To find the best electric toothbrush, we put in almost 100 total hours of research, interviewing experts, evaluating every model on the market, and testing 12 toothbrushes ourselves in hundreds of trials at the bathroom sink.
How we picked and tested?
After sorting through the dental care research, which is littered with (unusable) clinical studies sponsored by the companies that make the toothbrushes being tested, we've learned that all you really need out of an electric toothbrush is a two-minute timer to make sure you brush your teeth for the right amount of time. Manufacturers have blown up the high end with scientific-sounding "features" like cleaning modes and UV lights; nothing proves these other features work, let alone that they are necessary (see The features you don't need). 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 professors and dentist we spoke to.
"Average folks brush 46 seconds. With timers people will go to at least the two minutes," said Dr. Joan Gluch, an adjunct associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania Dental School. "Clinically, we see patients do better with powered toothbrushes." Dr. Mark Wolff, a professor at NYU Dental School and chair of the Cariology and Comprehensive Care department, agreed: "It helps people that don't brush well," he said. "If you need the guidance, invest in the guidance."
To begin the search, we trawled the manufacturer websites of the highest-rated brands and looked at the recommendations of Consumer Reports and the Good Housekeeping Institute for toothbrush models as well as their replacement or substitution toothbrush heads, an important factor in choosing a best toothbrush.
Back in March 2010, Consumer Reports performed its own tests for plaque removal and concluded, "[T]he two priciest brushes removed 75 percent or more of plaque in our tests, on average." In the years following those tests, two of the top models have been discontinued and replaced by similar ones, and one has been recalled; as of May 2016, CR no longer tests toothbrushes at all. GHI's recommendations don't say much and do not explain whether expensive features are really necessary.
Aside from these older tests, we didn't find any independently conducted research that both draws the conclusion that one model or type is better than another and explains the process and results. And none of our experts differentiated between the plaque removal ability in any of the types or models of brushes available.
So we looked for, at minimum, brushes with a two-minute timer, but still wanted to test higher-end brushes to compare their usability against that of the simplest models. We eliminated brushes without rechargeable batteries because loose batteries are a hassle and a waste. We also eliminated models that were reviewed as loud or having either short battery life or a too-small range of compatible brush heads. If a brush was compatible with a wide range of brush heads, that was a small point in its favor.
Both Oral-B and Sonicare make extensive lines of brushes and don't exactly go to pains to make it clear what the difference is between all of them. 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. It wasn't.
We applied the same buying model to the Sonicare line and tried not to buy brushes that were differentiated only by their unnecessary features. We also bought one high-end brush, the DiamondClean, to assess if the cleaning experience was $120 better. It was not.
Once we understood the features of all the products, it was a matter of getting them in hand and seeing what it was like to hold them, charge them, use them, replace their heads, and have our brushing sessions timed and monitored. 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. We compared the brushes on all these usability points to arrive at our conclusion.
In our experience, all of these brushes, even the top-end ones, did the same thing—moved toothpaste around in your mouth. 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. But this is a distinction between different types of brushes made by different manufacturers, not expensive brushes versus cheap ones.
After sorting through the dental care research, which is littered with (unusable) clinical studies sponsored by the companies that make the toothbrushes being tested, we've learned that all you really need out of an electric toothbrush is a two-minute timer to make sure you brush your teeth for the right amount of time. Manufacturers have blown up the high end with scientific-sounding "features" like cleaning modes and UV lights; nothing proves these other features work, let alone that they are necessary (see The features you don't need). 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 professors and dentist we spoke to.
"Average folks brush 46 seconds. With timers people will go to at least the two minutes," said Dr. Joan Gluch, an adjunct associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania Dental School. "Clinically, we see patients do better with powered toothbrushes." Dr. Mark Wolff, a professor at NYU Dental School and chair of the Cariology and Comprehensive Care department, agreed: "It helps people that don't brush well," he said. "If you need the guidance, invest in the guidance."
To begin the search, we trawled the manufacturer websites of the highest-rated brands and looked at the recommendations of Consumer Reports and the Good Housekeeping Institute for toothbrush models as well as their replacement or substitution toothbrush heads, an important factor in choosing a best toothbrush.
Back in March 2010, Consumer Reports performed its own tests for plaque removal and concluded, "[T]he two priciest brushes removed 75 percent or more of plaque in our tests, on average." In the years following those tests, two of the top models have been discontinued and replaced by similar ones, and one has been recalled; as of May 2016, CR no longer tests toothbrushes at all. GHI's recommendations don't say much and do not explain whether expensive features are really necessary.
Aside from these older tests, we didn't find any independently conducted research that both draws the conclusion that one model or type is better than another and explains the process and results. And none of our experts differentiated between the plaque removal ability in any of the types or models of brushes available.
So we looked for, at minimum, brushes with a two-minute timer, but still wanted to test higher-end brushes to compare their usability against that of the simplest models. We eliminated brushes without rechargeable batteries because loose batteries are a hassle and a waste. We also eliminated models that were reviewed as loud or having either short battery life or a too-small range of compatible brush heads. If a brush was compatible with a wide range of brush heads, that was a small point in its favor.
Both Oral-B and Sonicare make extensive lines of brushes and don't exactly go to pains to make it clear what the difference is between all of them. 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. It wasn't.
We applied the same buying model to the Sonicare line and tried not to buy brushes that were differentiated only by their unnecessary features. We also bought one high-end brush, the DiamondClean, to assess if the cleaning experience was $120 better. It was not.
Once we understood the features of all the products, it was a matter of getting them in hand and seeing what it was like to hold them, charge them, use them, replace their heads, and have our brushing sessions timed and monitored. 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. We compared the brushes on all these usability points to arrive at our conclusion.
In our experience, all of these brushes, even the top-end ones, did the same thing—moved toothpaste around in your mouth. 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. But this is a distinction between different types of brushes made by different manufacturers, not expensive brushes versus cheap ones.