Electric toothbrushes review and compare

An electric toothbrush can be a good option for a sometimes tedious chore.
 
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03.Product profiles

Profiles - what to buy

Braun Oral-B Professional Care 8500 (A)

Professional care 8500Price $150

Trialist comments

  • “The timers are great – means I don’t have to concentrate when brushing.”
  • “Teeth felt cleaner, cleaning feels a little more in depth.”
  • “It was a bit too strong so couldn’t brush for long.”

 (A) Discontinued, but may still be available in some stores.

Braun Oral-B Professional Care 9500 Triumph (with Smart Guide*)

Professional care 9500Price $200

Trialist comments

  • “My teeth feel cleaner than they ever have.”
  • “A good shape for a comfortable grip.”
  • “I love this toothbrush; it has an interactive timer that smiles when you complete the cycle.”
  • “Kept pressing the options button rather than On/Off.”
  • *The smart guide is a wireless screen that shows when you have finished cleaning for the dentist-recommended minimum of two minutes and warns you when you brush too hard.

Braun Oral-B Vitality Precision Clean

VitalityPrice $40

Trialist comments

  • “Great for cleaning teeth in a fast and effective way.”
  • “Cleaned teeth very thoroughly. Massaged gums.”
  • “A really good brush – the thing that would make it excellent would be a 30-second timer.”
  • “Small circular head requires the brush to be moved around more, but is better for access to back teeth.”

Profiles - the rest 

Braun Oral-B Professional Care 5000

Braun Oral-B Professional Care 5000 Price $100

Trialist comments

  • “I felt it did a better job than my standard manual brush, was easy to use and comfortable.”
  • “It can make your gums feel a little tender the first couple of times you use it.”
  • “Would be really good if it had a 30-second timer and a container to store brush heads.”
  • “The vibrations were rather strong, but this meant it cleaned thoroughly.”

Colgate Actibrush Multi-Action

Actibrush

Price $16

Trialist comments

  • “Sometimes the smaller head got in the way.”
  • “Smaller head/brush preferred. Good that it could be taken in the shower.”
  • “Sometimes hit On/Off switch while brushing.”
  • “With two moving parts, I didn’t quite know which one to focus on.”
  • “It was okay. Good for battery operated.”

Colgate Motion

Motion

Price $11

Trialist comments

  • “The powered head is too weak – hardly noticeable when in use.”
  • “Very quiet, but cleaning wasn’t as good as others.”
  • “Rotations slowed on back of teeth.”
  • “The head was too big and kept hitting my teeth.”
  • The Colgate Motion no longer has brush heads available, so if you decide on this toothbrush, you’ll need to replace the heads with ones from the Colgate Actibrush Multi-Action.

Spinbrush Pro-Clean

Spin brushPrice $14

Trialist comments

  • “It has two moving heads which tend to work well.”
  • “Average cleaning and too noisy.”
  • “The slide button was easier than a button.”
  • “It was lacking in power – I didn’t feel the brush movement was doing much. Too hard to manoeuver.”

Abode QSQ-22101

Abode

Price $5

Trialist comments

  • “Vibrations stopped with any sort of pressure so it just didn’t clean.”
  • “Complete waste of batteries. Spun around and did nothing, felt like I had to clean my teeth with another brush after I’d finished.”
  • “It was very difficult to start – I had to press using my thumb nail very hard.”
  • “Lacking power, even sounds like it’s on its way out! Very poor.”
  • “I like the head – easy to reach difficult places.”

Braun Oral-B CrossAction Power Max

Braun Oral-B CrossAction Power MaxPrice $26

Trialist comments

  • “It was extremely noisy.”
  • “The double brush head was quite large and very difficult to get into the back of the mouth.”
  • “Didn’t like the shape of the handle. Out of the charger it wouldn’t stand up.”
  • “Pretty good generally, but sounded too noisy, like an electric razor.”
  • “Neither great nor poor, whilst it felt good in the hand, it didn’t feel as though it did much. What’s with the horrible colour?”
 

 
 

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