A few years ago I decided I quite fancied an electric toothbrush. I'm a bit keen on keeping my teeth white and my dentist had told me off for being a bit rough with a manual toothbrush and eroding my gums away in one place and recommended I get one of these Oral B Vitality Sensitive toothbrushes that were on offer at the time. I think I only paid about £12.50 for it from Boots at that particular time but I see now it varies alot where you buy these from.

The Vitality electric toothbrush is only made sensitive by the head, it has softer bristles than the regular brush heads and I must confess, although not to my dentist, that I now buy the regular heads instead as I found the sensitive bristles a bit too soft for my liking. The handle to this brush is very nice to grip as it has rubber ridges on it but you do have to rinse the handle well and dry it if you dribble toothpaste down there or it dries in these ridges and has to be scrubbed off. There is only one button on the handle so it's simply a case of on or off, no fancy timers or anything.

The base used to charge the brush on is easy to find a home for as it's small but rather strangely only has a 2 prong plug on it so you will need an adaptor. I have mine on the bedroom windowsill out of sight and charge it there. The brush just slots onto a raised circular piece of plastic and charges in a few hours. There are no lights on the brush or charger however that tell you if it is actually charging or is fully charged which is a shame because a couple of times I haven't slotted it on securely and I've gone to use my brush only to find it still flat.

The heads have different colour rings that can be used to identify your brush head should you wish to share the handle but I really don't like the idea of even sharing a brush handle myself, eww! I find the best place to buy replacement heads is actually ebay where a few sellers have them in bulk for about half the price you would pay in a high street store so do shop around for those. As far as I know all Oral B replacement heads fit every Oral B electric toothbrush but if I'm wrong about that someone give me a shout. I do know the regular heads fit the sensitive Vitality brush though.

So once your toothbrush is charged you just pop a brush head onto it, press the button and brush. Electric toothbrushes avoid what my dentist calls the "sawing motion" so damage the gums less than a manual toothbrush. They also clean much more effectively as the brush oscillates quickly as you hold it against each surface of every tooth. About 2 minutes twice a day is correct I believe but be warned you will still need to floss with an electric toothbrush as it doesn't get in between the teeth particularly well which is the only time a manual brush beats an electric hands down. Once done rinse the brush, dry it and you're done until a few days has passed and you find instead of quickly oscillating it barely rotates, and the high pitched frantic buzzing turns into a drone, then it's time to charge it. I leave mine overnight and it's always been fine but it should only take a few hours.

I do like my electric toothbrush, The handle is chunky and easy to grip even when I'm tired and my joints are acting up, the base is only a couple of inches long by about an inch wide and has enough cable to reach from even a high windowsill to the floor if you're using an adaptor in a normal socket. If you have a 2 prong socket in your bathroom again this is very compact and will fit on top of a cabinet or shelf. I don't like the fact I can't tell if it's still charging but it's not a huge deal. It's a very simple model that's ideal if you want to try an electric toothbrush out. I've had mine for about 3 years and it's still in perfect condition and works fine, I change the head as I notice it looks like it needs it rather at any set time but I do find they last quite a while as long as you don't go mad and press them onto the teeth with force. I love how clean my teeth feel after using my Vitality brush compared to how they felt with a manual toothbrush, there's just no comparison and I really think everyone should own one of these for smooth sparkly gnashers. Remember to floss though as the brush doesn't fit between the teeth.

It's a 4 star rating from me as there are a few minor gripes but in my case for £12.50 what did I really expect. It does the job well and I fully intend to keep using the Oral B Vitality brush as long as it keeps charging and working. Highly recommended but do shop around.