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Oral-B Vitality Precision Clean
by milmol7
Once I started using an electric toothbrush, there was no going back. For me, my teeth feel so much noticeably cleaner, and with the timers you know you have the added reassurance that you've brushed for long enough. This particular toothbrush was bought as a bit of a stop-gap when my old one conked out, and as it was Christmas time ... (2011) I wasn't flushed with spare cash to replace it. Being without an electric toothbrush wasn't an option! This model was the cheapest one I could find, priced around £15. My previous one was also a Braun-Oral B, it had lasted well, and I had spare heads for it at home, so I was really only looking to purchase this brand.
PACKAGING
Packed in a clear plastic sealed pack rather than the rather posher range boxes, this doesn't pretend to be anything other than a pretty basic entry model. Inside the pack is the brush body, fitted with a brush head and it's charger.
CHARGING
The charger is fitted with a "shaver" plug, but I already had an adaptor to plug into a normal mains socket, so that wasn't a problem. The immediate slight problem though was that the lead on the base/charger is quite short - between 2 and 3 feet - quite a bit shorter than my last one.
The other thing that I missed immediately was the lack of any indicator to tell you that it's successfully charging or that it's fully charged. It's easy enough to sit the brush onto the charger, but it would be (in theory) possible to put it on the wrong way, it's hard to imagine you'd not notice, as it sits comfortably one way and requires some force to do it the wrong way, but it could be a potential problem with nothing to reassure you that it's sitting fully on the charger.
I needed to use it that night (and there was enough charge in it) then I left it on charge overnight. In the morning it was fully powered up and the action of the brush head was brilliantly sharp, as you might expect.
FEATURES/DESIGN
The brush is tidy looking, in nice clean blue and white with pale blue inserts. It's very light and comfortable to hold and uses the standard brush heads, so nothing unexpected in the actual usage of the brush. The added advantage there is that you can "upgrade" the brush if you wish by buying different brush heads from the Braun/Oral B range which offer different brushing benefits. The initial purchase comes with a basic brush head.
There is a single push button at the front, where your thumb naturally sits, which the single operation to switch on and off. The casing also is mainly topped with a soft / rubber material with ribs/ridges to assist with grip if your hands are wet, which is handy.
This brush has only one "timer" function, which is to make a series of quick buzzes after two minutes. This may be a problem if you are used to a 30-second interval buzz to assist your brushing routine, which previously I had been used to.
After 17 months, this brush has now reached the end of its natural life. The information on the website states that 18 hours charging provides 30 minutes of usage. So for a full charge, if you brush twice a day that means it should easily last a week. That was certainly true until, I would guess, the last 6 months. Nowadays a full charge gives a feeling of full power for no more than 2 or 3 days. After that I can detect a definite loss of power, and I always need to charge it every 3 to 4 days, which is really not that satisfactory.
SUMMARY
This is the "no frills" end of the spectrum of Braun electric toothbrushes, and doesn't pretend to be anything else. For all it's basic specification, though, for the price I paid - and it's currently selling for £17.49 - it represents good value and does the job that it's designed for, it certainly proved to be a great "stop-gap" to me and I don't feel cheated by needing to replace it after 18 months twice-daily usage.
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Oral-B Professional Care 500
by azana
As electric toothbrushes go, this one is entry level, but does a good job of cleaning teeth and in my opinion has all the features you actually need. The interchangeable heads clean via a combination of rotating and pulsating. It has an inbuilt timer that vibrates when you should change quadrants so you brush for two full minutes, and ... also a pressure sensor that turns off the pulse feature if you brush too hard. Getting to know how to use the toothbrush properly is a slight learning curve, once mastered it does produce effective results; my daughter had experienced some issues of build up on her lower teeth using a battery charged brush before we all switched to electric toothbrushes, but was complimented on her brushing at the dentist last week.
The brush really is a step up from manual brushing and leaves teeth feeling really clean. For the £25 or so you can generally find it on offer for, it comes with just about all you need, two rotating heads and a charger base. Ours, which we have owned for nearly a year, also came with a handy travel case. You will need a two pin shaver plug to use this, or to purchase an adapter - these cost about £1. The brush holds a charge well, in my experience lasting for a week's use as billed. There is a low battery warning light which also flashes green to show you the brush is charging.
Overall this toothbrush is well built, comfortable and not too heavy to hold and not over-loud or complicated to use. The only downside to this brush is the expense of replacement heads - we tend to buy these in packs of four to save on cost, the brushes are colour coded so more than one person can use this appliance without hygiene being compromised. More expensive brushes in the range do include visual displays to remind you of brushing time, but these are easily replaced by using a free app, I don't think this cheaper brush feels like a compromise in any way.
This toothbrush really is worth the purchase price and I would thoroughly recommend it.
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