Take the guesswork out of your brushing routine with a smart timer that notifies you when to switch to a different area of the mouth, and automatically turns off after 2 minutes when the brushing cycle is complete. Dr. Harris says that more expensive does not necessarily mean better, but believes that ultimately you get what you pay for. He notes from personal experience that some inexpensive brushes vibrate and make noise but don’t necessarily do a good job of cleaning the 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.
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.
We included electric toothbrushes recommended by dentists and Select staffers. Using an electric toothbrush the same way that you use a manual toothbrush — brushing as fast or as hard — can potentially lead to issues like gum recession, which can impact underlying tooth structure, experts said. Most electric toothbrushes are designed to do oral b genius toothbrush the scrubbing for you, so let them. The Oral-B Smart series includes the Smart 3000, which connects wirelessly to Oral-B’s app to track how often and how long you brush (and whether you tend to press too hard). The less expensive Smart 1500 offers similar features, such as a lighted pressure sensor, but it does not connect to an app.
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.