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I visited my dentist yesterday and they've suggested that I get an electric toothbrush with a round head because my mouth is small and I have trouble reaching my back molars with a normal toothbrush. I've been looking around online and the only ones I seem to be able to find are from Oral B, which tests on animals. Does anybody have a good recommendation?

Also, are electric toothbrushes one of those things where you get what you pay for and you're better off investing in a good one, or is it more like a simple cheap one is good enough and there's no point in paying a lot more for the bells and whistles?

Tell me about your electric toothbrush experiences!

My boyfriend has terrible teeth and he uses a Philips Sonicare toothbrush. He's had it at least a couple years and it's working great. I know his is not a round head, but they have pictures of "compact" ones on their website that look much rounder. Anyway, I think his was sort of expensive, but it's been working really well for him.

i have an oral b. i didn't even think about animal testing when buying a tooth brush. the only downside is that replacement heads are pretty expensive - $7 or $8, but i can usually find generic grocery store brand ones for a little bit cheaper. I don't know if cheaper toothbrushes are just as good, but I do know that my previous oral-b lasted for 8 or 9 years.

It looks like Oral B doesn't test but they are owned by Procter & Gamble, which does test.

Having said that, I own a Oral B and I like that. Prior to that I had a sonicare but no matter how hard I tried, it was a mold factory. I don't have the same problem with the Oral B.

Never thought about testing re: electric toothbrushes...

I also have an Oral-B (this one to be specific, although I paid like half that so you might want to shop around or choose a cheaper model depending on your budget.) I really like it. It has a brushing timer, which is useful for me, because if I don't pay attention I'll spend 20 seconds brushing my teeth like an idiot. Anyway, I would definitely recommend it. My teeth feel WAY cleaner and it's not a pain to use unless you forget to charge it periodically.

Another good thing about the Oral-B handles is that they make several different types of heads, and they're totally interchangeable on many of the models (check before buying though!) They make them for sensitive teeth, whitening, "extra floss action" etc. This one seems to be a slightly less fancy/cheaper version of what I have and you can also interchange the brush heads. The replacement heads can be expensive as others have said, but sometimes they go on sale on sites like Amazon and Drugstore.com in 3-packs. Other thing to keep your eyes peeled for is rebates... from time to time Oral-B will have a rebate offer when you purchase a certain dollar amount, so that's a good time to stock up on the brush heads. They just had one last month so I don't think there's another going right now, but they offered a $15 rebate when you bought $50 worth of brush heads/floss etc. so I stocked up. Just some money-saving tips. :)

yeah I think Sonicare is the way to go if you want to avoid animal testing. I've had a couple of different Sonicare models for years and they perform pretty well. The heads are a bit big but those new compact brush heads look nice, I actually would like to get one of those. My teeth are kind of sensitive and the vibration can be a big strong for me sometimes, though.

When I was a little girl, I really wanted an electric toothbrush for Christmas. I was so excited when I got one. Then I couldn't use it because I couldn't tolerate the vibrations. Still have trouble with vibrations and pretty much just use a manual one. I used a Sonicare for a while and I liked it okay, but the vibrations were hard to handle, so it is back to a regular one for me.

Love my Oral B! We get giant packs of replacement heads at Costco and they aren't very expensive.

I have a sonicare and my mouth is small too!

I use a DeWalt 5,300 RPM high speed VSR drywall scrugun.

Do you think I'm made of money or something?



Yeah, I would never have thought about animal testing in this context except I remembered seeing Oral B on one of those horrifying infographics you come across once in a while that make you despondent about buying any consumer product EVER. That said, I think I'm still going to go for an Oral B because it looks more like what the dentist was recommending (round, rotating head) and I found one that fits my needs and is in my price range. Also, the local drug store (with a non-testing stance!) has store brand replacement heads that actually work with the Oral B system and are half the price of the name brand head. (It helps a bit to know that it's not Oral B themselves, but their parent company, that tests. Thanks for that info, linanil!)

Thanks, everyone, for the recommendations!

FYI, I got target brand replacement heads for my oral B, and they did not fit. I was able to return them, but we are still stuck buying the expensive ones. They are cheaper at Costco if you have one near you and a membership. Also, every once in a while you can find coupons or rebates for them (not for use at Costco, as you can only use their own coupons there -- as I recall there was once a coupon for the toothbrush heads at Costco, though).

Yeah I'm guessing Lepelaar doesn't have access to a Costco but I don't know the availability outside the US, I could be wrong.

No, you're right, linanil. No Costco (or even Target) over here. But Beanitarian's advice might help someone else who checks this thread, so that's always cool!

I've had both Oral-b and Sonicare. I loved my sonicare, the vibrations were a lot less and I felt cleaner, but the replacement heads were toooo expensive. I've now started seeing some drugstores with generic replacement heads for a lot cheaper, but I don't know if you'd have them there anymore, and I kept my ol sonicare but I've not located it because it must have been deeply buried in a box I've not gotten into.

I have some super cheapie back in the day and that was way too much jarring vibrations in my head, felt like I'd get brain damage.