Braun Oral-B Vitality - Sonic Technology Pays Off (Braun Oral-B Vitality Sonic)

Member Name: philb2076

Product:	Braun Oral-B Vitality Sonic
Date:	15/06/09 (114 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Well made, great battery life, impressive cleaning

Disadvantages: head replacement expensive

One of my most practical Christmas Presents from my other half this year was the Braun Vitality toothbrush. As this was my first ever electric toothbrush I can only really compare it to a standard brush.

To me this brush represents great value for money (I believe she paid roughly £15 on offer). It is reassuringly weighty, the heads fit securely, the on/off button is positive and there is a general feel of quality in both materials and build.

The Vitality differs from the normal electric toothbrush as it incorporates a vibrating head (advertised as sonic technology) rather than the reciprocating or revolving head types found on most other brushes. This sensation, although strange at first, quickly becomes the norm and soon you will wonder how you ever managed with your standard brush for so long! The vibration is thankfully well constrained to the brush head itself and does not reverberate down into your hand.

As the brush head itself has no moving parts, this allows the shape to be that of a standard toothbrush (long rectangular), rather than the tiny circular brushes you see on a lot of electric toothbrushes. The head is also designed to reach behind teeth with extended bristles on the tip. This design helps give a more thorough clean to both teeth and gums, and I have to say compared to my regular toothbrush my teeth feel significantly cleaner and 'fresher' after brushing.

To metaphorically 'hold your hand' there are two built in timing devices. The first lets you know when you have been brushing for the ideal amount of time (2 minutes I believe), and gives you a gentle reminder by flicking the brush off/on/off/on. The second lets you know when your brush head needs replacing; the bristles gradually turn from blue to white over the course of about 3 months regular brushing. Nice touches, but not really selling points to me.

Charging is achieved through a neat docking station that is fully insulated against water ingress, and uses a standard 2 pin plug such as that found on your razor. Battery life is fantastic; I generally charge mine once a week and it never lets me down. On the odd occasion if you have forgotten to charge it, when you notice the power is dropping I'd say you have around 10 seconds to brush before it dies completely, so try and keep well within the charge range if possible. Maybe a charge indicator would be useful, but then this would up the price, drain the battery more, and give more things to go wrong, so I'm happy to do without!

Cleaning the brush itself is simple, and should be done regularly to avoid any build up of 'gunk'. The head can be popped off to clean in and around the join, and the base can be simply wiped clean with a cloth. Of course you could buy another toothbrush to clean your brush, but then you're locked into a vicious circle of buying another brush to clean that and more brushes to clean those, before you know it people start pointing and avoiding you in the street ;-) ...

Dentists (and our handy little colour timer) tell us to change our brush head regularly, and this is where Braun have you by the curly short ones. Replacement heads cost around the £7-10 for a pack of two, and can be bought from all the usual outlets. This is expensive, so I try to look upon it as an investment towards healthy teeth and gums to justify it to myself.

In summary this is a very novel, good quality, and great value toothbrush that does a top rate job of what it should do, cleaning your teeth.

Highly Recommended,

Phil

Summary: very novel, good quality, and great value toothbrush that does a top rate job on your teeth.

Processing/Quality:
Reliability:
Ease of use:
Cleaning/Maintenance:
Quality: