The ultimate oral experience (Braun Oral-B Ultra Plaque Remover)

Member Name: collingwood21

Product:	Braun Oral-B Ultra Plaque Remover
Date:	04/10/02 (1015 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very ease to set up and use, Makes your mouth feel cleaner, More healthy teeth and gums

Disadvantages: The cost of replacement heads, No charging meter on thebrush

As I have mentioned previously, I am not a big fan of the dentist. I know going there is supposed to be good for me, but he scares me. Or rather all those big, shiny metal pointy hurty instruments do. I am only surprised that I haven't left my fingernails in the arms of his treatment chair before now! And hands up anybody who enjoys having plaque forcibly removed from their teeth by something the size of Excalibur? No, me neither.

So, in partnership with my trusty Dentyl ph mouthwash (see earlier op if you can be bothered), I have recruited a Braun Oral B plaque remover (that's an electric toothbrush to you and me) into my arsenal. Mwah ha ha! :-)


- Hmmm, Ok, plaque?
I do hope that none of you are eating at this moment, as this might get a little unsavoury. Plaque is basically nasty stuff that lurks in your mouth, and can build up on your teeth over time if they are not cleaned regularly or thoroughly enough. It starts off as a soft, sticky deposit that can be easily removed by brushing, but then hardens over time to become the hard, calcified stuff your dentist has to scrape off your teeth. So what is plaque exactly? Well, bacterial colonies (with as many as 400 different types of bacteria in them) together with tiny bits of carbohydrate food remains and any other debris that happens to be floating around your mouth. (You see, I told you that you didn?t want to be eating while reading this). While most of us manage to remove the majority of plaque from our mouths with manual brushing, some still lurks between teeth and at the back of your mouth in what the toothbrush adverts like to call the "hard to reach places". Not only does it look icky, but it can cause gum disease and bad breath too.


- Yes, but electric toothbrushes are so pretentious!
Well, this is what I thought when I first saw them in the shops. They are only for the seriously lazy, surely? People who can?t be bothered to put the
physical effort into brushing? I mean, who needs a labour saving device for something like cleaning your teeth? But well, this is not really the idea. Electric toothbrushes are not intended to save you the manual effort of brushing your teeth - they are designed to do a better job than you could manage to do with an ordinary brush. Finding this out was like turning on a little lightbulb above my head - ah, now I was enlightened to the true ways of cleaning my teeth.


- Braun and brains
The model I chose was a Braun Oral B plaque remover. Why this one? Well, partly because I trust the brand name and have used other parts of the Oral B range with success before, and partly from a recommendation from my dad. He has one too you see, and was singing its praises for ages after he started to use it. Good enough for me. I bought this model from Boots, where it cost me £35 - although I should point out there are a whole range of choices in the Oral B collection, ranging in price from £29 to the deluxe model at a whopping £65. A set of three replacement heads will set you back £11.50 (but each one lasts 2 to 3 months, so it is not too bad in the long run).


- What do you get for your money?
In your Oral B pack, you get your toothbrush, a brush head and a recharger pack. To get your brush up and running is easy enough - just twist the head onto the toothbrush, and put the whole thing onto the recharger base. Plug it in (a little green light on the brush will appear to tell you things are working) and then leave it for about an hour for its first charge. When it is all fired up, you simply take the brush off the base, and it is ready to go!

The brush heads are quite a clever bit of technology, as they are designed to have "indicator bristles" that tell you how much use there is left before you need to fit a replacement brush head. These bristles are the long blue ones, which gradually fade to white from the tips
downwards as you use them - when the blue indicator mark has shrunk to less than half of the height of the bristle, then you have used the head enough. Its all clever stuff and is an excellent way of reminding you when to change brushes.


- But what is it like to use?
Ok, I'll admit that he first time you use your electric toothbrush things are going to feel a little weird. When you flick the "on" button, the brush head seems to go a little crazy as it rotates at high speed - but don?t stare at it too long or you'll get toothpaste in your eye. Which stings. A lot. Anyway, having something in your mouth that moves so fast (I'm ignoring all your sniggering) seems to make your whole head vibrate, and I?ll admit it is quite unpleasant at first (and indeed remains so if you have a headache). But stick with it, as after about a week you mouth will feel so incredibly clean that you are unlikely to ever go back to a manual brush again. And over time I have quite grown to enjoy this sensation (*blushes*).

My teeth are certainly cleaner and healthier since I started using my Oral B - even my dentist has noticed the difference. And no more pointy scrapey things! Yay! :-)

Oh, and it is not just me who thinks this BTW. In a study by the University of Alabama, it was found that using one of these brushes "significantly reduces" the amount of plaque and gingivitis (gum inflammation and bleeding due to poor cleaning) in your mouth. Yay again!


- Any down sides?
I really wish that Braun would add a charging meter onto this brush - like the sort of thing you get on mobile phone displays to tell you how much power is left in the battery. There was no indication in the instructions on how long to charge my brush for or how often to do it, and nothing on the model to tell you when it had finished powering up. Only a minor niggle I know, but still kinda annoying.



-The d
etails...
See: www.braun.com
www.oralb.com
www.wellbeing.com

Oral-B Laboratories Limited
c/o Gillette U.K. Ltd.
Gillette Corner
Great West Road
Isleworth
Middlesex TW7 5NP

Phone: (44) 208-560-1234

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