The twice-daily chore of adding fluoride toothpaste to your toothbrush and then brushing your teeth and gum line used to be enough for most people. As development of new dental products marches on, however, you can now spend more time looking after your oral health with intelligent electric toothbrushes, debris-removing dental floss, cleansing mouthwash and stain reducing whitestrips.
The focus of this complete buyer's guide to Oral-B dental health will be on the huge, often overwhelming array of Oral-B dental products you're likely to encounter when browsing supermarket shelves. First, we'll talk a little about Oral-B's history and their ongoing research and development. Next, we'll explore some of the differences between electric and manual toothbrushes that will help determine if using either one is right for you and your family members. The rest of the guide will look at a little deeper into all of the available Oral-B oral hygiene products you should consider to maintain a healthy smile.
The technology being developed for the Oral-B brand can be understood better if you know the motivation behind its creation, how it evolved, and the background behind its ongoing development. The Oral-B brand was created in the 1950s by Dr. Robert W. Hutson, a periodontist from San Jose, California, who patented his improved manual toothbrush design to make it softer and more effective than the abrasive designs available at that time.
Oral-B continued to develop toothbrush design and benefited from a greater pool of resources after the brand was acquired by the Gillette group in the 1980s; now under the control of Procter & Gamble since 2006. Under the Braun name, Oral-B electric toothbrushes hit the market in addition to other revolutionary dental health inventions including Indicator toothbrush bristles that gradually lose their blue colour to let you know it’s time to replace your brush. You can read more about Oral-B and their latest innovations on their website at www.oralb.co.uk.
Using a rechargeable electric toothbrush or an ordinary manual toothbrush is a personal choice. But both have their benefits and downsides to their use. An electric toothbrush, even one without all the bells and whistles of advanced models on the market today, will use its super fast oscillating heads to get rid of around 40% more plaque; perfect for anyone having a hard time brushing properly. On the other hand, if you can perfect the right technique and avoid forceful, gum-damaging brush strokes, a manual toothbrush can work just as well as its electric cousin.
If you’re a parent with a battle on your hands every night trying to convince your kids to brush their teeth, one way to avoid the nightly tantrums (and which also helps in a lot of other situations) is to make it fun. A lot of kids enjoy the tickly feeling of electric toothbrushes and the colourful cartoon designs get them excited about brushing their teeth.
The advice coming from the dental association is to replace your toothbrush every three months, putting an extra item on your shopping list every 90 days. And this is where manual toothbrushes have the edge. Buying new manual toothbrushes are much easier on the wallet than the initial high cost of an electric toothbrush and then paying for expensive replacement brush heads.
One of the best ways to understand how an Oral-B electric toothbrush works is to explore the basic functions that most of their models share and how they match your needs before looking at more advanced capabilities of expensive models.
All Oral-B electric toothbrushes have a rechargeable, water resistant handle that contains a high-speed spinning motor and causes the reciprocating brushing motion of the bundled replaceable brush head. To recharge the battery, you merely place the handle onto the plastic charger dock. All but the most basic models will have an indicator to let you know when battery power is about to run out and when it has been fully charged. Upgrade to a more sophisticated model and you start to see features you previously thought you could live without.
Oral-B's electric toothbrushes are usually named by their brush head and model number. For instance, the Oral-B TriZone 4000 CrossAction toothbrush has a TriZone brush head but includes extra features including a pressure sensor light to let you know when you’re brushing too hard and four operating modes depending on your needs: Gum Care, Daily Clean, Whitening, and Sensitive. The Oral-B PRO 2000 CrossAction toothbrush, on the other hand, comes with a regular toothbrush head and a pressure sensor but only two operating modes: Gum Care and Daily Clean.
Oral-B SmartSeries toothbrushes are a distinctive breed of electric toothbrush. SmartSeries electric toothbrushes take dental care from your mouth and put it on your smartphone thanks to their integrated Bluetooth support and dedicated mobile app.
Part of the SmartSeries, the Oral-B Black 7000 has six high-performance brushing modes, adding massage and tongue cleaning modes to its capabilities, a sophisticated pressure sensor and oscillating regulator, and a handy black travel case. Where the Black 7000 really stands out is its Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, which hooks up to your smartphone and provides real time feedback on your dental routine. You can set targets for your brushing, get stats on recent brushing behaviour, get useful oral health tips and industry news, and if you get stuck using the app, you can ask your dentist for help.
Other SmartSeries models with Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity include the Oral-B PRO 6000, which offers one less operating mode and comes in a sleek, all-white outer shell.
Some of the popular replacement brush heads for use with Oral-B electric toothbrushes include Cross Action, TriZone, Floss Action, 3D White, Sensitive, and Precision Clean. As you would expect, they each focus almost exclusively on a particular cleaning style for everyday or special use, yet are compatible with almost all Oral-B rechargeable electric toothbrush handles. Always check compatibility before buying replacement brush heads.
Oral-B claim that Cross Action brush heads can remove 100% more plaque than a regular brush, owing this performance to the way the bristles are angled to surround and brush every surface of the tooth.
Floss Action brush heads have a small oscillating head equipped with four MicroPulse bristles to give you a deeper, higher quality clean between your teeth. Precision Clean is Oral-B's entry level brush head that typically comes as standard when you buy a new electric toothbrush and boasts five times better plaque removal than a regular manual toothbrush along the gum line.
The Oral-B 3D White and Sensitive replacement electric toothbrush heads represent two special brushing solutions not recommended for everyday use. You’ll use the 3D White brush head while you’re undertaking a whitening period, taking advantage of the rubber polishing cup inspired by dentists to give you naturally whiter teeth.
Oral-B's Sensitive brush heads should be used when you have an inflamed area or sore tooth that hasn’t completely healed but you still need to brush after meals and before bed. The soft bristles offer effective, gentle cleansing but aren’t robust enough to be able to provide long term daily brushing.
TriZone toothbrush heads work in a completely different fashion to oscillating brush heads, with a more traditional narrow brush style split into three zones that move rapidly from side to side in opposing directions. The bristles are cut to assorted lengths to both swipe across tooth surfaces and clean deep into gums. The downside to this style of brush head is the fact that you’ll need to put in more effort to clean every tooth, especially the ones at the back of your mouth.
The Oral-B Tongue Freshener is another replaceable head for electric toothbrushes and helps reduce halitosis by using a textured surface and raised edge to scrape away odour causing bacteria from the back of your tongue.
Often, people start comparing manual toothbrushes by comparing only the colours or looking at the bristle stiffness. Don't get caught up in simply ticking off these check boxes. A good way to narrow down your choice is to look at the bristle angles, the bristle lengths, and the handle grip.
Oral-B's Pro-Expert Premium Pro-Flex manual toothbrush contains individual Pro-Flex flexing sides and distinctive CrissCross bristles that not only fine tune themselves to your teeth but also lower the pressure on your gums. The long handle has a comfortable grip to make sure you can clean all the way to the back of your mouth.
Another solid choice is the Oral-B Advantage Complete Clean manual toothbrush, offering Power Tip bristles and manageable grip. The Advantage Complete Clean toothbrush also comes in a handy twin pack to give you extra savings while buying toiletries for home use or before you go on holiday.
Newfangled battery powered manual brushes may appear to be the best of both worlds, but while they can decrease plaque levels better than traditional brushes they lack the 3D cleaning potential and rechargeable convenience of electric toothbrushes.
The Oral-B Pulsar Pro Expert manual toothbrush is armed with a non-replaceable battery in the handle. When you press the handle button while brushing your teeth, you’ll feel it gently vibrate, which is claimed to loosen plaque in between your teeth so you can get rid of it easily. If the claims are true, then when combined with the pressure-sensitive split head found on the Pulsar brush, you shouldn’t have to put much force into your brush stroke.
Cleaning your teeth, gums, tongue, and cheeks used to be as easy as loading up your brush with toothpaste and sweeping every surface in your mouth. Today, the work is done by individual elements on your brush or by using supplementary oral care products. If you've had any experience with tongue and cheek cleaners on the back of manual brushes at all, then you’ll probably have a list of things you like about them and those you don’t.
The first important thing to note is that using the bristles of your toothbrush to clean your tongue can reduce the brush’s effectiveness to maintain healthy teeth and gums. That’s why many Oral-B manual toothbrushes sport a textured surface on the back of the brush head for this very purpose. Toothbrushes featuring the tongue scraper include the Oral-B Pro-Health All-In-One toothbrush, the Oral-B Advantage Complete 5 Way Clean toothbrush, and Oral-B 3D White Vivid toothbrush.
Toothpastes have evolved into so many niche functions over the last few decades that they take up most of the real estate within the dental care section of supermarkets. Categorising them all would be out of the scope of this article but you’ve likely seen toothpastes from Oral-B, Colgate, Sensodyne, and Macleans for fighting bad breath, whitening teeth, strengthening sensitive teeth, preventing cavities, and those targeted at herbal, organic enthusiasts.
Oral-B's selection of toothpastes is just as varied. Starting with Oral-B's Complete range of fluoride toothpastes, there is Complete Extra Fresh with an intense fresh mint flavour, Oral-B Complete Extra White that boasts extra whitening power, and toothpastes that fuse the benefits of fresh minty taste, whitening, and mouthwash in various combinations to create two-in-one or three-in-one products.
3D White toothpastes are ideal if you like to consume dark coloured drinks but don’t like the stains they leave on your teeth. Recognisable by their vibrant purple packaging, the 3D White series diverge in their active ingredients. For example, Oral-B 3D White Luxe Pearl Shine fluoride toothpaste contains natural pearl extract to eliminate up to 90% of surface stains in a week while the Oral-B 3D White Brilliance fluoride toothpaste has an enamel-friendly formula and remineralisation effect.
Pro-Expert is Oral-B's premium collection of toothpastes that do more than just clean and whiten your teeth. Oral-B Pro-Expert Premium Gum Protection fluoride toothpaste is designed to take care of sensitive gum issues and make them stronger during brushing. Oral-B Pro Expert Enamel Shield fluoride toothpaste features erosion protection to ensure sugary and acidic drinks or food can’t erode the precious tooth enamel coating on your teeth, which can lead to major dental issues later on.
For children, there’s Oral-B Stages fluoride toothpaste, which has a sugar-free, fruity flavour for kids fussy about mint and a special cartoon design complete with unique nozzle that dispenses a fun shape. The carefully developed formulas are as special as the fun designs, with toothpastes safe for each age range from toddler to beyond age 7 and cartoon designs from Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters to Pixar favourites like Wall-E and Cars.
Mouthwash complements rather than replaces your brushing routine, using rinsing liquid to reach all the places you can’t brush or floss, gently wash your tongue and throat, kill germs, and freshen your breath. There aren’t as many selections in Oral-B's mouthwash line up as there are in toothpastes but the different types do have very important distinctions that will affect your purchase decision.
Dental floss is great for getting in between teeth and around braces to remove food debris from places your toothbrush simply can’t get to or when toothpicks are too sharp and damaging to your gums. The only way to know which type of dental floss you prefer in your daily flossing routine is by testing them. But here’s an overview of the various types in the Oral-B range:
Oral-B 3D White Whitestrips have a layer of tooth whitening peroxide gel that get rid of any discolouration on your teeth caused by the things you consume like coffee, red wine, and so on. The peroxide won’t harm your tooth enamel and because it contains the same ingredients dentists use, you can only get the strips from a dental practitioner.
Oral-B's 3D White Whitestrips are sold in a pack of 28 individual strips, meaning you can get brighter, whiter teeth after two weeks of using them once a day, every day, although Oral-B say you’ll see results after the first week, and the results last up to 12 months.
Always follow the directions on the packet as they may be slightly different from the steps above.
As you might expect, there are plenty of retailers selling the wide range of Oral-B products online, from well-known chemists and supermarkets like Boots and Tesco to e-commerce and electronic giants including Amazon and Argos. And because dental hygiene is an everyday concern and highly competitive industry, there are great discounts to be had year-round.
If it’s your first time using an electric toothbrush or a dental floss product, it might be a good idea to start with a basic model before upgrading to something with a greater feature set. This means you won’t have spent much to try them out and check if they really can give you a deeper clean than your regular toothbrush alone.
With so many possibilities to choose from, it can be difficult to know where to start looking for the best bargains. To make you search easier, HotUKDeals collects all the latest deals on Oral-B electric toothbrushes, manual toothbrushes, brush heads, toothpastes, mouthwash, and dental floss on a unique ‘oral-b’ tag page.
