Jennifer Allen
It’s easy to brush your teeth ineffectively by brushing too hard, too little, or not giving each area of your mouth the attention it deserves. These smart toothbrushes not only make brushing interesting but effective too.
Brushing your teeth is rarely a compelling chore, but it is a necessary one. To ward off gum disease and cavities, you want to brush your teeth well. Fortunately, a new wave of smart toothbrushes makes the task easy and, dare we say, interesting at that.
There are a number of key things to remember about brushing your teeth effectively. You need to cover your mouth evenly, brushing in every corner of it accurately and consistently. You also need to be brushing for at least 2 minutes, and to not put too much pressure on your gums. Each of these smart toothbrushes goes some way to encouraging you to master healthy brushing habits.
After all, you might have been brushing your teeth for years, but it’s easy to get complacent about something that’s so commonplace. These toothbrushes don’t just help in the fight against cavities either. They also work to keep your teeth clean and stain-free, providing you use them regularly.
Here are five of our favorite solutions for ensuring that a visit to the dentist won’t be necessary any time soon.
Philips Sonicare DiamondClean 9500 Series ($225)
What price do you place on your oral hygiene? If you’re willing to pay whatever gets the job done then the Philips Sonicare DiamondClean 9500 Series is a great port of call.
It comes with some fairly impressive statistics, promising to remove up to 10x more plaque, thereby improving gum health up to 7x in the space of 2 weeks. It does this through its many different modes. There’s 5 modes in total, including Clean, White+, Deep Clean+, Gum Health, and TongueCare—enough to ensure there’s a setting for every occasion. Four different smart brush head types automatically pair with the correct mode too, with smart sensors providing real time feedback via the toothbrush’s smartphone app.
Consulting the app shows you exactly where you’ve brushed and where you need to work harder, enticing you into doing better next time. Its charger is sleek glass container that also doubles as a rinsing glass to further add to the stylish appearance of the device.
$279.96 
Oral-B Genius Pro 8000 ($173)
Oral-B is a familiar name in the toothbrush world, and its Genius Pro 800 is their top offering. It provides 6 different cleaning modes, including Daily Clean, Gum Care, Sensitive, Whitening, Tongue Cleaning, and Pro-Clean Mode, to ensure your teeth and gums are kept healthy.
Via your smartphone and relevant app, it uses facial recognition to help you know where you’ve brushed, giving you a head’s up when you’ve missed somewhere vital. A customizable multicolor SmartRing provides visual coaching on issues such as how long you’ve been brushing each area for, as well as how much pressure you’re placing on your gums. If you do happen to over brush, the toothbrush automatically slows down brush speed to avoid any damage.
A smart travel case offers the means in which to charge it, with the case also charging your smartphone at the same time. A single charge lasts up to 12 days.
Oral-B Pro 5000 SmartSeries ($100)
If you want an Oral-B smart toothbrush but the Genius Pro 8000 is out of your budget, the Pro 5000 SmartSeries is a great alternative. It has one fewer cleaning mode—there’s no tongue cleaning mode, or a promise of teeth whitening. However, the options available are still extensive.
Crucially, there’s the all important pressure sensor for those times when you’re brushing too hard, and there’s real time feedback via the Oral-B app. The app tracks where you’re brushing and where you’re missing out, guiding you to the right place. It stores 6 months worth of brushing data too, and tells you the current weather conditions, inexplicably, in case you want a weather report while you brush.
$99.95
Oclean One Smart Toothbrush ($80)
A less well known name than others here, the Oclean One Smart Toothbrush is a great budget option for those not fussed about having a branded toothbrush.
It offers 3 modes, including clean, white, and massage. Alongside that are 4 intensity levels, and 6 time settings to tweak. In all, there are 72 different ways of tailoring your brushing schedule. It’s not quite as well laid out as something like one of the Oral-B solutions, but it’s pretty good for the price. Its app connectivity provides real-time feedback, both visually, and via a voice reminder that tells you when to change things up.
Charging takes about 3 and a half hours with one charge lasting about 60 days, making it a great solution for regular travelers.
Grush Smart Sonic Toothbrush ($39)
Even adults, who should know best, have trouble brushing effectively and for the right length of time, so what hope does a child have of doing things correctly? The Grush Smart Sonic Toothbrush goes some way to circumventing that issue, plus it’s fun too.
Like the other smart toothbrushes here, the Grush device tracks exactly where the brush has been on your mouth, giving you and your child insight into how well they’re brushing. Where things get more child friendly is through its many games that are linked to their performance while brushing. It’s a fun form of encouragement which is further backed up by brushing scores, so you can see how they’re improving.
Due to the budget price, there aren’t any extra cleaning modes, but as an introduction to brushing for kids, it’s pretty great. In particular, it’ll inspire children that aren’t keen to brush normally. It’s charged via an AAA battery which lasts about 3 months—not only do you get great battery life but you avoid keeping track of yet another charger.
