Its round head oscillates around teeth to clean surfaces just as well as name-brand versions, and its price-per-brush is one of the lowest in the category. There are plenty of free apps that can be used with non-smart brushes, powered or manual, to help you time and track your tooth brushing. For optimal results, dentists recommend changing your brush head every 3 months.
At least online, the other styles of Kids brush heads seem difficult to find. Some user postings that we read mentioned how this head’s longer-length bristles at the tip of the brush were very much too their liking. Others mentioned that they liked using a full-sized head (one similar in size to a manual toothbrush) rather than a small rotary one. Oral-B states that this head is especially good at cleaning along the gum line (evidently more effective than the CrossAction on this point).
From the best mouthwash to facial toner, we can help you find what works for your needs. We found that the brush head location tracking wasn’t accurate enough to give us much useful information. The app, which divides the mouth into six areas, could reliably tell if a tester was neglecting either the front or back of her teeth, but not if she was missing one specific tooth. The app also expects you to brush the parts of your mouth in a specific order, and if a tester moved the brush to an area of her mouth where the app didn’t expect it to be, it didn’t pick up on that.
Colgate’s Hum is a lower-cost smart toothbrush with uniquely designed brush heads and the option of a rechargeable or replaceable battery-operated handle. It is streamlined and beautiful, with a slimmer handle than both our picks and most other smart brushes (the Quip Smart excluded). Like our top pick, the Hum has quadrant pacing and does not automatically shut off at the two-minute mark. Because the back of this sonic toothbrush’s head oral b braun toothbrush is a soft material, it doesn’t produce the same rattling effect as the hard plastic backs of other brush heads when it comes in contact with your teeth. That alone may be worth the increased price for some people (replacement brush heads, specific to this device, cost roughly $5 apiece in the most economical pack). In our experience, the Hum’s vibrations aren’t as strong as the Philips Sonicare 4100’s and not as weak as the Quip’s.
We were surprised to read in some online reviews that some (few) users felt that the Precision Clean’s bristles were too firm for their liking. All Quip brushes bought directly through the company’s website are warrantied against manufacturing defects for a year (or longer if you maintain a subscription for any refills). Cleaning modes generally don’t matter, according to experts we spoke to and research we’ve seen.
All you really need out of an electric toothbrush is a powerful motor and a two-minute timer to make sure you brush your teeth for the right amount of time. Per American Dental Association recommendations, the only thing you need to brush your teeth effectively is a toothbrush—manual or electric—that you use properly and the fluoride-containing toothpaste of your choice. As mentioned above, iO Series toothbrush owners only have two brush head options, the Ultimate Clean and the Gentle Care.
You can use this toothbrush without ever connecting to the app, which, like others, tracks brushing data. The Burst is a sleek sonic toothbrush with quadrant pacing that you may have seen advertised on Instagram. In our testing, the battery lasted more than four weeks on a single charge with twice-daily brushing.
And a factor that makes owning an iO Series brush a comparatively expensive proposition. In terms of brushing (plaque removing) effectiveness, just looking at this brush head raises questions. For example, its bristle configuration looks somewhat sparse as compared to the heads we’ve already discussed.