Electric / ultrasonic rechargeable power toothbrushes

Current situation: Sonicare Intelliclean (discontinued).

excellent at preventing dental problems: my dental health had a major improvement (not necessarily due to the Intelliclean alone), and then plateaued at a high level for 4 years
never needed any sort of battery level indicator, as the battery lasts longer than any trip made without the charger (2 weeks)
the internal toothpaste sacs proved clumsy
gets really dirty inside; must clean every 3 months or less
heads are extremely hard to find as of 2009-Jul, and expensive
never used the multiple cleaning speeds - unless you have incredibly sensitive gums, you will just use the maximum speed every day

Technologies

manual - inferior to power toothbrushes
rotary (Braun Oral-B)
sonic - beats rotary in PubMed test in every aspect, as of 1997
- requires adjusting your teeth and skull to the vibration (days/weeks)
ultrasonic - Ultreo (which shut down in 2008-Dec)

NOTE: to prevent gunk buildup in the Sonicare, use the $5 Sonic Seal.

"'CrissCross' bristles are angled to reach deep and clean between teeth, while 'Power Tip' bristles are longer to reach more difficult spots"
cheaper head replacements (3 for $20) than the Sonicare Elite

+ "The rubber tips on the floss head brush is (sic!) extremely effective at getting in-between the teeth"
- planned obsolescence in the manual: "Battery removal at the end of the productâs useful life: Open the handle as shown, remove the battery and dispose of it according to local environmental regulations. "
rotating motion with MicroPulse bristles
- most extra features (vs. older Professional Care models) are gimmicks; the FlossAction head works on the older models as well, despite official claims to the contrary
allegedly no improvement over the 8000 series, but the Research section on the product page claims the overall cleaning results are better than in the ProfessionalCare 8000
quad-pacer
pressure sensor stops pulsations when you brush too hard
- advertised as multi-voltage but actually not
automatically recognizes the FlossAction head
gets dirty easily because the brush heads collect water/toothpaste, but is easy to clean
NiMH battery; charge often
repeatedly reported to feel like a drill when compared to Sonicare
the current brush time is displayed on the handle so you can't always look at it; apparently this "feature" was rightly removed since it seemed to cause short circuits due to moisture
clumsy reviewers complain about bad button placement causing brush switch-off
all 1-star Amazon reviews are from clueless idiots

with the Floss Action head, the cleaning feels more thorough than with the Sonicare Intelliclean
the head is smaller and round, so you can reach behind the premolars farthest back in the mouth. I couldn't do that with the Sonicare's oval head.
does feel like a drill, but only for the first use. On the second use, it feels about 30% as intense as the first time, and on he 3rd use, I got almost completely used to it.
the handle display is of very little use, and you can't see it anyway while brushing (usually). If you really want to see it,
- brush against a mirror
- briefly stop the toothbrush, look at the display, then resume brushing. The toothbrush remembers when you left off.
the reviewers who posted about bad button placement must've been clumsy. I never accidentally pressed any button while brushing. Also, the buttons need a pretty firm press to activate.
it does not replace flossing (no toothbrush does), and this is clearly mentioned in the user manual
it didn't get dirty (so far, after 3 weeks of use). The head is attached in such a way, through only a vibrating metal rod, that there's not much place for grime to accumulate anyway. By comparison, the Sonicare Intelliclean developed an entire ecosystem of gunk inside the toothbrush head.

- destroyed if attempting to replace the battery. Idiotic planned obsolescence.
? "wireless, portable interactive display that gives improved feedback on brushing technique, time and pressure": time - OK, albeit useless since the brush signals every 30 seconds; pressure - senses when you press too hard, although it takes a lot of pressure to do that; but technique?! Actually it has you brush the quadrants in the same order all the time, while the better technique is to randomize the order.
- changing modes can only be done from the wireless Smart Guide
rotating motion, with "MicroPulses", but feels way slow compared to Sonicare, or may clean better
doesn't remember the last mode but fortunately always starts in the "clean" mode (most powerful)
SmartGuide is overrated
- fogs up
- gunk build-up? (from uneducated reviewer)
+ waterproof
+ automatically detects head type
+ user-confirmed dual voltage
universally favorable reviews of the Flossing Action head, but that works on simpler brushes as well.
the 9950 apparently differs from the 9900 only in that is ships with a different number of brush heads

+ like the 5300 but has a quad-timer that beeps every 30 seconds for each dental quadrant
- collects slime

almost identical, except the 7500 has 3 extra gimmicks:
- battery indicator
- dual-speed (low speed for sensitive areas)
- luxury holder
- non-slip handle grip
battery replacement hack

+ does not collect gunk
- less efficient than the Advance because of smaller head and less vibration
- uses Lithium-ion batteries (environmentally safer, no memory effect; but fewer charge cycles than the Ni-Cd in the Advance and Elite series)
- design flaw: the speed change button is placed such that the holding hand presses it during brushing (repeated complaints)
- doesn't remember cleaning mode and resets to the 1-minute QuickClean mode every time
- battery not replaceable
- various users report it breaking soon

Showing changes from previous revision. ~~Removed~~ | Added

Revision by Dan Dascalescu, 2009-08-10