Interplak Electric Toothbrush : Great for the Teeth, Bad for the Gums
Written: Apr 14 '01
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Two brush heads, timer, easy to use, does clean teeth well
Cons: Bristles are hard and painful on gums, replacement heads expensive, toothpaste limitations
The Bottom Line: Gets teeth clean and reduced plaque but is painful on gums, with poor motor life and expensive replacement heads.
|
|
|
| WorkingMomof2's Full Review: Interplak Family Electric Toothbrush 12153 |
We've had three Interplak toothbrushes, and I still can't recommend this product. I feel like we gave this the old college try... and then some. But the Interplak Family Electric Toothbrush is just not the right product for us!
Specs and Instructions
Interplak sells a variety of electric toothbrushes, plus water irrigators, electric flossers, and more. The Family Electric Toothbrush comes with a white handle that charges in a base, two removable brush heads (one is smaller than the other) and all of your instructions. The base will charge your toothbrush when it's not in use, and you can wall mount it (although we just kept it on our counter).
To use the toothbrush, you just put one of the heads on and turn the switch on the handle on. The bristles on the head rotate in a circular motion, so as you pass the toothbrush over your teeth they brush off the accumulated dirt and plaque. Each little set of bristles rotates, versus some other toothbrushes where the entire bristle head spins in a circle. The individual bristle sections are actually bilevel, with some longer than others. This lets them clean between teeth and down at the gum line.
You use toothpaste but they recommend that you don't use tartar control toothpaste as it evidently is too hard on the motor. We were fine with this, since the original model (which we had) required that you use a special Interplak toothpaste.
There is a storage area in back where you can store the toothbrush heads, although in the personal model (which is quite a bit cheaper I think) they don't have this. Changing heads is a breeze, just twist them off and put the new one on. They are color coded also, so you don't accidentally mix up your brush heads (eewwwww!).
The base is rechargable, so you don't have to worry about charging the battery or an electric cord dangling around. As your toothbrush sits in the base, it automatically charges up again. Since there were only two of us using this I can't tell you how many brushings you can get off of one charge, but we never had any problem with two users.
Likes and Dislikes
I do like the fact that you can use regular toothpaste. As I mentioned, in the earlier version we had to use their special Interplak past. Not only was their toothpaste expensive, but it didn't taste as nice as regular toothpaste. Alas, even with the special toothpaste the motor gave up on us after only 10 months. Since we were under warranty, Interplak replaced the motor (the entire handle). After about 6 months with the new handle it started performing sluggishly, and we set it aside. When the new version came out we gave that a try, since the motor was supposedly capable of handling regular toothpaste and I did miss the extra-clean feeling on my teeth.
I like the fact that your teeth feel very clean after brushing. If you can, recall that "just cleaned" feeling you get when you leave the dentist's office, when you can't help but run your tongue over your teeth. The Interplak leaves a similar feeling in your mouth.
I also had verification of the effectiveness of this toothbrush when I saw my dentist. I was less than responsible and it had been several years since my last cleaning, and yet my teeth had remarkably little build-up and my dentist was surprised that there wasn't far more (relative to my lack of professional cleanings).
On the downside, the replacement heads are expensive. At about $7 or $8 a piece, these add up quickly. Since I like to use a different toothbrush in the morning than at night, this was extra expensive. I quickly gave up that habit, but even with only one head each for myself and my husband, maintenance heads were expensive with regular replacement.
Secondly, I found this toothbrush painful to use. The compact head did fit more effectively in my mouth than the old-style larger one; nonetheless, this is a little awkward to use. Adding insult to injury, I found that the bristles were too hard and would cause me pain if they hit my gums wrong. Since I have a tiny bit of gum pull-back (and exposed tooth roots), I had to be extremely careful not to brush anywhere near the edges of my teeth lest I start screaming in pain. To me, not being able to brush near my gums more or less defeated the value of using an electric toothbrush.
Finally, you can't push too hard with the toothbrush or it wears down the motor. I suspect that my husband (who mangles his regular manual toothbrushes) and his heavy-handed brushing style added to the shortened motor life of our older toothbrushes. In any case, you should consider your style when buying an electric toothbrush. I had no problem adapting to the "move it over your teeth, don't press" but I could sometimes hear the motor grinding when my husband used it.
Overall
This is an effective cleaner, and with the newer model I would say it is a nice product if you don't have any gum sensitivity. We did find that it did a nice job of cleaning our teeth, although we went through two motors and a third that started lagging as well (we're no longer using it).
You have to adapt your brushing style to the toothbrush, using specific motions, avoiding certain types of toothpastes and not pushing hard against your teeth. Even with this, I can't tell you how long the motors will last, but the warranty will cover it in the first year at least. The replacement heads are expensive, though, and we spent about $40-50 a year on replacement heads.
Finally, I would definitely caution anyone with sensitive gums to avoid this toothbrush. I still don't know if the toothbrush actually caused my gums to recede; although my suspicion is this is more age-related than product-related. I'm not sure if I have more exposed gums than I did three years ago (when we used the old-style toothbrush) or if the bristles on the older heads were softer (or more worn down); however, I didn't have the same amount of pain when brushing with that one. In any case this is far too painful to use with my gums as they are now, and I have no problem with either a manual toothbrush or using my kids' Oralgenie product (with soft rotating heads).
I just can't recommend this product -- this just did not work for us. Motor problems, expensive heads, gum pain, special toothpaste, etc. make this a bad fit for our needs. It may work beautifully for some people and I wish you well if it does.... in fact, I have one in the Goodwill box that someone can buy for a bargain.....
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
WorkingMomof2
|
 - Top 200 |
|
Member: Amy
Location: Southern California
Reviews written: 313
Trusted by: 539 members
About Me:
Every time I close the door on reality it comes in through the windows.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.