How to read an electric toothbrush spec sheet

A brush head wears out in about three months, and makers price them very differently: from $3.12 for the AquaSonic Black Series and 2 others to $9.98 for the Philips Sonicare for Kids. So every brush here gets a three-year cost:

• Heads needed = 36 months ÷ the maker’s stated replacement interval (three months when the maker states none, the ADA’s lower bound), rounded up.
• Heads to buy = heads needed, less the heads in the box (a brush that ships eight heads really does cost less to run).
• Per-head price = the maker’s lowest per-unit price on a genuine multipack that fits the handle, from its own US store.
• Total = handle + heads to buy × per-head price + three years of any required subscription. AAA batteries are not counted.

Worked through for the Philips Sonicare Series 5700: a $80 handle, 12 heads needed with 1 in the box, so 11 to buy at $6.66, comes to about $153.

Across the 50 brushes with a published head price, the three-year cost runs from about $43 (AquaSonic Black Series) to $453 (Philips Sonicare Prestige 9900), with a median of $133. On 26 of them the heads cost more than the handle. It is a floor, not a forecast: it uses the cheapest genuine pack, and prices change.

Oscillating-rotating brushes (12 here) turn a small round head back and forth on each tooth. Sonic brushes (35) vibrate an elongated head side to side at high frequency. Laifen’s 2 Wave models do both, and Philips calls its 3 Philips One handles micro-vibration rather than sonic.

Which cleans better is the most-asked question and the least settled. A Cochrane review found a small short-term advantage for rotation-oscillation over side-to-side brushes and called its clinical importance unclear. What the evidence does and doesn’t show.

26 of the 53 brushes publish a speed. The highest is 84,000 movements/min on the Oclean X Pro Elite. But the units differ: Philips counts brush movements, AquaSonic and BURST vibrations, quip oscillations, and Laifen gives a range plus a sweep angle. An oscillation and a sonic vibration are different motions, so this site prints each figure in the maker’s own words and never converts or ranks across them. Oral-B publishes no speed for its US models at all.

Where a maker names its drive but publishes no speed (Oral-B’s iO magnetic drive), that name is shown instead, and it is what the “what the extra money buys” comparison groups siblings by.

24 brushes list a pressure sensor. This site sorts them by how the maker says they signal: multi-signal (16: a light plus vibration, a three-state light, or automatic adjustment), a warning light only (0), vibration or sound only (4), and listed without saying how (4). No maker publishes the force at which its sensor trips, so sensors can’t be compared on sensitivity. More on pressure sensors.

The ADA Seal of Acceptance is awarded to a named product after the ADA’s Council on Scientific Affairs reviews the maker’s evidence. 14 brushes here have a live listing on the ADA’s own product search, naming the model, its series or a model list that includes it. A maker’s own “ADA accepted” badge is not enough on its own, and a brush with no listing is shown as “no listing found”, never as rejected. What the Seal certifies.

A two-minute timer (48 brushes list one) stops or signals at the end of the recommended brushing time. A quadrant pacer (35) adds a cue every 30 seconds so you move to the next quarter of the mouth. Where a maker lists a timer without mentioning a pacer, the pacer row is left blank rather than assumed.

Modes are where most of the price difference inside a maker’s range goes. Makers count them differently (Oclean names its modes for the time of day; quip calls its settings intensities), so the count is shown alongside the names. 8 brushes have a screen on the handle and 18 connect to an app.

Within one maker’s line, each brush page says what a pricier model adds over the cheapest sibling with the same motor and a pressure sensor, field by field, so you can decide whether a screen or a case is worth the gap.

39 brushes publish a battery figure; it is always the maker’s, usually measured at two two-minute sessions a day. The longest claim for a rechargeable is 270 days on the BURST Pro 2.0. 5 brushes run on a AAA, 28 include a travel case, and 4 have a case that charges the brush. The travel chip on each page combines the three.

The head family decides what you can buy for years. Sonicare’s click-on heads fit every Sonicare click-on handle (11 here), and Oral-B’s round non-iO heads fit all its older rechargeables, but Oral-B iO heads fit only iO handles, and quip, BURST, Laifen and Philips One heads each fit only their own family. The ADA recommends replacing a brush every three to four months, or sooner if the bristles are frayed.

Replacement intervals and third-party heads.

There are 6 kids’ brushes in the catalog, with maker-stated starting ages from 2 to 6. 0 of them list a pressure sensor. Kids’ brushes by age.

38 brushes carry a warranty of two years or more on the maker’s page (1 of them three years), 3 carry one year, and 12 don’t state a term on the product page. Brush heads are consumables and are not what a handle warranty covers.