The daily effort of brushing your teeth is even more worthwhile when you use the best cleaning products. For example an electric toothbrush. Sometimes cheap models are hardly worse than expensive brushes for several hundred euros, as a study by Warentest shows.
In this country, about every second person cleans their teeth under electricity – with an electric toothbrush. Many people find their handling to be easier and more thorough. Just like the usual manual toothbrushes, however, the devices must also be used for a correspondingly long time and regularly with the right toothpaste so that the effort is worthwhile. Stiftung Warentest provides orientation and has sent 12 new models to the test laboratory at prices between 24 and 300 euros.
Basically, electric toothbrushes can be divided into two groups: On the one hand, there are the “oscillating-rotating” ones with round heads that oscillate back and forth in a semicircle and sometimes also pulsate. On the other hand, sound-active toothbrushes with elongated heads are available. They do not clean with sound, but with vibrations from the brush head.
In terms of cleaning performance, neither of the two systems shows clear advantages. With the round-head brush, each tooth has to be cleaned individually, while sonic toothbrushes clean a larger area at once. The decisive factor when buying should therefore be the individual cleaning behavior. Meticulous tooth brushers probably do better with round-head brushes. So far, however, no study has been able to identify a clear advantage for either of the two techniques.
Test winner among the newly tested brushes is the “Philips Sonicare 9900 Prestige” for 300 euros. It is on par with the Philips Sonicare 9300 Diamond Clean Smart tested in 2019 (250 euros, both “good”, grade 1.8), which, according to the manufacturer, will soon be withdrawn from the market. The second-placed “Apacare Professional Sonic Toothbrush”, which also works with sound, is already available for 60 euros (“good”, 2.0).
The cheapest good new brush in the current test is the “Fairywill Sonic Electric Toothbrush P11” (40 euros, 2.3, sound). All devices clean the teeth reliably and are durable. When it comes to handling, however, the expensive models are ahead.
The price-performance winner from the product test database is still the “Müller Sensident Cordless Toothbrush Perfect Clean Professional)” for only 16 euros, a rotating-oscillating model.
The devices from Eta, Lächen, Oclean and Proficare came in last in the test. They removed so little of the artificial plaque from the test teeth that they were only rated “fair” overall.
