Sonicare Quadpacer xtra electric toothbrush - Gums be Happy
Written: Mar 26 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Really cleans your teeth, nice design
Cons: Expensive, takes getting used to
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| eGnome's Full Review: Archived Home & Garden Reviews |
After my not-so-successful attempt at using an electric toothbrush a couple years ago I decided to give the Sonicare sonic toothbrush a try. Actually one of the reasons I decided to give it a try was the abundance of glowing reviews I read on epinions. The electric toothbrush I had bought a couple of years ago was a Braun Oral-B, but it didn’t have all the whiz-bang features that the new Brauns and the Sonicare do today. You can read my review on the Bruan Oral-B, but my main complaint was how hard it was on my gums. Luckily, the Sonicare seems to overcome the shortfalls of my old Braun Oral-B.
The model I purchased is the Sonicare quadpacer xtra. I had been looking at them in various stores after reading the reviews here on epinions, and then I saw the luxury model with all the cool features and extra brushes at my local wholesale club so I took the plunge and purchased it. I haven’t regretted it! In my usual format I will detail the pros and cons that I think this electric toothbrush has.
Pros:
In my opinion, the biggest plus of this electric toothbrush is the fact that it uses sonic waves instead of just a rotating scrubbing action like my old Braun Oral-B did. This solves the problem I had with the Braun tearing apart my gums. I’ve been using the Sonicare for a few months now and I think my gums are quite a bit healthier than when I used the Braun and when I used a regular toothbrush.
The toughest thing to get used to is the sonic feature of this toothbrush. It really rattles your skull. Luckily they added a feature to the toothbrush to address this. They call it “easy-start”. It a 12 step ramp-up that starts out at a very reduced power and after 12 uses it is up to full power. This helped me out a lot because when you’re brushing the back of your top front teeth is really can vibrate right up through your head. I’ve become very used to it now and it’s never uncomfortable. If you tickle easily you may have difficulty getting used to it. If you find that 12 steps isn’t enough to get used to the vibrations then you always have the option of resetting the brush so that the 12 steps start from the beginning. You can also not put the brush back in the recharger each time because I believe that is what tells it to move to the next step.
The version of the Sonicare that I bought has quite a number of nifty little features. One is the “quadpacer” feature. This feature makes the toothbrush beep at four 30-second intervals. Each interval is meant to correspond to a section of your mouth that you should brush - upper inside, upper outside, lower inside, and lower outside. The brush not only beeps but pauses its brushing momentarily so if your in a noisy environment (e.g. somebody showering while you’re brushing your teeth) you can still recognize when you should switch to the next section of your teeth. After the four 30 second intervals the brush shuts off so you know that you’ve brushed long enough (they say 2 minutes is the Dentist recommended minimum time for brushing your teeth).
I’ve found using this brush so easy and pleasant that I actually double the time that I brush my teeth. I do a full two minutes on my bottom teeth and another 2 minutes on my top teeth. The brush also has a nice feature that if you shut it off in the middle of cycle it will start back up where it left off. Therefore you can answer the phone or respond to your spouse without losing your place in your tooth brushing regimen. Also if you’re like me and go for longer than the 2 minutes you don’t have to worry about the next time you use it if you shut it off in the middle of a 2 minute cycle. The reason for that is the placing of the toothbrush back in the recharger acts like a reset. So it will start at the beginning of a cycle the next time you use it.
This thing really does keep the plaque at bay. After a couple of months after visiting the dentist I can see the plaque building up, but since I’ve been using the Sonicare I have not seen any plaque buildup. It really does work!!
Another nice little feature of this toothbrush is a tiny little light underneath the on/off button. It comes on when the toothbrush is charging. The reason I like this feature is because of how dumb the electrical contractors were who built my house. They tied all of the bathroom electrical outlets together and put them on a Ground Fault Interrupt circuit that’s in the basement. This means that every time the circuit trips (which it usually does during a thunder storm) I have to traipse down to the basement to reset it. The little light on the toothbrush lets me know if the circuit has tripped so I can reset it on the way out of the house, rather than when I desperately need to use the outlet and am in some stage of undress. It also means that I won’t have an uncharged toothbrush because I know when it is actually charging. The light is just bright enough to act as a little beacon when I’m stumbling my way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. If it saves just one stubbed toe then it’s worth it!
The bristles on the sonicare seem to be fairly durable, but still soft. I’ve been using the brush for a few months and it still looks like new. The brushes are supposed to last for six months and it looks like my first one will make it that long. Probably the reason that they last so long is that you don’t really need to apply any pressure to the brush for it to work. They really thought of everything for this brush because they even include little stickers with the names of the month so that you can label the other brushes with the month you’re supposed to switch to a new one. Nice touch.
The recharger stand is very simple and small. It doesn’t take up much space on my counter at all. The toothbrush just drops right in and starts charging. There are no metal contacts or plugs. It charges right through the plastic case. The two extra brush heads also come with a nice plastic stand and they each come with a clear plastic cover to keep the brush clean when not in use or being stored away.
The instruction guide that comes with the brush is very easy to read and although this is “just a toothbrush”, I highly recommend reading it. It details exactly how to use the brush for the most effective brushing, and it only takes a short time to read.
Cons:
What I don’t like most about this toothbrush is the fact that it really doesn’t give you that “scrubbed clean” feeling in your mouth. Your teeth feel really clean, but it’s hard to use the brush to clean your tongue so your mouth doesn’t feel quite as fresh as it does with a good old scrubbing with a regular brush. I solved this problem by rinsing at night with “Act” fluoride rinse to get the extra benefit of a fluoride rinse, and a quick gargle with Scope in the morning after brushing to get that nice clean mouth feeling.
This toothbrush isn’t cheap. The version I got with 3 brush heads, quadpacer, smart-timer, and easy start cost just under $100.00 at a wholesale club. You can get cheaper models but you may not get the extra brushes so it may not be much cheaper in the long run. Buying extra brushes is also expensive. I think they run around $15.00 a piece. But if you consider how long they last and how much healthier your teeth will be then it is a bargain.
You have to keep the unit clean. It’s not like a regular toothbrush that you can just throw in the medicine cabinet. I wipe mine off with a tissue after every use. I also occasionally take the brush head off and clean the pieces separately.
Stock up on glass cleaner because your mirror will be covered with toothpaste. Just open your mouth slightly or accidentally pull the brush out of you mouth without turning it off and you’ll have toothpaste everywhere! I’ve found that it’s also difficult to move the brush from one side of your mouth to the other without spraying a little toothpaste.
If you let the plastic part of the toothbrush touch your teeth it will rattle them quite a bit. With a little practice you can avoid this most of the time though.
One thing I’d like to change about the toothbrush is the on/off button. Depending on how you hold the brush it can be difficult to push the off button. What would be cool would be a rubberized area of the brush that wraps around the entire handle and squeezing it in any place would turn the brush on or off.
Overall
I’m very happy with my Sonicare toothbrush and believe it was money well spent. I fully expect to have a glowing checkup the next time I visit the dentist. Thanks to all the others who have written reviews on this product. It made me decide to buy one and I hope my review will similarly help others.
Recommended:
No
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eGnome
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Location: Red Bank, NJ
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