Can you recommend a good affordable Electric Toothbrush?

prettyandfluffy

Grumpy_chap said:

Oral B seems well recommended on this thread.
I've never had an electric toothbrush but saw the Dentist last week, who recommended I use an electric toothbrush and suggested the Philips Sonicare 7900 because of the gum care settings.  That is £90, even with Black Friday pricing.
Is the Oral B linked by @Emmia just as good?  That is 1/3rd the price and also seems to have the gum care setting.

I have had 2 Sonicare and both stopped working just after the warranty ran out.  They are at the pricier end of the market, too.

Emmia

Grumpy_chap said:

Oral B seems well recommended on this thread.
I've never had an electric toothbrush but saw the Dentist last week, who recommended I use an electric toothbrush and suggested the Philips Sonicare 7900 because of the gum care settings.  That is £90, even with Black Friday pricing.
Is the Oral B linked by @Emmia just as good?  That is 1/3rd the price and also seems to have the gum care setting.

My understanding is the Sonicare and standard Oral B brushes work differently, Sonicare relies on sonic vibrations and the standard Oral B on the brush action (I think the IO is more like the Sonicare).

I've been using electric brushes since my late teens, when I bought a super cheap (basic) Oral B for £10 in Boots. Since then I've bought the top of the range ones with many functions (most of which I didn't really use) but the last couple have been the mid priced ones.

Always Oral B, the Sonicare have always been more than I'm willing to pay.

I find the brush handles themselves normally last for 6-7 years before the battery fails to last for much more than the 2 minute brush, so you need to charge them every time they're used (the LED on the pressure sensor also usually dies about then too!).  That's when I look for offers and replace it.

When I'm travelling, I use a manual brush as I don't want to accidentally leave my electric brush behind, or cart around a charger.

Honeylife

MSE_Billy said:

Hi all,

My electric toothbrush is on its way out and needs replacing, but there are now so many options it's impossible to get my head around.

I don't really want to spend more than £50 on a new one (ideally even less!) and hopefully might get something in the sales.

Can you recommend anything?

Thanks

V happy with Braun Oral B Pro 1 680 bought for £27.00 via eBay so also collected nectar points 

Toothsmith

Emmia said:

My understanding is the Sonicare and standard Oral B brushes work differently, Sonicare relies on sonic vibrations and the standard Oral B on the brush action (I think the IO is more like the Sonicare).

Yes - Sonicare brushes are different, and the action hasn't been shown to be as effective as the Oral B in proper trials. But, they're ok, if expensive.

The iO isn't a sonic brush. It's action is a probably slightly better action than the standard Oral B electric brushes, but I am not aware that any proper studies have confirmed that. They have a different head to the standard Oral B brush, and aren't compatible with the heads for those - which would be a pain if you swapped to one with some standard heads still to use up!

I was given one of the top end iOs a couple of years ago (One of the £450 ones! - there are a few perks of the job!) I must say I was impressed with it. The extra functions & gadgets you get with it are good to use and do help your toothbrushing technique. (A motion sensor within it can accurately map to an app where you are brushing, and it can be surprising when you see it, that your brushing is far from evenly distributed around your mouth - and those areas your dentist is always telling you you're missing you actually ARE missing, even though you think you're doing it well!) That app can really help you get a good even brush around the places you should be getting.

The cheaper iO brushes don't come with as much connectivity - but I just checked Amazon and found this 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Oral-B-Toothbrush-Artificial-Intelligence-Christmas/dp/B0B18V2JRT/ref=sxin_17_sbv_search_btf?content-id=amzn1.sym.4a081495-599f-475e-8490-3be124690531:amzn1.sym.4a081495-599f-475e-8490-3be124690531&crid=2QCYFRU06G539&cv_ct_cx=iO+brushes&keywords=iO+brushes&pd_rd_i=B0B18V2JRT&pd_rd_r=26ea4911-9a41-4391-93b1-300adab66c04&pd_rd_w=dHpNz&pd_rd_wg=innfL&pf_rd_p=4a081495-599f-475e-8490-3be124690531&pf_rd_r=34R7864PRS565MGANW0M&qid=1701079746&sbo=RZvfv//HxDF+O5021pAnSA==&sprefix=io+brushes,aps,74&sr=1-1-9131241a-a358-4619-a7b8-0f5a65d91d81

This strikes me as a pretty good deal. It is a very good brush, but do make sure you only use the proper Oral B heads for it.

If you can't run to that though, or get it as a Xmas present from someone - then the one linked to at the start of the thread is still perfectly decent

TattySaver12

I have a Suri toothbrush, they currently have a Black Friday deal with 25% off, you can also get an extra 10 off using Katy54321.

they are a corp B company and their premise is this is the only brush you’ll ever need - it’s designed to be repaired.  I’ve even seen people ask about getting a Suri brush as they are not happy with theirs and their advice is to use the brush they have until it breaks and then buy their brush.

I’ve been using for 6 months and really can’t recommend it highly enough.  The charge lasts for over a month, it’s really well designed, I opted for the case which has an uv cleaning function - you put in case and it does a one minute uv light clean

Toothsmith

TattySaver12 said:

I have a Suri toothbrush, they currently have a Black Friday deal with 25% off, you can also get an extra 10 off using Katy54321.

I have quite mixed feelings on this brush.

Sustainability in dentistry is a really complex thing, and the patient has to play their part in the overall picture. 

The biggest carbon cost of the whole process is patients travelling to and from the surgery - so the biggest improvement that can be made to dentistry's carbon footprint is having patients needing to come to us for less visits. That means doing your part at home. Brushing using the most effective means you can in accordance with instructions given to you by your dental care team, and having a sensible diet that reduces decay risk. If you're doing the job well yourself, then the need to travel to and from your dental practice will be kept to a minimum. (And also not having 'silly' cosmetic procedures or over complex work that is harder to look after.)

Each time you do visit, and each time you need any treatment, there will be a whole host of single use disposables that are legally required to be used for cross infection control purposes. Whether every single one is necessary, or could have a reusable alternative, is very much a debate we are having within the profession - but until actual laws and legislation is changed - we are stuck with what we have.

People who need lots of dental visits due to an unstable, deteriorating dental health are the ones with the very highest 'dental' environmental impact. 

I have a patient who recently a Suri brush. His toothbrushing was great before he got it - he'd used an Oral B before. His toothbrushing continues to look great after having it for a few months. He's good at toothbrushing!

If someone changes from a manual toothbrush to one of these - then you're probably likely to see an improvement too, as electrics are generally better than manual. The improvements are likely to be better with the more conventional Oral B one though, and if that cuts down the number of dental visits you're likely to need going forwards, then overall, that would reduce you environmental impact more than changing to the Suri toothbrush.

A final point on the Suri is that whatever it claims about it's sustainability and reparability, it is a fairly recent startup company. It can only honour these promises if it is around for a long time. For that, it has to convince dentists and hygienists that it is an effective toothbrush through proper studies. All we've seen at the moment are consumer reviews. 

If the studies are done and come through as good, then great. If they don't - then I'll continue to suggest the toothbrushes with a bit more evidence behind them that could reduce a patient's environmental impact by keeping their treatment needs down.

molerat

RichardInDorset said:

Oral B every time. You can find new toothbrush heads from 43p each on Amazon, they maybe soft but they will last for about a month and a half.

At that price they will be the cheap Chinese knock offs.  Tried them once, never again, had one fall apart in my mouth.  Good price for the genuine article is around £1.60 each for the standard heads. 

Mnoee

I was considering getting a midrange oral b iO brush to replace my old standard oral b but decided to just go with the oral b 3500 already mentioned when I saw the price of replacement iO heads - over a fiver each, even bulk buying on offer. That's just too expensive for me! Something to be aware of when looking at that range. 

Nile

I saw this Oral B Pro 570 toothbrush in a B&M store today - £19.99.

The toothbrush has a light indicator to show when the battery needs charging and is supplied with 2 brush heads. The charging unit has a 2 pin plug, so you'll need to plug into either a shaver point in your bathroom or use an adaptor in another room with an electrical socket. 

https://www.bmstores.co.uk/products/oral-b-pro-570-cross-action-electric-toothbrush-378252

Grumpy_chap

Toothsmith said:

Sustainability in dentistry is a really complex thing, and the patient has to play their part in the overall picture. 

The biggest carbon cost of the whole process is patients travelling to and from the surgery - so the biggest improvement that can be made to dentistry's carbon footprint is having patients needing to come to us for less visits. That means doing your part at home. Brushing using the most effective means you can in accordance with instructions given to you by your dental care team, and having a sensible diet that reduces decay risk. If you're doing the job well yourself, then the need to travel to and from your dental practice will be kept to a minimum. (And also not having 'silly' cosmetic procedures or over complex work that is harder to look after.)

Santa very generously delivered me a Philips Sonicare 7900

The post from @Toothsmith has made be feel good too - I work in an area where we assess full life-cycle impact of various activities. One piece of work I did was to look at reducing water consumption in the life-cycle of toothpaste and we found that by far the highest use of water was at the user's tap and the biggest "bang-for-buck" impact the manufacturer could have was an advertising campaign messaging to turn the tap off while brushing.

I am pleased to say that, from COVID-times onward, I reduced the carbon footprint of travelling to the dentist as I realised it is near so I can run rather than drive - a revelation because running was the only time we were allowed out of the house - I have carried on the same approach.