A review of the Sonicare Elite Toothbrush

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A review of the Sonicare Elite Toothbrush

Summary: $100 is a lot for a toothbrush, especially since you can't really try it out first. But after noticing both my mom, my dad, my sister, and my brother-in-law used Sonicare toothbrushes, I bought one for myself, and my teeth have never felt cleaner.

Article created: Aug 27, 2007
Article by: Jeremiah Faith

A few years ago, I remember my sister telling me that her husband wanted a fancy hundred-dollar Sonicare toothbrush. His teeth were having bad luck with the dentist, and he thought this new fangled sonic wonder from Philips was going to keep the cavities away. My sister didn't seem too keen on this expensive toothbrush, so I was surprised when I went on a family beach trip this summer and found my parents had a Sonicare toothbrush. My sister and brother-in-law arrived a couple days later, and they also had a Sonicare toothbrush.

Seeing that my family, including my reluctant sister, had brought over $250 dollars worth of dental gear on vacation, I asked them what was going on. My sister said with the Sonicare, "your teeth feel like you just them cleaned at the dentist". We get along pretty good in my family, but we're not close enough to try out each other's toothbrushes. So I decided hop on the bandwagon and buy my own Sonicare toothbrush when I got back home to Boston.

Buying the toothbrush

Click image for larger

When I got back to Boston, I did a little additional research reading Amazon reviews, and I decided that I would get the Elite series. The Elite series is more expensive, but has an angled head, which is supposed to be easier to move around your mouth. One important lesson I learned from my family, is that the brush itself is easily detachable (allowing you to replace it every six months). At Target, I paid around $125 for the toothbrush plus an extra $25 for the extra brush, so that my girlfriend and I could both use the fancy toothbrush without spending $125 each. I bought a Sonicare Elite 7300 model. The toothbrush came with a travel case and a holder for two brushes (see the picture on the right).

First impressions

Since I was going to be sticking a vibrating electronic device inside my mouth, I gave the manual a read before I used the toothbrush; the manual was fairly good at explaining what to expect and how to work the toothbrush. The Sonicare only has one important button, the brush my teeth now button (it's the green one in the picture to the right). Just push the button and the Sonicare will start humming.

The manual provides two beginner's warnings: 1) don't start the toothbrush unless it is in your mouth otherwise it will shoot toothpaste everywhere; 2) at the beginning, the ultrafast vibrations of the toothbrush might tickle a little. They should add a third beginner's warning: 3) when it starts to tickle, be sure to turn the toothbrush off if you need to take it out of your mouth to laugh. Alas, the first time I tried it, the machine tickled me enough to laugh, whereupon I pulled the toothbrush out of my mouth, and the super-vibrations shot toothpaste all over my bathroom mirror. I also bumped my teeth a couple times with the vibrating plastic handle, because I wasn't good at maneuvering the vibrating toothbrush around my mouth yet.

After the first attempt, I wasn't sure the Sonicare was right for me. I didn't like being tickled, and I really didn't like the slightly jarring feeling of bumping the vibrating brush handle on my teeth. However, my teeth did feel pretty darn clean and I'd dropped $125 on the toothbrush, so I decided to keep using it.

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