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Electric Toothbrushes Shopping Guide

Is the dentist's office your least favorite place to visit? Are you disappointed when the dentist tells you that you missed a spot? If you feel like you just failed a test, then you might want to consider an electric toothbrush that will help you get an A+ in your next dental exam.

You might be surprised by some of the features that electric toothbrushes have to offer (like quad-pacers and sonic vibrations) that companies are packing into these household dental tools. If you’re upgrading your non-electric toothbrush and looking for your next step in dental hygiene, take a look at the must-haves, dentist-recommended features, and our top pick for your next superior toothbrush experience.

Electric Toothbrushes Can Improve Your Brushing Technique

Without going to the dentist every morning and evening, you can still get high-quality tooth care at the convenience of your own bathroom. Electric toothbrushes are a simple addition to your routine that can save you hundreds of dollars on dentist visits, especially considering the health issues that are caused by plaque build-up. While it might seem silly to invest in an electric toothbrush, this one change can make a huge impact on your oral health.

Electric toothbrushes have implemented today’s technology in unique and helpful ways. You can even find electric toothbrushes with Bluetooth in them to give you feedback on your brushing style. Most of the electric toothbrushes we have listed in our top ten don’t reach that far into your personal life, but they still provide just enough resources to help you improve your daily brushing.

Built-In Timers for Optimal Teeth Brushing

When you’re brushing your teeth, two minutes can feel like two years. You might’ve given up on this brushing goal a long time ago, especially when you’re rushing to work. We're here to tell you: Make time to incorporate the 2-minute brush a habit. 

Dentists recommend brushing your teeth for at least 2 minutes in order to prevent cavities. You can ask any dentist, look up any research articles, and they'll all tell you the same thing. Two minutes of brushing gives you enough time to address hard-to-reach spots in your mouth and plenty of time to brush away excess plaque.

Luckily, electric toothbrushes take the guessing game out of brushing thanks to their built-in timers. These built-in timers shut off when you’re done with your two minutes, putting an end to the eternal "Am I done yet?" questioning as you're brushing your teeth. Plus, you can leave your iPhone timer away from the sink and simply trust that your toothbrush will let you know when you’re done.

You’ll see that some electric toothbrushes even go a step further with a quad-timer, short for quadrant timer. These brushes are designed to let you know when you’re done with a quadrant of your mouth, so every 30 seconds, it will ping you to let you know to move on to the next quadrant.

Breaking your brushing up into 4 sections makes it easier to stay on task and focus on really cleaning each section of your teeth. You can really focus brushing away any built-up bacteria.

Best Speed for an Electric Toothbrush

When you think of high-speed objects, you probably picture a race car or a jet plane...but in this article, we want you to associate speed with your electric toothbrush. Brushing your teeth with a non-motorized toothbrush, you’re advised to brush your teeth in a circular motion. Even the fastest brushers usually won’t get more than 600 rotations in 2 minutes, and that’s without any tiredness or end-of-the-day fatigue.

Thanks to the tiny motors that power an electric toothbrush, the bristles of the brush are able to rotate anywhere from 2,500 to 7,500 times per minute. If you start looking at sonic toothbrushes, they can reach 30,000 to 60,000 rotations in a minute, making your manual handiwork seem like a snail race.

Why is this so important?

The more rotations that a brush can achieve, the more your brush can move around on your teeth, dislodging and loosening up difficult bacteria and food debris. You can compare this to wiping water off a table: The more times you wipe the table with a towel, the drier your table will be.

High-End Electric Toothbrush Options

You don’t want to pay too much for an electric toothbrush, but at the same time, this is easily one of the most important hygienic tools you can have. You’ll be using it twice daily, so you’ll definitely get your money’s worth. However, if you’re not really destined to be your own personal dental hygienist, you can skip some of the bells and whistles that might tack on some extra costs.

For example, you don’t really need built-in Bluetooth technology or the latest toothbrush app to help you record your brushing motion. Yes, it might help you with your technique, but as far as actually cleaning your teeth, you will survive without it. These are cool for tech-savvy folks and the hyper-curious, but they're not essential to a toothbrush. 

Sonic toothbrushes offer a huge bang for their buck. They can reach more surface area in your mouth, and their enhanced rotations are so effective that the bristles don’t even have to come in contact with your teeth to actually work...they just have to be close enough for vibrations to loosen up bacteria.

If you have the money to drop on a sonic toothbrush, go for it. However, for anyone on a budget but still looking for an efficient brush, an electric toothbrush will do the trick, and they’ll even have some added tricks to help solidify your purchase.

Some of the higher-end models will even include a pressure sensor, which indicates whether or not you’re applying too much or too little pressure on your teeth and gums while you brush. Again, this is just an added convenience that you can include if you want to pay a little bit more for your new brush.

The Basics of Your Electric Toothbrush

Basically, the faster the brush head rotates, the better the oral cleaning will be. No, this won’t reduce the 2-minute minimum you’ll need for brushing your teeth, but it will make those 2 minutes way more effective. This can be a huge deciding factor when comparing your new electric toothbrush.

Along with this, take a look at how long an electric toothbrush’s battery charge will last, since you might want to take your cordless toothbrush with you on a trip.

Editor's Choice

The electric toothbrush that tops the charts at our number one pick is the Philips Sonicare Diamondclean. This model is at the top of the price range, but for good reason. Five brushing modes means you can personalize your brushing style for sensitive gums, deep clean, and more.

The brush head manages to rotate at 31,000 brush strokes per minute, improving your oral hygiene each time you brush your teeth. It increases the surface level that it cleans by driving toothpaste into the tight spaces of your mouth, and it’s all thanks to the sweeping motion of the toothbrush.

The long-lasting battery can keep going for about 3 weeks, making this a convenient option for travelers or someone with limited access to an outlet.

Finally, a quad-pacer and Smartimer are the final pieces that make this toothbrush an exceptional pick.

If you’re looking for something else that meets your budget criteria, we have plenty of picks that fall well under $75. You can easily find an electric toothbrush that checks off the needs on your list while also being affordable and easy to use. Compare and review our top 10 electric toothbrushes and stop feeling guilty about those sugary snacks or those extra cups of coffee. With your new space-age toothbrush, your mouth won’t even remember what it had for breakfast.