A review of the Sonicare Elite Toothbrush (page 2 of 2)

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A review of the Sonicare Elite Toothbrush

(page 2 of 2)

After you get used to it

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The Sonicare is one great toothbrush once you get used to it. Within a couple days, the vibration of the brush no longer tickled me. My teeth have never felt cleaner. You know that sorta slippery feeling you have after you get your teeth cleaned at the dentist? After a week with the Sonicare, you're teeth will feel like that every day. I can see why my family brought theirs' on vacation, it's a little addictive. I went camping at Martha's Vineyard a week after I bought the brush, and my teeth were dissatisfied the entire trip. I still don't plan to bring mine on vacation though, as my hand operated toothbrush is more reliable when there is no electricity, and the old fashioned toothbrush is less expensive if I leave it in a hotel room by mistake.

How it works

I think the main reason the Sonicare toothbrush works so well is that it helps make sure you brush your teeth for the dentist recommended time of 2 minutes. The Sonicare manual suggests you clean your teeth in four sections (front right, front left, rear right, rear left). The toothbrush beeps and briefly pauses every 30 seconds to let you know to switch sections. In addition to improved brushing discipline, the Sonicare brush provides much faster bristle action than older toothbrushes (electronic included). Old fashioned, move your arm real fast, brushing results in about 300 brush strokes per minute. The Sonicare toothbrush provides around 40,000 brush strokes per minute. These two features seemed to make a world of difference.

What I don't like

Since I share my Sonicare brush with my girlfriend, the toothbrush gets twice the work. Despite this I still think the battery runs down pretty quick; we get about five days of brushing out of a full charge. I've also read that the battery tends to stop working after around two years of use, since I've only had my brush for a couple months, I can't comment on that (except to say I hope mine lasts longer than two years!).

As far as brushing goes, the tickling goes away after a week or so. And although you get better at maneuvering the brush over time, you still will bump the vibrating plastic toothbrush handle on your mouth everyone in awhile. Unlike the tickling, I don't seem to be getting used to having my teeth vibrated. It's not painfully, just annoying. One final caveat I have with the brush is that it's not the best brush for a quicky brush. I like to quickly brush my teeth after meals. With the Sonicare, you feel more obligated to brush the full two minutes, so it's hard to be fast (though you can stop the brushing at anytime by pressing the start/stop button).

Final thoughts

Yes, a hundred bucks is a lot of money to spend on a toothbrush. But then again, I only have one set of teeth. To me the toothbrush has been well worth the money. I no longer have to wait six months for my next teeth cleaning at the dentist to have slippery smooth, clean teeth. As long as this brush lasts a year or two, I'll certainly buy another Sonicare toothbrush when my current Sonicare breaks.

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