only one style. Sensitive Mode like the
The DiamondClean has five cleaning modes (four too many) that you must manually cycle through if you need to turn the brush off before reaching two minutes. Sign up for news, product updates & special offers. Dr. Lopez-Howell pointed to The Childrens Oral Health campaigns 2min2x website, produced in collaboration with the Ad Council, which offers a series of two-minute videos kids can watch while brushing. In our experience, all of these brushes, even the top-end ones, did the same thingmoved toothpaste around in your mouth. Relative effectiveness of various alternating frequencies of a power toothbrush. The replacement brush heads for the ProtectiveClean 4100 are slightly more expensive at $27 for three ($9 each); the Oral-Bs replacement heads can be as cheap as $5 to $6 each, making the Oral-Bs expenses a little lower in the long run. It has so far survived our dunk and drop tests, plus more than three months of twice-daily use. Thank you for joining our mailing list. And some adults even prefer youth or child-sized toothbrushes because they find them easier to use for brushing behind the back teeth. Like our picks and the Vibe, these Fairywill brushes have earned the ADA Seal. We briefly tested the iO at the January 2020 Consumer Electronics Show. A company spokesperson confirmed that the earned heads are indeed free; no shipping or handling costs are associated with this offer. In promotional materials, the companies claim their devices can simultaneously clean all of a persons teeth in mere seconds. Electric toothbrushes cost about 10 times as much as a 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. In its promotional materials, Oclean promises that people who use the app to maintain good brushing habits are eligible to receive free replacement brush heads in the mail every three months for the life of the brush, which is covered by a two-year warranty. It was not. Like the AutoBrush Kids, the Willo was disappointing. The additional cleaning modes are extraneous, so theres no reason to pay for them. Colgates Hum is a lower-cost smart toothbrush with uniquely designed brush heads and the option of a rechargeable or replaceable battery-operated handle. 2022 Wirecutter, Inc., A New York Times Company. Best of all, youre not getting overcharged for features like digital monitors, travel cases, or inductive chargersnone of which will actually get your teeth any cleaner than the Pro 1000 can. Its been a couple years since the first app-connected, or smart, electric toothbrushes became available, but they still dont offer enough features for the added cost for us to recommend them for most people. If you cant find the Oral-B Pro 1000, or if you prefer a quieter brush, we recommend the Philips Sonicare ProtectiveClean 4100. Nearly every electric toothbrush weve tested requires rinsing and/or wiping down between each use. We scoured picks throughout our site to find 50 of the most useful things under $50, all of them Wirecutter-tested and Wirecutter-approved. Oral-B iO Gentle Care Brush Head is also a great go-to when it comes ensuring a
This element, though a nice option, isnt strictly necessary unless you like that style of brushing or your dentist has noticed that you struggle with brushing evenness. The Burst is a sleek toothbrush with quadrant pacing that you may have seen advertised on Instagram. Electric toothbrushes come in different sizes, too. Investing $50 into the Pro 1000 gets you access to the same set of brush heads as buying the $150 Oral-B Black 7000 model (with the exception of a couple of less widely available models). As for sonic cleaning, different cleaning modes, or pressure sensors, experts tell us they are not necessary. gums from overbrushing. Most of Philips Sonicares brush heads are oblong with soft bristles and lack options for additional structural elements, like rubber flaps or polishing cups, so you get fewer options than you do with Oral-B. Assuming you change the brush head every three months, and the brush handle lasts at least two years, the annual cost would be $18.50 for the first two years. The one-button simplicity is a great featurethere are no useless cleaning modes. The
Factoring in shipping costs, these replacement heads are among the most expensive weve considered, by far (a definite dealbreaker, in our opinion). The sturdy Waterpik Ion is the one wed get. The handle itself is among the lightest and most streamlined weve tested, featuring a single on-off button (Colgate doesnt offer superfluous cleaning modes). Her latest picture book, The Real Santa, follows a determined little Black boy's journey to discover what the jolly icon truly looks like. The silicone mouthguard had a strange aftertaste, even after multiple washings, and did not adequately remove plaque or food specks from teeth. To stress-test them, we also dropped our picks onto a tile floor from chest height to test for durability and submerged them in water while they were running for a full two-minute brushing cycle to test for water resistance. The brush itself offers six cleaning modesfive more than neededand quadrant pacing, plus optional USB charging. Overall, we found the oscillating-format Oral-B toothbrushes to be louder and more sonically grating than the vibrating format of the Philips Sonicare brushes we tested. Truthfully, at the end of the day, for pennies and minutesyou dont need all of these more costly brushesyou can choose oral health, Dr. Lopez-Howell said. If you find reviewing your basic brushing performance motivational, and would rather not need an app or pen and paper handy each time you brush, consider the Pro 3000 Smart Series. This is typical for a product in this price range and category. However, the company has a lower profile, and the warranty lasts only one year (compared with Philips Sonicare and Oral-Bs two years), so if you need support you may be left wanting. Predictably, brushing with it feels high tech: The onboard digital display smiles at you. Toothbrushes that identify as sonic like Philips and Waterpik models tend to be quieter and have a vibration-like movement, and oscillating brushes are louder. In our twice-daily brushing test, the Shyns battery lasted 3 weeks. Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing to save people time, energy and money when making buying decisions. After more than 100 total hours of research, interviewing experts, evaluating nearly every model available, and testing 36 toothbrushes ourselves in hundreds of trials at the bathroom sink, weve found that the Oral-B Pro 1000 is the best electric toothbrush for most people. Oral-B toothbrushes have been modeled based on research into the five different ways that people hold their toothbrush while brushing. If comfort is important, try a toothbrush with a non-slip grip, which makes it easy to use even if wet. It comes in four colors and, like most in this category, has a single brush-head style and an onboard two-minute quadrant timer. Although you can adjust the intensity of the brushs vibrations in each of the modes, in practice we found no appreciable differences between the intensity levels; they felt the same. After seeing it splashed around on social mediaand even on Times 2020 best invention listwe also tested the Willo. The Oral-B Pro 1000 brush comes with a minimal charging pedestal that simply requires dropping the brush onto a peg.

If you travel with an electric toothbrush, youll appreciate the included case, which can charge the brush handle and a phone. But to earn the brush heads, you need to check in to the app every day and achieve a brushing score of 50 or above each time you use it. *At the time of publishing, the price was $40. The Pro 1000 has comfortable-feeling oscillating bristles, a simple one-button interface, and a battery that lasted 11 days with twice-daily use in our tests. These typically come with several brush heads, in addition to a charging travel case, and even more cleaning modes. When you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Greater Goodss Sonic Electric Toothbrush costs less than any brush weve considered so far. The Conair Opti-Cleanis cheap for a rechargeable brush, but it did not survive a dunk in the water. We dont recommend mouthguard-style brushes for kids or adults. In our testing, the battery lasted more than four weeks on a single charge with twice-daily brushing. Smart capabilities aside, the brush itself, like our pick, is a reliable tool. Using the right toothbrush can make your daily oral care routine more enjoyableand more effective. Spend more than $30 or so, and you typically get a quadrant timer. AquaSonic currently sells Vibe-compatible replacement heads only in a two-pack that costs $10 ($5 apiece, which is more expensive than Oral-B and Philips Sonicare heads bought in more-economical packs). Although the Oral-B 7000 costs more than the Oral-B 1000 because of added, unnecessary features, such as additional cleaning modes, we chose to test it to see if the user experience was better. One way to be sure that you have the best toothbrush for your needs is to
Thats the main benefit of having an electric toothbrush. Both Oral-B and Philips Sonicare make extensive lines of brushes and dont exactly go to pains to make it clear what the difference is between all of them. The Oral-B Genius 8000 can track the brushs position in your mouth, thanks to on-board location sensors and access to your phones front-facing camera. We also bought one high-end brush, the DiamondClean, to assess if the cleaning experience was better. Philips Sonicares 9900 Prestige, new in 2021, also connects to your phoneto track your brushing habitsand has extraneous cleaning modes. In addition to a quick rinse and wipe between uses, you may find it worthwhile to periodically remove the brush head to clean this junction. CA Privacy. We could not find any independent studies comparing toothbrush models or brands, and all the ones tested for the fluid dynamics aspect are Sonicare brushes, which are all 31,000 movements-per-minute brushes. If you need the guidance, invest in the guidance.. The base is very heavy, with large rubber panels in black and silver plastic, and weighted toward the bottom, with the same light-up pressure sensor as the 4000 model.