If manual toothbrushes just aren’t cutting it anymore and you’re ready to make a change, sonic toothbrushes offer significant advantages. These devices use high vibrations to provide a deep clean and promote overall dental health.
The best sonic toothbrushes offer multiple distinct brushing modes, so you can choose what your teeth need on a daily basis. Additionally, most sonic brushes include timers to tell you when it’s time to move on to another area in your mouth and alert you when you’ve reached that all-important two-minute mark. Read on for our selection of the best sonic toothbrushes.
— Best Overall: AquaSonic Ultra Whitening Toothbrush
— Best Smart: Philips Sonicare Protective Clean 5300
— Best for Travel: hum by Colgate Electric Toothbrush
— Best for Kids: BURSTkids Electric Toothbrush
— Best Budget: Teethory Electric Toothbrush for Adults
How We Picked the Best Sonic Toothbrushes
For an authoritative comparison of sonic toothbrushes, we considered 15 products by 12 companies. In order to decide which made the cut, we weighed brush features like number of modes, vibrations per minute, and battery life. We also looked for anything extra that might distinguish a particular brush from the competition.
Mode: Everyone has different dental needs, and that means that the modes a brush offers are important. The models we selected have anywhere from two to five cleaning modes. Typically, brushes include a soft and standard mode, anything with more features, such a whitening and gum care, got extra points.
Vibrations Per Minute: We wanted to ensure that our selections would be powerful enough for a deep clean, yet gentle enough to feel good on the gums. So we factored bristles and toothbrush shapes along with the modes. Most models start at 30,000 VPM, while one of our selections achieves a whopping 62,000 VPM.
Battery Life: Battery life is important. We wanted to see that a toothbrush can hold a charge for a significant amount of time.
Special Features: Special features such as advanced technologies, or the ability to connect an app to your smartphone to track brushing, were things we considered bonuses when making our final choices.
The Best Sonic Toothbrushes: Reviews & Recommendations
Best Overall: AquaSonic Ultra Whitening Toothbrush
Why It Made The Cut: Slim and lightweight, this toothbrush provides a powerful yet gentle clean with 40,000 vibrations per minute.
Specs:
— Vibrations Per Minute: 40,000
— Modes: Clean, soft, gum care, whitening
— Colors: Black
Pros:
— Four distinct brushing modes
— Includes eight DuPont-engineered brush heads and bristles
— Fast wireless charging
Cons:
— Can be intense for sensitive teeth
The AquaSonic Ultra Whitening Toothbrush offers four distinct brushing modes so you can customize your experience depending on your preferences or dental needs. Among the modes is one for enhanced whitening that uses inverted frequencies to dissolve surface stains, and one to improve gum health by delivering comforting microbursts of sound into tissue to improve circulation and overall tissue health. This brush is quite powerful, so best to start on the soft mode and work your way up. To prevent harmful overbrushing, the brush includes smart vibration timers.
Included in your purchase are eight brush heads specially designed by DuPont. These will last two-and-half years (four months per brush head). The case also comes with a convenient BPA-free plastic carrying case with space for two brush heads. Using a lithium-ion battery, this toothbrush offers wireless charging on a wireless dock, each charge lasts one full month with normal use.
Best Smart: Philips Sonicare Protective Clean 5300
Why It Made The Cut: Using smart-sensor technology, this toothbrush alerts you when you’re brushing too hard or when your brush needs maintenance.
Specs:
— Vibrations Per Minute: 62,000
— Modes: Clean, whitening, gum care
— Colors: Black
Pros:
— Smart sensor technology
— Built-in timer
— Advanced sonic technology
Cons:
— Expensive
The Philips Sonicare Protective Clean 5300 costs more than our other selections, but this true premium option is worth it. Its advanced technology pulses water between teeth while brush strokes break up and sweep away plaque. This technology is safe enough to use with braces, fillings, crowns and veneers. Its smart sensor technology will alert you with a gentle pulsing sound if you’re brushing too hard, while the BrushSync technology tracks your brush head’s lifespan and will let you know with a light and a short beep when it’s time for a replacement.
This toothbrush features an everyday clean mode, a gum massage mode, and a whitening mode that removes surface staining. With two timers tracking time spent in each area of your mouth and overall brush time, this brush has your back. Your purchase comes with one handle, three brush heads, one travel case, and one charger (with a charge that lasts two weeks).
Best for Travel: hum by Colgate Electric Toothbrush
Why It Made The Cut: This electric toothbrush not only has a sleek design with an ergonomic handle, but it also allows you to sync with an app to track your coverage, frequency, and duration.
Specs:
— Vibrations Per Minute: 30,000
— Modes: Deep clean, normal, sensitive
— Colors: Black, blue, teal
Pros:
— Two-minute built-in timer
— Three modes to choose from
— Can connect to app
Cons:
— Not recommended for shower
The hum by Colgate Electric Toothbrush provides a powerful yet gentle clean cycle with 30,000 sonic vibrations per minute. With three modes to choose from, sensitive, normal, and deep clean, you can customize your brushing experience. If you’re new to electric toothbrushes, it might be a good idea to start with the sensitive mode and then build from there. Plus, there’s a built-in two minute timer with 30 second pulses to keep your brushing on track. Featuring floss-tip bristles, a compact brush head design, rubber caps for a polished finish, and a tongue cleaner, this toothbrush provides a gentle clean around gum lines but also targets hard-to-reach areas.
This is a rechargeable toothbrush that must be plugged in when charging and lasts about 10 days per charge. With bluetooth connectivity, this toothbrush can sync with the Apple Health app so you can track the frequency, duration and coverage of your brush sessions, and get tips for a better brush. This purchase includes one toothbrush, two brush heads, one carrying case, and a charger.
Best for Kids: BURSTkids Electric Toothbrush
Why It Made The Cut: This pick teaches kids age 3 and up how to brush. With a built-in two minute timer that pauses every 30 seconds, it lets them know when it’s time for them to move on to the next area.
Specs:
— Vibrations Per Minute: 31,000
— Modes: Standard and sensitive
— Colors: Blue, pink, purple
Pros:
— Two modes
— Soft, durable silicone handle
— Water-resistant
Cons:
— Expensive
Dental health is so important and creating healthy brushing routines for kids should be too. So why not make brushing fun? The BURSTkids Electric Toothbrush does just that. Every feature, from the ergonomically designed soft silicone handle, to the soft, tapered charcoal bristles that remove bacteria and plaque, has been specifically designed for children’s mouths. With three fun and bright colors to choose from, this brush should suit any kid. This toothbrush provides up to 31,000 sonic vibrations per minute, for a gentle yet efficient cleaning. With two modes to choose from, sensitive and standard, kids get to choose what feels best.
To promote healthy habits, this toothbrush has a built-in two minute timer that pauses every 30 seconds to let little brushers know that it’s time to move to another area. Battery-charged, a single charge lasts up to three weeks. Between charges, the toothbrush conveniently rests in a cord-free cradle so as not to take up too much space on the bathroom counter.
Best Budget: Teethory Electric Toothbrush for Adults
Why It Made The Cut: This toothbrush has the features you’d want in a sonic toothbrush—multiple cleaning modes, long-lasting battery life, waterproof—all for an affordable price.
Specs:
— Vibrations Per Minute: 40,000
— Modes: Soft, whitening, normal, massage, gum care
— Colors: Black
Pros:
— Affordable
— Five cleaning modes
— 45-day battery life
Cons:
— Small brush heads
The Teethory Electric Toothbrush for Adults is comparable to more expensive electric toothbrushes, yet costs much less. To accommodate multiple brushing styles and needs, this toothbrush comes with five modes: soft, whitening, normal, massage, and gum care. The whitening mode uses inverted frequencies to dissolve surface stains, while the massage mode accelerates circulation for overall gum health. To promote healthy brushing habits, there is a two-minute smart timer.
You can expect the toothbrush’s charge to last 45 days with normal usage (using twice per day). Your purchase includes the toothbrush and eight brush heads which can be switched out for one user or shared with family members.
Things to Consider Before Buying the Best Sonic Toothbrush
Ready to upgrade from your regular toothbrush to a sonic model? Here’s what to think about to narrow down your choices.
Special Features: Most sonic toothbrushes have a few baseline features such as multiple distinct brushing modes, a smart timer to alert you when to move to another area of the mouth, and a long-lasting battery charge. When selecting an electric toothbrush to buy, consider any additional features you want to prioritize, like the ability to sync to a health app, or technologies that alert you when you’re brushing too hard or it’s time for a brush head replacement. Also, consider if it’s important to you for your brush purchase to include additional brush heads or a carrying case. All of these considerations will lead you to the perfect sonic toothbrush.
Budget: There is no shortage of expensive sonic toothbrushes available, but you don’t have to empty your wallet for a quality toothbrush. A prime example is our value pick, the Teethory Electric Toothbrush for Adults, which has features comparable to toothbrushes that go for twice the price.
FAQs
Q: Are sonic toothbrushes really better?
Sonic toothbrushes generate around 30,000 brush strokes per minute on average, while a manual toothbrush generates about 300. Due to this, sonic toothbrushes clean teeth more thoroughly than other toothbrushes. Sonic toothbrushes are also able to move fluid around the teeth, meaning these brushes reach and clean spots that other brushes can’t go, like the underside of the gumline. All in all, sonic toothbrushes do clean more thoroughly than manual toothbrushes can.
Q: Are sonic toothbrushes bad for your teeth?
When used properly, sonic toothbrushes should only promote great dental hygiene. However, brushing too hard can lead to enamel damage and cause receding gum lines.
Q: Which is better, an oscillating toothbrush or sonic toothbrush?
Oscillating toothbrushes have lower power than sonic toothbrushes, but due to their rotating heads, they can be quite powerful plaque removers. However, with their higher rate of vibrations, sonic toothbrushes are considered more effective.
Final Thoughts
If you find that your manual toothbrush isn’t giving you the deep clean feeling you want, then it might be time to consider a sonic toothbrush. With so many choices and cool features on the market, there’s a great sonic toothbrush out there for everyone.
This post was created by a non-news editorial team at Recurrent Media, Futurism’s owner. Futurism may receive a portion of sales on products linked within this post.
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